Marty and Misha

Marty Goetz is a Messianic Jew.  He is basically a Jewish person who believes that Jesus is the Messiah.  Marty is also a very talented piano player, singer, and composer of many a song.  I came to know of him back in the early 2000s when I received a CD of his Festival of Lights as a gift.  I really enjoyed the CD, listened to it a lot and then as life tends to do, promptly forget about it and Marty for years.  Back in September 2021 I was putting together a list of favorite song videos on YouTube to listen to at work and thought about songs I had liked in the past, one of which was Arise, Shine that had been on that CD, Festival of Lights.  I looked it up on YouTube, listened to it, added it to my list of favorites I was creating.  I also added a few other songs of his from that CD that I also liked.  

As I did some more research about him, I found some other songs I liked of his and also that he and his wife, Jennifer, were doing a twice weekly "service" streamed on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook called "House of Worship".  They were doing a live broadcast of Marty and Jennifer (at times) singing songs while Marty played the piano on Tuesday and Friday nights most weeks.  They started House of Worship at the beginning of the pandemic to basically support themselves during the pandemic since a lot of his livelihood involved playing concerts or at churches and you know how things got affected when the lockdown began and continued.

I started listening to House of Worship; not when it was live because I was usually busy doing other things those evenings but the following Monday for the Friday night "shows" and Wednesday for the Tuesday night "shows".  I like Marty's voice; my husband doesn't particularly care for it; that's okay.  I usually listen when I'm at work.

Misha Goetz-Hoyt is Marty's and Jennifer's only child.  She is a talented musician and songwriter like her parents.  She occasionally comes and stays with Marty and Jennifer with her 2 children, Caleb who is 6 years old and Samuel who is just shy of a year old, and her husband Josh.  She will join Marty at the piano and sing along with him.  

They all are so wonderful to listen to.  Marty will sing songs for about an hour and 20  minutes, give or take, along with quoting Scripture, telling stories, explaining Jewish holidays, talking about their friends, etc.  On Friday nights, they still observe the Sabbath and light the candles as well as bless the bread and wine (grape juice).  They make those of us listening feel like we are part of their family.

They are really genuine too, lol.  House of Worship is done live without any editing so what they do is what you see.  One time Caleb was sitting at the piano bench with Marty singing and Caleb fell off the bench.  Caleb's dad took him off the camera as of course he was crying a bit, but a few minutes later you could hear Caleb in the background saying "I'm okay everyone" and then a little bit later he rejoined his grandfather at the piano.  Another time when Marty was singing, he mentioned that Jennifer (Jenny as he calls her) was a little bit under the weather that night.  She yelled from the background "I'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow".  Again, really down to earth and genuine people.

I absolutely enjoy all their House of Worships.  The one day a few weeks ago when I was really upset about that pesky coworker, I put on House of Worship to listen to and just the wonderful praise songs sung and worship to God, I just felt such a calming in my soul.  I enjoyed their presentation that night so much I listened to it another time later in the week.

I'll leave you with a song Misha wrote a few years ago.  It is based on what is known as the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26 which says:

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." 

Her rendition of it is beautiful.  This is Marty and Misha performing it together.  

In case the video doesn't work or you can't hear it well, here is the link for watching it on YouTube if interested.  

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