Bontrager Family  Singers:

 {Who We Are}
We live on a farm in the Midwest, and we love  working and singing together!  We say that we have two lives, and really we do.   Life #1 is touring the North America in our 45 foot bus and doing concerts.   In  Life #2, we work hard on a livestock and crop farm where we milk cows, garden,  plant and harvest crops, and pack and unpack while we try to transition to or  from Life #1.  We love living all together in
one (not huge) house and we are  each other’s best friends.

{The Ministry}
Our reason for traveling and singing is to share  the love of Jesus.  We want to tell others what Jesus has done for us and what  He can do for them.  We are also passionate about encouraging families to be  strong in the Lord and to love one another.  It is God who has called us to  this ministry, and we endeavor to shine His light wherever we go.  We sing at  churches, festivals, camps, resorts, prisons, nursing homes, and street  missions.

{The Style}
 We sing Gospel songs of many different genres-  hymns, praise songs, Southern Gospel, and more.  We provide the instrumentation  live using piano, acoustic bass guitar, violins, banjo, acoustic guitar,  mandolin, and harmonica.  Our style is varied and doesn’t fit neatly into any  category, but you could probably call us a
bluegrass/Southern Gospel  mix.

{How We Got Started}
People often ask us how and when we started  singing.  Way back when the kids were little, we sang together at family  devotions.  There weren’t multiple harmonies or instruments back then- just  Becky’s guitar and a handful of voices.  As the children got older, we decided  to start music lessons.  As they learned to play
instruments, Becky began to  take them to nursing homes to share their music with the residents.  At some  point, Marlin decided the whole family would go to the local Salvation Army soup  kitchen to sing and play.  Over a few years, we went there various times and  were privileged to share with those dear people.  One day in 2005, we were  contacted about sharing music in South Carolina prisons.  We put together a  short program of songs and headed for South Carolina!  Going into the prisons  was a wonderful experience for all of us, and we knew we wanted to do it again.   For the next several years, we made the trip down south, adding a few more  concerts in churches along the
way every time.  In 2008 we were gone for three  weeks and after that we started traveling much more than previously, going on a  longer Southern tour and adding other trips throughout the year.  By 2011 we  spent as much time on the road as at home.