What, April already?
...and what's more, it's already the 8th of the month (the last minutes of it, at least). News about Jackie and Marcia is about the same. Marcia has finished the second of six sets of chemotherapy treatments. Last weekend she was not feeling tip-top, but this week she seems to be recovered. Her next round begins after Easter.
I know there has been a lot going on in the consulate to keep my days full, and I've had my hands (and head) full of translation work, besides. There's still one job in progress, but I want to get it finished by Tuesday, at the latest. That's the day Pastor Neilson Amorim and family arrive to spend a week with us. He'll be preaching every night, Wednesday through Sunday, and we're looking forward to that.
On Easter Sunday, our choir (not of hundreds, scores, dozens, or even tens...exactly ten, to be specific) will sing an "old" John Peterson cantata (from 1958!) "No Greater Love". It's always about this point in the preparation of a cantata that Abbie is ready to give up and say, "Not this time...we can't do it this time." That was last Saturday. We have rarely been able to have everyone present at the same time for a practice, and when there are only two basses, two tenors, two altos, and two sopranos and a couple of other ladies who sing one part sometimes and another part at other times, just one or two absences is a real blow. People sick, extra work hours, whatever. Abbie has even recruited Neilson and his wife, Esther, to help us. She'll sing alto, and Neilson will do the narration. Previously, some one in the choir would have to read the narration (usually me), and it was tricky narrating and singing practically at the same time. We'll get to do two practices with Neilson and Esther before Sunday.
A few years ago, we had a teacher of classical guitar in our church. Daniel came to teach in the local music conservatory. The year he was here he observed our choir (different people at the time, but more or less the same number of members) working to learn a Christmas cantata. (Remember that Abbie and I have basically been the only ones who know how to read music.) Daniel looked at the cantata and said, "You can't do this cantata with fewer than 30 voices in the choir." (We were praying there would be 30 in the audience!) He was right: we couldn't do it, but God through us did it, and we've done it every year for going on 20 years, most of the time twice, once at Easter and once at Christmas. We trust in the grace of God to do it again this year.
So, the next week's schedule is full, until the Amorims leave on the 18th, and the next day Abbie and I will fly to Barcelona, where a two-day Iberian consular workshop will be held. We'll come back to Lisbon for the weekend and return to Madeira on April 25. That should pretty much launch us right into the month of May.
What, May already?
I know there has been a lot going on in the consulate to keep my days full, and I've had my hands (and head) full of translation work, besides. There's still one job in progress, but I want to get it finished by Tuesday, at the latest. That's the day Pastor Neilson Amorim and family arrive to spend a week with us. He'll be preaching every night, Wednesday through Sunday, and we're looking forward to that.
On Easter Sunday, our choir (not of hundreds, scores, dozens, or even tens...exactly ten, to be specific) will sing an "old" John Peterson cantata (from 1958!) "No Greater Love". It's always about this point in the preparation of a cantata that Abbie is ready to give up and say, "Not this time...we can't do it this time." That was last Saturday. We have rarely been able to have everyone present at the same time for a practice, and when there are only two basses, two tenors, two altos, and two sopranos and a couple of other ladies who sing one part sometimes and another part at other times, just one or two absences is a real blow. People sick, extra work hours, whatever. Abbie has even recruited Neilson and his wife, Esther, to help us. She'll sing alto, and Neilson will do the narration. Previously, some one in the choir would have to read the narration (usually me), and it was tricky narrating and singing practically at the same time. We'll get to do two practices with Neilson and Esther before Sunday.
A few years ago, we had a teacher of classical guitar in our church. Daniel came to teach in the local music conservatory. The year he was here he observed our choir (different people at the time, but more or less the same number of members) working to learn a Christmas cantata. (Remember that Abbie and I have basically been the only ones who know how to read music.) Daniel looked at the cantata and said, "You can't do this cantata with fewer than 30 voices in the choir." (We were praying there would be 30 in the audience!) He was right: we couldn't do it, but God through us did it, and we've done it every year for going on 20 years, most of the time twice, once at Easter and once at Christmas. We trust in the grace of God to do it again this year.
So, the next week's schedule is full, until the Amorims leave on the 18th, and the next day Abbie and I will fly to Barcelona, where a two-day Iberian consular workshop will be held. We'll come back to Lisbon for the weekend and return to Madeira on April 25. That should pretty much launch us right into the month of May.
What, May already?
posted by EP | 11:21 PM | Permalink
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home