Orientation starts tomorrow!!!!!
can you tell I'm excited?
I had a wonderful weekend at home in Baltimore where I got to spend a little more time with my family and friends before leaving. I won't be home until mid-October, and only for a weekend. This is a big transition for all of us, but I know with God's help we will all make it through just fine.
I really like Madison, and I am so thankful that I will get to call it "home" for the next three years.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
First Seminary Assignment complete!
SO, I just finished my first assignment. YIPPEE!
I am being a church music geek and taking a wonderful class about hymnology. I am so excited!!! : )
Our first assignment was to describe our first experience with hymns, what are our favorite hymns are, and what our denominational background is.
Since it's info about me, I thought I would duplicate it here. (Plus, I haven't posted in a while, and I thought, hey, why not kill two birds with one stone. You might learn something about me).
I was born and raised in a United Methodist Church in Parkville, MD. I always loved singing hymns, and admit I would often flip through the hymnal reading the hymn texts rather than listen to the sermon. Music is one of my stronger talents, so I was very active in the choirs at church since I was young.
During my sophomore year of undergrad I became the organist and choir director at a small rural church, where I once again fell in love with hymns and the rich theology they offer. I also came to greatly dislike most praise and worship music, for both the tunes and text. At first, I considered The Faith We Sing to be the bane of my existence (I did not like the way the hymns were used or selected in worship) but after delving deeper into it I have come to love it. I especially like the hymns that tell stories, such as Two Fishermen and Swiftly Pass the Clouds of Glory. I always enjoy finding a familiar tune set with new text.
Some of my favorite hymns are "Be Thou My Vision" (there are some wonderful choral arrangements out there, or, I have found you can get a very different feel if you simply change a few chords or where the stress of the beat is placed). I once heard this hymn described as a love song to God, and that has always stuck with me.
"Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" is a new favorite, after I learned the difference of white and black Gospel. I find it to be much more uplifting and joyful when stress is placed on the upbeat.
My all time favorite hymn is "When in Our Music God is Glorified" (UMH 68). The text is rich, and the tune beautiful. I always find myself tearing up on the last phrase, "And may God give us faith to sing always Alleluia!"
I am so glad to have found this class. Having majored in church music in undergraduate, I hope this will offer a sense of familiarity that I may not find in other classes.
I am being a church music geek and taking a wonderful class about hymnology. I am so excited!!! : )
Our first assignment was to describe our first experience with hymns, what are our favorite hymns are, and what our denominational background is.
Since it's info about me, I thought I would duplicate it here. (Plus, I haven't posted in a while, and I thought, hey, why not kill two birds with one stone. You might learn something about me).
I was born and raised in a United Methodist Church in Parkville, MD. I always loved singing hymns, and admit I would often flip through the hymnal reading the hymn texts rather than listen to the sermon. Music is one of my stronger talents, so I was very active in the choirs at church since I was young.
During my sophomore year of undergrad I became the organist and choir director at a small rural church, where I once again fell in love with hymns and the rich theology they offer. I also came to greatly dislike most praise and worship music, for both the tunes and text. At first, I considered The Faith We Sing to be the bane of my existence (I did not like the way the hymns were used or selected in worship) but after delving deeper into it I have come to love it. I especially like the hymns that tell stories, such as Two Fishermen and Swiftly Pass the Clouds of Glory. I always enjoy finding a familiar tune set with new text.
Some of my favorite hymns are "Be Thou My Vision" (there are some wonderful choral arrangements out there, or, I have found you can get a very different feel if you simply change a few chords or where the stress of the beat is placed). I once heard this hymn described as a love song to God, and that has always stuck with me.
"Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" is a new favorite, after I learned the difference of white and black Gospel. I find it to be much more uplifting and joyful when stress is placed on the upbeat.
My all time favorite hymn is "When in Our Music God is Glorified" (UMH 68). The text is rich, and the tune beautiful. I always find myself tearing up on the last phrase, "And may God give us faith to sing always Alleluia!"
I am so glad to have found this class. Having majored in church music in undergraduate, I hope this will offer a sense of familiarity that I may not find in other classes.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Summer Recap
Once again, I have failed to blog in a timely manner. On the one hand, I have been extremely busy. But on the other hand, I seem to have spent plenty of time doing nothing. Oh well; musing about my time management skills is not the focus of this entry.
As I mentioned in my last entry, I went on a mission trip with the youth of Hiss United Methodist Church to West Virginia, where we participated in CAMP JOY. We camped at Baltimore-Washington Conference's Camp Harmison, a "rustic" camping facility in Berkeley Springs, WV. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon (after driving for roughly five and half hours from New Jersey) I found twenty youth and adults pitching tents in a meadow at the bottom of a steep, gravel paved road. The meadow brimmed with excitement, as boys tossed footballs, girls hugged and squealed, and family members said good-bye for the week. Two of the youth are boyscouts, and they helped to set up the "girl's tent".
They boys called it, "the Monstrosity". We referred to it as "the hotel".
Each morning we awoke at 5am...well, that's when we were supposed to wake up. Some days it was a bit later. Breakfast was prepared for all the work teams by members of local churches and served between 6 and 7am. We then stopped at Sheetz for coffee on our way out to our work sites.
There were enough workers from Hiss to split into three different work crews, and we worked on a total of five different sites. My crew worked on a home in Berkeley Springs, where an elderly gentleman lived with his daughter who was ill. His great-granddaughters visited the whole week, with their beagle Dallas. While we were there, we tore down a ceiling, re-installed insulation in that ceiling and the walls and ceiling of the adjoining room, then put up sheet-rock for the ceilings and paneling for walls.
Two of the adult men on our crew, the two Georges, fixed two rotten floors in the house. We fixed the roof, cleaned the gutters, and in our spare time painted the back wall of the house. The granddaughters helped us, although the youngest one got more paint on herself and Dallas than the wall the first day. : )
Each evening we had dinner at a local church, followed by a vespers service at what the camp called "God's Open Window". There were games and campfires, and everyone felt a great sense of fulfillment at the end of each day.
On Saturday, we loaded up the cars and trekked home, exhausted, but eager to return next year.
As I mentioned in my last entry, I went on a mission trip with the youth of Hiss United Methodist Church to West Virginia, where we participated in CAMP JOY. We camped at Baltimore-Washington Conference's Camp Harmison, a "rustic" camping facility in Berkeley Springs, WV. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon (after driving for roughly five and half hours from New Jersey) I found twenty youth and adults pitching tents in a meadow at the bottom of a steep, gravel paved road. The meadow brimmed with excitement, as boys tossed footballs, girls hugged and squealed, and family members said good-bye for the week. Two of the youth are boyscouts, and they helped to set up the "girl's tent".
They boys called it, "the Monstrosity". We referred to it as "the hotel".
Each morning we awoke at 5am...well, that's when we were supposed to wake up. Some days it was a bit later. Breakfast was prepared for all the work teams by members of local churches and served between 6 and 7am. We then stopped at Sheetz for coffee on our way out to our work sites.
There were enough workers from Hiss to split into three different work crews, and we worked on a total of five different sites. My crew worked on a home in Berkeley Springs, where an elderly gentleman lived with his daughter who was ill. His great-granddaughters visited the whole week, with their beagle Dallas. While we were there, we tore down a ceiling, re-installed insulation in that ceiling and the walls and ceiling of the adjoining room, then put up sheet-rock for the ceilings and paneling for walls.
Two of the adult men on our crew, the two Georges, fixed two rotten floors in the house. We fixed the roof, cleaned the gutters, and in our spare time painted the back wall of the house. The granddaughters helped us, although the youngest one got more paint on herself and Dallas than the wall the first day. : )Each evening we had dinner at a local church, followed by a vespers service at what the camp called "God's Open Window". There were games and campfires, and everyone felt a great sense of fulfillment at the end of each day.
On Saturday, we loaded up the cars and trekked home, exhausted, but eager to return next year.
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