new organ at Hesston, Kansas

I you keep track of tracker organs (such as ours at Zion) or of organs in the Mennonite world, you'll know that a new one has just been installed at Hesston Mennonite Church, Kansas.

Tracker means mechanical. It means that when you press a key on the keyboard or a pedal on the pedalboard you are physically opening a pipe and it sounds. So inside, there are many lines of cord connecting the keys to the pipe valves. Most organ keys throw a switch which opens the pipe valve. Tracker action is kind of like rack and pinion steering on a high end car.

You can take a tour of the organ on YouTube online. You can also find the video on the Hesston College web site (hesston.edu). Go to academics, departments, music, and finally find the tour link down the page. Earlier I posted a photo of its installation. In the video you can hear it and take a tour of its insides.

Might not be a bad idea to have a little video of our own organ.

high school musicians

Know any of these young musicians? Some of the youth at Zion would. About half of these students are C Dock and half are Lancaster Mennonite. The ocassion is the annual festival of Mennonite high school instrumentalists. This year, yesterday, it was held in Lancaster and Dorcas and I went. Part of being a church musician is tracking the young musicians of a church and encouraging them or at least caring about what is going on. What is going on is some really high level of music.

lost shall be found

Not souls, exactly. But brochures. See them in the box in the closet.

This beautiful "faith and form" piece about the beauty and meaning of the architecture of Zion was running low out in the rack in the corridor. Somehow it fell to me to find the supply.

Or, did we need to print another run? I looked high and low. I enlisted custodian Bill in the search. I found out who served on the group which produced it--the likes of Pastor Scott and Brenda O.

Brenda to the rescue. The lost was right under the staff's noses, in a nondescript cardboard box in the supply closet.

flag me down

Hey, hours in church work are long. Tuesdays and Wednesdays it's wall-to-wall work for me. Thanks to Keystone I charge up my batteries with good ole breakfast country style. They don't make it better than this. Flag me down and I'll stop in. Besides eating alone, I've had two meetings here already. I've met Zion people on my way in and out. And where else can I see the Pennsylvania flag whipping in the breeze?

fun for February

On gray days in short, cold February, my heart cheers up when a friend sends a link like this:



http://tinyurl.com/2xmqds