09/17/2026
🎹 FULL CIRCLE: A MUSICAL LEGACY ❤️
Last Wednesday morning, I made a special trip back home to Philadelphia to see someone who helped change the course of my life — Ms. Darleen Mumbaure, my first piano teacher.
I was about 10 years old when Ms. Darleen began teaching me piano through Second Mennonite Church in North Philadelphia. I was a young boy carrying things children shouldn’t have to carry, and during that season, the Lord used music as a place of comfort in my life — and He used Ms. Darleen to help open that door.
More than 50 years later, she contacted me.
Now in her early 80s and no longer teaching, Ms. Darleen had music books collected over decades that she didn’t want thrown away. She asked me to come to Philadelphia and take them so they could continue to have purpose.
And when I arrived at Crossroads, what was she doing?
Being Ms. Darleen. 😂❤️
She was in the back baking 600 cookies! 🍪🍪🍪
Still an evangelist.
Still serving.
Still giving.
Those cookies were being prepared to help raise $100 for the community.
Different season. Different method. Same heart.
Then she entrusted me with crates filled with decades of music books.
Somebody else might see old books.
I see an inheritance. 🎼
The woman who helped plant a musical seed in a 10-year-old boy was now handing part of her teaching legacy to that same boy — now a musician, educator, and founder of an organization dedicated to planting seeds in the lives of others.
These books will be preserved as part of a future MIFAL music library, with Ms. Darleen Mumbaure recognized as the donor of this special collection.
And perhaps one day, another 10-year-old will pull one of those books from the shelf, sit down at a piano, and begin a journey none of us can yet imagine.
Thank you, Ms. Darleen. ❤️
Thank you for teaching me.
Thank you for serving.
Thank you for preserving these books.
And yes… thank you for still baking those 600 cookies! 😂🍪
Sometimes we don’t know what God is doing when a seed is first planted.
More than 50 years later, I’m still watching this one grow. 🌱🎹
— Orlando Q. Johnson
Founder | Executive Director of Operations / Educator
MIFAL INC | MIFAL Arts Academy
Planting Seeds… Since 2006