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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Good News Brothers sing, play guitar, share God’s word


Park Place Retirement Community residents applaud  after a song performed by the Good News Brothers.
 (The Spokesman-Review)

Three Spokane men are using music in their ministry, which tends to state prisoners and sends underprivileged kids to church camp every year.

Jim Parker, Bob Rooney and Terry Hiatt are the Good News Brothers, three guitarists who perform what they call “good gospel and country music with heart.”

“Our motivation is Christ, who lives in us,” said original member Parker.

Parker is a self-taught guitarist who met Rooney when they were both firefighters in the Spokane Fire Department. Hiatt met Parker and Rooney at the penitentiary where Hiatt was a volunteer, and joined the group in 2004. Hiatt is also the owner of Walt’s Mailing Service in Spokane Valley.

The trio performs for many senior citizens in retirement homes throughout Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

They all play guitar and sing, and sometimes a member of the audience will get up and sing along with them. They play gospel, country and folk songs, and ask the audience to clap, and sing if they know the words.

At a recent performance at Park Place Retirement Community, most of the audience had seen them perform before since the group stops by about once a month, and the three took the time after to shake hands and chat with the crowd, catching up with the residents like they are old friends.

Annabelle Heidecker, a resident of Park Place, said she came in late to the performance but enjoyed the part of the show she managed to see.

“What I heard was absolutely fantastic,” she said.

In 1990, Parker was asked to visit the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla to take part in teaching the word of Jesus to the prisoners there.

He had his misgivings – as a firefighter and emergency medical technician, he had bad memories of crimes committed by some of the same men he would minister.

Parker prayed on it, and after a trial visit to the prison, decided that this was work he was meant to do.

The three now visit the penitentiary four times a year to offer the prisoners what they call “Walk to Emmaus.” They describe these trips as “a short course in who Jesus really is,” and spend four days teaching and singing and spending time with the convicts.

They also come back to perform once a month at the prison, since, as Parker said, they don’t want to introduce the prisoners there to Jesus and then walk away. They want to continue their teachings.

“It’s important to talk one on one,” Parker said.

The monthly trips are long ones – the three leave Spokane early in the morning and come home late at night – but they say they have never missed a monthly performance.

When the three started out playing together, they had no intention of getting paid for what they do.

Many of the retirement communities they play for have budgets for activities, so the trio decided that the money they make performing would go to a good cause.

They decided to send underprivileged youths to church camp through the Salvation Army and the Union Gospel Mission. That first year, they figure they raised enough money to send 12 or 13 kids to camp.

In 2007, the three set a goal to send 50 kids to camp, and they made that goal by playing at 136 performances.

It wasn’t easy to do that. Last February, Parker was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer.

He went through radiation treatments and wasn’t feeling very well through a lot of performances, but somehow found the strength to keep going.

“The Lord really blessed me,” he said. “The Lord would pick me up and give me the strength.”

Parker said that on a recent exam, his doctors couldn’t find any cancer left in him.

“I feel great,” he said. “I got so many prayers in so many places.”

The trio will keep performing as long as they can in the area. The three realize that visiting the residents of the retirement communities is important work, since many of their audience members don’t get out much or receive visitors.

“There are just such great blessings from it,” Parker said.