The Return of the Gilgal Girls

God’s been good
In my life
I feel blessed beyond my wildest dreams
When I go to sleep each night

Somehow those words have much more meaning when sung by an orphan who grew up in deep poverty in a home shared with 100+ other orphans. Contemporary Christian Music is now a big industry where people that could have been fashion models sing canned praise songs all engineered and packaged to sell to a mass audience for profit. But it’s not hard to find true faith expressing itself in song. The latest is a CD of music performed by two young women who grew up in an orphanage in India.

It all started in 2003 when Judy Lalruotmawi, a gifted Christian soloist, began serving at an orphanage in Manipur, India, called Gilgal Children’s Home. She had sung at revival meetings and churches throughout India. At Gilgal Children’s Home, she passed on her gift teaching all the children to sing God’s praises. Some of the kids took an interest, and four stood out: Mercy, Rebecca, Maggie and Elizabeth.

They originally called themselves “Gilgal Vibration”. Some of their earlier work can be seen on You Tube. Mercy and Maggie sing a duet “Four Days Late”, and all the kids get together to sing “We’ve Got Something So Good”. All the singers are very, very young. As teenagers in 2006 the four girls were calling themselves “Gilgal Praise” as they toured the United States for several months. They recorded a CD of praise songs and sang in churches throughout the country raising awareness for the plight of world orphans as well as raising funds for orphanage ministries worldwide.

After their tour it was in question whether we’d ever hear from them again. Those fortunate enough to have their CD would be able to enjoy their angelic voices for years. Mercy actually decided to stay in the United States. She attended classes for a couple of years at Central Piedmont Community College where she got straight A’s.

Now five years after their last CD, Rebecca and Mercy have produced a new CD “Forever Praise”. They’re not teenagers anymore. Mercy is 20 and Rebecca is 21, and their voices are much more mature, not that the angelic voices of the teenage Gilgal Girls weren’t beautiful. Mercy’s voice is very refined with no hint of her previous accent. Rebecca always had the cutest accent, and remnants of it can still be heard in her voice on the CD.

One person heard the music and commented that it sounds just like all the other contemporary Christian music. That hurt, but it is partially true. Most of the songs are little different than some of the popular American Christian music being produced these days. But I like these girls, and I like the music, and the lyrics are much more meaningful coming from them.