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!
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