Christian musician aims for the mainstream

It had been a busy weekend for Helma Sawatzky. On Friday night she gave a concert to promote her new CD called "Fragile." On Sunday she performed at the B.C. Mennonite Women in Mission Inspirational Day. In between she gave interviews and had photographers at her door.

But now, sitting in her small kitchen sharing coffee and cookies, Helma exudes serenity and a desire to share her journey of faith and music.

Helma is from Holland. She completed a BA at the Groningen Conservatory of Music where she realized her strengths lay in performing and song writing. She dreamt of being a full-time musician.

She met her husband Rick at the conservatory. His parents, originally from Winkler, Manitoba, live in Holland and gave the couple plane tickets to Canada to meet relatives. Helma and Rick intended to spend a year working in Canada. They both got jobs with Mennonite Central Committee B.C. Supportive Care Services.

Helma's musical dreams took a back seat as Rick found it difficult to imagine a life with a performer. She didn't write for years and describes that time as painful. But in 1995, she began to write again and found encouragement from Rick.

"Now, he is often the one pushing me and I'm the bucking horse," she laughs. A breakthrough in her music career came in 1996 when Rick Unrau performed here in support of MCC reforestation projects in Bangladesh. Helma was given a spot to do her own music.

Unrau offered to work with Helma and produced her first album, "Riddle of Life." This year she began devoting herself to music full time. Helma and Rick attend Wellspring Christian Fellowship, a Mennonite church here.

"Fragile" was a deeply satisfying project for Helma. As a co-producer she had more control over the project and found that working with a team of people allowed the "whole itself to become bigger than the sum of its parts."

"My music has two components," she says. "My music is Christian, yes, but I don't want to be so preachy as to turn people off. I'd rather have my music speak for itself and start a discussion." She feels strongly that there is a place for Christian artists in the mainstream.

"I'm dead scared," she laughs, but she knows that she is where she needs to be.