But Tito did not give up and kept asking. Eventually, Nancy gave in and began to teach Tito how to play the violin. Today, some twenty years later, Tito Quiroz Angulo is an accomplished violinist and heads the prestigious Benning Music Academy in Ensenada, Mexico, where over 400 pupils are enrolled to take music lessons from 42 teachers.

Before all this happened, when Tito was still very young, his father was diagnosed with cancer. There were financial needs and Tito washed cars, shined shoes and played his fiddle at restaurants—anything to help his family. Some of the restaurant customers asked Tito to stop playing and Tito felt he needed to do something else—so he started the Music Academy with three students in a small garage.

Tito says: "God gives tools in your hands to use. For me it was a violin. His light for ministry is always green!" Tito was raised in a Christian orphanage and mission called Foundation For His Ministry (www.FFHM.org) started by Charla and Chuck Pereau in San Vicente, Baja, Mexico. Tito's parents were on staff at the Mission. Nancy Benning and her husband Hans visited the mission regularly where Hans helped with building projects and Nancy taught kids how to play the violin.

The Benning's live in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles where Hans is a well-known violin maker: (BenningViolins.com). Professional violin players, including members of well-known orchestras, play a Benning violin. Besides making violins, Hans Benning is also a master craftsman and builder and many buildings at the mission bear his unmistakable touch of beauty and elegance. (Photo via ANS)

Today, Nancy is very grateful that she listened to Tito's pleading and taught him at such a young age to play the violin. She still makes monthly trips to Tito's Benning Academia de Musica. The Academy had been visited by such notables as conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, the Venezuelan born conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and other well-known musicians.

When Tito, still in his teens, was in law school, the building across the street was a Juvenile Detention Center. One day, he noticed a young man standing at a window, waving his jacket at him. Smiling, Tito waved back. The next day when he arrived at school, there were young men at every prison window, waving their jackets. Intrigued, Tito felt a tug on his heart to teach these troubled young men how to play an instrument. A music school in prison? Why not? But how to get permission from the prison authorities?

He went straight to the top and wrote a letter on Facebook to the president of Mexico. It took a while, but eventually he did receive an answer and it was positive. Yes, he could have a music academy inside a prison, but he had to build it himself. Hans Benning was contacted. He in turn, recruited men from Rancho de Cristo Rehab Center, part of the FFHM ministries.

"It was really funny," Tito recounts, "to have former prisoners returning to jail to help build a music school."

Soon large bricks arrived, and a music school was built.

"My first students were really bad dudes," Tito remembers, "and they looked mean. They were rapist, child molesters, involved in drug cartels and worse. I didn't ask them about their crimes but knew from the local newspaper. At first, I was shaking in my boots and had no idea what I was doing there."

Lessons began and during the time of teaching the Gospel was also preached. It was a perfect combination and the results were astonishing.
"At one point," Tito relates, "out of 54 youth in our program, 48 became Christians and wanted to be baptized. That was a very unusual request for the prison warden. There was a pool, but he was reluctant to give his permission and finally said: "If it does not rain, you can go ahead with this."

That day it was pouring and Tito and his team prayed hard.

"Suddenly, there was a break in the clouds, like a large hole," Tito recounts. "The sun beamed through the 'hole' and the baptism took place. This was November of last year, 2014."

That Christmas, they wanted to give a concert for all the prisoners and their family. Again, the warden would only give permission if it did not rain.

"At that point my faith was smaller than a mustard seed," Tito remembered. "I went to my car, put my head on the steering wheel and implored God to stop the rain. Then the miracle happened again, the clouds parted into a large clearance, the sun appeared and the concert took place. Afterwards a huge rainbow decorated the sky. I knew it was God's blessing on the jail academy."

After the performance in prison, in front of family and parents, several youths shared: "My name is Luis. I am 18 years old. I want to thank you all for giving me an opportunity to be in this place. For me this has been a big blessing. I found there are people in this world who are willing to help us without judging us for our actions but have faith in us that we can change."

Estaban said, "I am 15 years old. I never thought I was going to like playing the violin. I am proud of myself. I've never had so much love as in this program. After we played today and I went over to the table where my parents sat, they were crying. They started telling me lots of things that we could not have said to each other before, because I didn't know them that well. We all cried." (Photo via ANS)

Jose added: "I'm 18 years old. When I entered this program I had never seen a violin. Now, when I play, it feels good because if you close your eyes you can imagine that you are somewhere else, like with my family. From the day that we played together, I told my Mom that I wanted to study music."

As time went on, the prison warden took note and one day wanted to talk to Tito.

"Do you know," he said, "that kids that were in your program while in jail, do not come back after they are released? Usually 70% commit crimes again and return to jail. Of the 140 prisoners we had, we only have 54 left."

The prison authorities realized the discipline of learning to play an instrument and hearing the Gospel had made an enormous difference in their lives.

Today, the prison authorities are planning to implement Music Schools in Juvenile Detention Centers throughout the country. Tito has his hands full and says his prison outreach and Christian witness to these troubled youth is his biggest blessing and greatest satisfaction in his life.

Recently, Tito and Nancy shared at our National Conference of Hospital Christian Fellowship and played beautiful music. Nancy told the story of the 7-year-old boy, Tito Quiroz Angulo, who wanted to play the violin and today heads a prominent Academy of Music and an exciting prison outreach ministry which is touching the lives of untold people. She smiled as she remembered her monthly visits to the orphanage. "It paid off," she said simply.

And the miracle of music continues...

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