Liz Shropshire, Founder & Director of the Shropshire Music Foundation, spoke at BYU–Hawaii's devotional this past Tuesday about creating peace amidst countries ravaged by war. Her address centered on her own experiences in Northern Ireland, Uganda, and Kosovo, aside from other places she has traveled to.
Shropshire, a music major at BYU who later received her master’s from the University of Southern California, focused on how the gospel has been an integral part of her experiences on international shores.
Of her experience at a camp in Kosovo, she stated, "This camp, this place that had been so full of sadness, became this place that was full of so much life. It wasn't necessarily beautiful, but it was full of life. It took about forty minutes to walk to the camp. On the last ten minutes of that walk, all you could hear were these instruments—it was amazing." Through rudimentary instruments, a resurgence of hope pervaded in the camp.
By the time Shropshire prepared to return home to America, her relationship with these displaced children had evolved. They did not take her news of leaving well, telling her, "No, Liz, you can't go. There is no one else here that is doing anything like this. We have people and organizations that are rebuilding our homes, that are giving us food, and we're so grateful for that, but this is the only thing that is feeding us inside. You can't take that away from us."
She promised to return, and several weeks later on American soil, her foundation was born. Since then, her goal of eradicating racial hate and emotional trauma has made a difference in many lives.
--Photo by Monique Saenz
Click here to view the full transcript of Liz Shropshire's devotional