Living Water, Guiding Spirit

Welcome July!! I can't believe how fast the summer has been passing.

I attended "conductor's craft workshop" in Kenosha, WI this week. I have inspired by those wonderful composers, conductors, and musicians with their musics. It was a blessing.

One of them was Joseph Martin. As you know, he has written countless music for anthems, cantatas, and so on. He was a certainly humble inspiring christian composer. Honorably, the summer choir will sing one of his songs on July 10th.

It is "Living Water, Guiding Spirit", inspired by Psalm 42. He wrote with Native American melody based with the song. Whenever I sing the song, it brings the imaginary of the gushing streams of water in the movie "Spirit". In the beginning part of the movie an eagle flies into the canon and streams. The lyric is an inspiring prayer. I pray that we all long for presence of the living God through this beautiful music.

Here is the lyric.

"Just as the deer longs for the water, my spirit longs for you, my God.
Living water flow in me. Refresh my soul with Your truth and grace.
Make in me Your vessel pure, a heart to hold Your praise.
Just as the wind blows through the forest, move through my life today, O Lord, I pray.
Guiding Spirit blow through me. Refresh my soul with Your truth and grace. Lift me up where eagles fly. Teach me a higher way. Teach me O Lord, I pray."

Summer!

Summer is officially started at our Floris UMC!
The choirs finished singing on Sundays as well as our rehearsals.
However, there will be two Sundays with our summer choir!
On July 10th, we will get together at 9:30 to rehearse and sing at 11:00 service with "Living water, Guiding Spirit" by Joseph Martin.
On August 7th, we will praise Him with "If you are happy/amen" by Andre Thomas.
Please come and join to praise the Lord especially this Summer!
I will be attending a workshop " Conductor's craft" from this Sunday in Kenosha, WI. There will be Joseph Martin and Andre Thomas as speakers and I am very excited!

Looking forward to having you all on July 10th!!

Have a blessed and peaceful summer!
And Keep on singing!

Welcome June!

June is already here! I can't believe that a half the year 2011 has passed. Our summer starts from June 22nd in our church, so June 19th is the last Sunday for the choirs and other groups in music ministry.
This Sunday is our communion Sunday, and the sanctuary choir will lift up "Let us talents and tongues employ" as an offertory at 11:00 service. The song is accompanied by piano, flute, and conga. It will be uplifting.
At 8:00 service, the sonrise singers will praise "You are my hiding place."
Next Sunday on 12th, as Pentecost, the sanctuary choir will sing "Filla me up" with several percussion, and for offertory, the string will share "Eine kleine nightmuzik" last movement Rondo at 11:00 service.
On 19th, at 11:00 service two choirs will combined and sing " Holy" as an anthem, "The Majesty and glory of Your name" as an offertory in our last Sunday.

There will be two Sundays with the summber choir on July 10th and August 7th. Please come to the music room at 9:30 on those Sundays to rehearse if you are interested in singing at the group.

Praying to see you all at the worship service!

Gracious Spirit dwell with me

This Sunday all three worship services in the morning have choirs and traditional music.
At 8:00, the sonrise singers will lift up "Great are you Lord" as an offertory, at 9:15 the sanctuary choir will sing " Gracious Spirit dwell with me" as an anthem, the call to harmony will sing " the Lord's prayer" as an offertory. at 11:00 service, the chamber choir will sing a early music by Palestrina "Sicut cervus" as the deer based on Psalm 42, and sing "the Lord bless you and keep you" as an offertory.

May the Lord bless us with His Holy Spirit throughout this week!

Is God Enough?

We are at the serious of " Is God enough" based on the Book of Job. The choirs and instrumental groups will continue praise during worship service until June 19th. We have only a month left.
We will sing various of music related to each week's topic.
This week, the sanctuary choir will sing "In this very room" by Ron and Carol Harris. It is a calm but intimate song. Praying that God speaks to you all through this music.
Here is the text.

In this very room there's quite enough love for one like me, and in this very room there's quite enough for one like me, and there's quite enough hope and quite enough power to chase away any gloom, for Jesus, Lord, Jesus is in this very room.
In this very room there's quite enough love for all of us, and in this very room there's quite enough joy for all of us, and there's quite enough hope and quite enough power to chase away any gloom. Jesus, Lord Jesus is in the very room.
And in this very room there's quite enough love for all the world. And in this very room there's quite enough joy for all the world. And there's quite enough hope, and quite enough power to chase away any gloom, for Jesus, Lord Jesus is in this very room.

Holy Week

Our journey in Lent reaches now to the Holy week. There will be several important worship services at Floris UMC.
The Maundy Thursday service will be held at 7:30 on Thursday, Good Friday service at 7:30 on Friday, Easter Eve service at 5:00 on Saturday, Sunrise service at 6:15 on Easter morning, and three 8:00, 9:15, and 11:00 all traditional Easter service. There will be a contemprory service at 5:00 on Easter afternoon.

On Thursday, the choir will sing "Ubi caritas" by Durafle, and "Abba" by Craig Courtney. Both songs were composed for Maundy Thursday. As I shared it with you before, Ubi caritas was sung on Maundy Thursday from Ancient Christian worship service. Right after they washed their feet each other, they sang this song. It is such a powerful song! "Abba" was written by SUsan Boersma with the lyric. She noted in front of the music; "when Craig asked me to think about the Upper Room from the perspective of God the Father, I was at first overwhelmed by imagery. The participants, the celebration, the singing, the washing of feet, the meal, the aromas, the candlelight, all blurred together in one familiar scene. However, after spending some time in prayerful contemplation, what finally came into focus was the Father/ Son relationship-God, the Father, 'one' with the Son in the Godhead but separated at that moment by Christ's humanity, and Christ Jesus the Son, fully engaged with His disciples in the celebration of the Passover, but with His mind and heart set on His Father and the suffering ahead. The pathos of that moment provided the inspiration for the text of Abba. "

On Easter services, the choir and orchestra will praise " Lord of the Dance" and "Hallelujah" from Messiah by Handel.

Jesus said in a gospel John "I am the resurrection and life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die."

I pray that we will all have experiences of God's presence during this Holy week.

Lenten Concert on this Friday night

The combined choir and orchestra at Floris UMC will have a Lenten concert on this Friday at 7:30. "The Seven last words of Christ" by Dubois will be performed. Three soloists; Tenor, Baritone, and Soprano will lead the seven words on the cross with the choir. I hope that many people come and have an experience of God's grace and mercy through the concert. There will be a light refreshment after the concert. Also, the free offering will be collected during the concert to support Camp Hutchison in this summer.