early Christmas gift at office door

At work, I got my first gift of the season, along with each of the other staff members. The donor was an annonymous angel. Thanks for reusing nice Nescafe bottles, for a home-grown, hand-made treat. Here's how fast mine went in one day. Had a little help at home :)

Hymn sing Nov. 20

I'm leading a hymn sing 4:30 p.m., this Sunday, Nov. 20 at Neffsville. Here's the title page of the program:

Come out and “occupy the hymnal”
Hymn Sing
Sunday, November 20, 2011, 4:30 p.m.
at Neffsville Mennonite Church
An afternoon of classic and gospel hymns
led by Glenn Lehman, assisted by
Jessica Spieser-Landes and a vocal ensemble

To see the list of hymns click here: http://www.harmonies.org/11.20.song.list.harmonies.pdf. See you!

One minor feature will be the first hymn, "In Thy Holy Place We Bow," published in 1911 by my favorite Mennonite composer, J. D. Brunk.

hymns outside

After playing the service at Neffsville in the morning, I went to the orchard of the 1719 Herr House and led half of the outdoor hymn sing. There were perhaps 50 persons there, selecting songs from three old Mennonite hymnals: 1902 Church and Sunday School; 1927 Church Hymnal; and the 1938 Life Songs. I might have dropped a few notes, but the tree behind me was dropping black walnuts at about the same frequency. photo by Sarah Schrock

Organ Jump Start class

"Created 2 Praise" week has come. Six young people and one high school guide bring their piano music to play on the pipe organ. Along with that fun, we figure out some of the unique features of the organ. Left to right after me: Dawson, Evan, Miriam, guide Morgan, Hannah, Julia, and Madeleine. They all play piano. We're off to a good start.

titles for 3.6.2011

Thanks, everyone, for getting really quiet during the end of my preludes. I played nine minutes of early composers, Clerambault (1676-1749), a French organist and composer, and Pachelbel (1653-1706), one of Bach's teachers. Here's Pachelbel's signature before the days of ball point pens. I segued into a well-known traditional hymn, words and music by Clara H. Fiske Scott (1841-1897), "Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth...." That is taken straight up from Psa. 119:18. Verse two starts, open my ears; and verse three begins, open my mouth. Clara was born in Illinois and lived as an adult in Iowa. She wrote tons of hymns. This is the only one still in use.

I played the melody on a tiny little high flute. The chorus goes: silently, now, I wait for Thee, ready my God thy will to do. It was so fitting that everyone was quiet.

A detail about Clara's life--there were accidents before interstates and fast cars. Clara died an untimely early death when a runaway horse threw her from the buggy in Dubuque, Iowa.

The offertory was Bach's "Jesu, joy of man's desiring."