A message of love from Rosebud Episcopal Mission Senior Catechist Erroll Geboe, who has been sharing videos of Lakota hymns that he has been playing for us.

Dear Relatives:

It is my great honor to play these hymns for you as well as I can. A lot of them are hymns that I play by ear or from memory. Growing up in church, I heard and sang all these hymns, and I always admired the organists who played them.

I can remember most of the organists from my youth: Rebecca Quick Bear, from St. Matthews, Rapid City; my aunt Dorothy Lunderman, who played at many of our congregations here on the Rosebud; Lillian Chase, who mainly played at Church of Jesus, Rosebud, but who also played at other churches; Lorraine Herman, who was the organist at Trinity, Mission, for 40 years; and Isaac Cutt, who played – by ear – at Grace Chapel, Soldier Creek.

All these wonderful people have been my inspiration, which is how I picked it up. Often times I asked them for their guidance and help when I did not know what to do, or I could not remember a note. And then all of the sudden, the note comes and I get it.

Even today, I am thankful I can play these, because nowadays there are hardly any organists in our churches anymore.

I play these for you, and share my love for all of you through music.

I hope you enjoy these, and that they bring back memories as they do for me.

When I play at home, I can honestly still hear my mom, Margaret, humming along or even faintly singing in the background. So I must be doing something right, because my mother loved to sing the Lakota hymns. She was an alto and knew all the Lakota hymns. When we would ask her what her favorite hymn was, so that we could sing it with her, she would say, All of them. That is why I try to play so many for you.

I promise you, I will keep practicing and recording these hymns, because especially in this time of Coronavirus, this is how I share and show my love.

— Erroll