Report on Colorado R&R
I had a good week of R&R (Recreation and Revelation) at Winter Park, Colorado from Sunday through Thursday, February 4-8. I returned to Ohio on Friday, February 9. We always have excellent speakers, good food and fellowship, and (sometimes) challenging recreation on the slopes of Winter Park Ski Resort, across Route US40 from Winter Park Mountain Lodage, our home for the week. Our speakers were Dr. Kimberly Wagner, currently Associate Professor of Preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary, who spoke on the issue of Trauma, and Dr. Mary Hinkle Shore, who spoke on the theme "Seeking Jesus Together." You can read more about Kim and Mary HERE, more about R&R HERE, and one page summaries of Dr.'s Kim and Mary's presentations HERE and HERE.
Organ MIDI Progress
Greg Jess continues to work diligently on getting our organ "mapped" to receive signals from SOS to play hymns on the organ instead of through the church sound system. To give you an idea of what this entails, I am copying Greg's recent email to Lynea, who is from SOS helping us make this connection.
Good afternoon, I wanted to inform everyone that with Lynea’s support, we have successfully mapped our organ. If I understand correctly, the next step is to take the digital file that was created today and convert that data to match as closely as possible to the corresponding stop, key, pedal on the organ used at Church Music Solutions. This process is estimated to take three weeks. Once that is completed, then any song in their library that has already been played/recorded from the red ELW can be coded to play on our organ rather simply via software. In the event a song is selected that has not yet been requested, an organist would play the hymn and add it to the library. There is also some behind the scenes work with Apple that needs to be done to allow Grace’s digital data to work properly within their app. The app will need to be downloaded to the iPad we will be using. Lynea will be keeping us informed and will share what cables and or apps we will need when we get closer to a trial run.
The urgency for this is a bit diminished since we will now have in-person organists to play our services, but the SOS and the hoped for pipe organ connection will be used as a substitute organist (Hyo will go gone for three weeks in May and June to visit elderly parents in Korea) when one is needed, and for some midweek and special services..
Organists Hired - Starting This Weekend
Our prayers for (a) new organist(s) have been answered! As it turns out, the new organists is actually two organists! One for Saturday, and one for Sunday. And so, withoug any further ado, I am happy to introduce to you:
- Hyo Jung Kim, Saturday Organist. Mrs. Kim lives in the Toledo area with her husband, who is the pastor at Hanmi Covenant Presbyterian Church. She has an extensive background of professional organist and pianist experience.
- Susan Barker, Sunday Organist. Mrs. Barker and her husband live in the Bowling Green area. She comes highly qualified with an extensive background in organist, choir director, and orchestra experience.
Susan has also expressed an interest in directing the choir, but this possibility is still in the planning stages. Hope you can be present this weekend to help welcome Hyo and Susan to Grace!
Grace Youth Attending Retreat at St. Mark's Bowling Green
By this time last year, our confirmation youth had attended a weekend retreat at Hopewood Pines (formerly Lutheran Memorial Camp, or LMC). Heather and I considered doing that again this year, until we were offered the opportunity of joining a more local group for a retreat at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Bowling Green. So, beginning today, Friday, Heather, I, and three youth from Grace will join youth and adult leaders from St. Mark's Bowling Green and Solomon in Woodville for a scheduled activities of learning fellowship and fun beginning at 5pm on Friday and concluding at 6pm on Saturday. You can view the retreat schedule HERE. We are expecting a total of about 20 youth, which will be a good number.
I'm looking forward to working again with Pr. Ken Pollitz, who will be one of the leaders from St. Mark's along with Pr. Robin Small. Pr. Alan Brown from Solomon will also be one of the leaders. Pr. Ken and I worked together for many years along with a group of other pastors to plan and lead four-day confirmation camps, mostly at Camp Luther near Conneaut, now known as Hopewood Shores. He recently retired after 31 years as the founding pastor of New Creation Lutheran Church in Ottawa, and is now serving St. Mark's Bowling Green on a part-time basis. I will need to leave early on Saturday to get back to Fremont for 4:00 pm worship.
Links for You
- March Message on Syod theme of Rest
- Go and Do News - a newsletter from ELCA World Hunger
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