It's been a long week...

Ok, it's been a long time since I've posted, I know. A lot has been going on (as usual) and now it's time to catch up.

I wanted to start out by talking about how my Sunday school lesson went last week because something that happened during the week really made that experience stand out. Let me start the story by saying that when I had my support group meeting last week, we had a really in-depth discussion about what the Church needs to do to attract young people and keep the church alive with young people. Of course it was a very lengthy discussion and we never did get a rock solid answer but it was a meaningful and great conversation, and it got me thinking about that topic from the local church perspective. When I did my Sunday school lesson for the Aldersgate class (a class of mostly 70-80 year olds who basically have their own mini worship service during Sunday school), I talked about my call story. When it came time for questions, a lot of them asked about what my school curriculum was like, what I was planning to do after college, what I wanted to do in Music Therapy, stuff like that. This one man, however, asked me very candidly, "We've seen a decline in youth and young adults in worship, how can we fix that?" Oh man was I not ready for that one. Let me just say I was really glad I had had that discussion with my support group and that I had had public speaking where I learned to answer tough questions like that. My answer basically went like this, "You know, that is an excellent question and it begs a lot longer discussion than what we have time for this morning, but what I see happening in the Church (especially United Methodism) is that we say that we have "Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors" and yet we are not practicing what we are preaching. Youth and young adults see hypocrisy in the Church and when we start practicing what we are preaching, that is when we will start to see more youth and young adults come to church, because they see that we are truly being Christ in the world." Well apparently, it got back to the senior pastor that I had answered a question really well in Sunday school so he wanted to know what it was so we talked about it as well and that was very meaningful. So that was kind of my "proud" moment of the week....

Another fantastic thing that happened this week was I had another music session down in respite care. Personally, I think that this was the best session I've ever done and I saw so many amazing things happen. In my previous session, at the end I said that if anyone had any requests I would do it for the next session. One of the clients said that he really wanted to sing "Shenandoah," so I learned it on the guitar and brought it in. I had that client come up and sing it with me, and before we started he told everyone what the song meant to him and some of the history behind it, which was really powerful. Actually, during the song, one of the caregivers started crying. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to talk to her about it after the session but it still struck me how powerful music and memory can be. During a playing activity, a client who is wheelchair bound and can barely speak anymore, I gave her a drum and she would not stop playing it. It was the first time I had experienced her really participating in a session and during another activity she answered a question on topic. I got everyone who wasn't in a wheelchair (which is most of them) dancing to "When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbing Along" and everyone had such a great time and I really felt like they were getting a lot out of the session.

This past weekend, my host mom, host sister and I went to Nags Head for a Girls Weekend. It was great to spend the weekend with two wonderful women and I experienced the Outer Banks for the first time. (There are pictures and videos on my facebook.) Unfortunately, we only got Friday morning at the beach because it rained for the rest of the weekend but it was still a great trip. We went to the big sand dunes and ran down them, went shopping, ate seafood, went to the Wright Brother's Memorial Museum, went to the aquarium, and went shopping some more :-P I got myself a tshirt and the SOFTEST sweatshirt I have ever had in my life. I'm slightly obsessed with it now, it's pretty bad.

This Sunday, the senior pastor was away on vacation, so I was basically full liturgist for both services. I got to do the Children's Sermon, which was fun. I have a crazy busy week for next week because I am going on retreat with the associate pastor for two days so I have less time to prepare for my second to last Sunday here in Williamsburg. I can't believe that I only have two and half weeks left; this summer has gone by so quickly. Kristin and I have some fun plans planned, like going to Busch Gardens at some point this week and going to a couple of other places before I have to leave.

Well, I think this has been a successful post, until next time!