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Jazz Sunday and the Aftermath
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amberley asked, here is our church's web page. If anyone wants to contribute to our Biloxi mission, feel free to send the church a check made out to FC UCC, with the memo filled out as "For Biloxi Mission". It'll be tax deductable and will go completely for just the trip and to the folks that are finding it harder to afford going this year than some years.
Jazz Sunday went really well. There was some astonishing music.
I have to admit that I've never been much for gospel or religiously sourced music until after going to the gospel services last year in both Seattle and Biloxi... there's something about singing those songs with people who really *do* find comfort in the words that... it changes how I hear them. Rather than the discomfort, suspicion and, I'll admit it, embarrassment, I used to have, it's really changed when I've heard and seen what a difference a song can make to an attitude.
So actually hearing "All God's Children Got Swing" sung by our pastor and the choir director, with neat interjections of humor was pretty good; and then one of the ladies that I did the Bible study class with, Claire, sang "God has his eye on the Sparrow" while some of our more elderly ladies danced to it. That... blew me away, because she has that wistful little grown girl voice that really fit the words. Our top tenor took on "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," which blew me away as it was one of the songs that had been sung in the Seattle gospel service, and finally hearing it without my background irony was... bemusing.
All topped off with "This Little Light of Mine." *giggles* The kids loved that one and it always makes my throat close on tears when I see Jet singing it with all his might.
Damnit, to raise a whole bunch of kids that will let their lights shine... that... whew.
Anyway... they also did a laying on of hands commission for all of us that were going on the Biloxi Mission, to wish us safe travels, good health, and the strength to get through everything. It felt okay to do it.
Then I ducked out of the rest of the service to make yet more coffee. We had so many people at the service that the crowd went through twice the coffee the congregation usually does, and I just kept brewing... and someone stopped at the kitchen, after she'd gotten her coffee, and she said, "I noticed, when you were up there, that you really are beautiful..."
I had to kind of blink at that. Uhm. And then I did the polite thing and said, "Thank you. I... wow. Okay. Thank you."
morgainelefae, you may now look entirely too smug.
It was interesting, though... as many of the guests and most of the congregation had done the polite thing of dressing up for the occasion, dresses, suits, and beautiful things. But all of the Biloxi crew had been asked to wear their t-shirts, so we stuck out in the crowd in our plain, light blue shirts and, mostly, in jeans. *laughs* It was an interesting case of backwards 'status', as I wore my jacket during the pre-service time, and just sat knitting for a bit in the hallway and greeted and helped out visitors that were puzzled about what to do or where to go or whatever...
And then, after the service, they were all coming up going, "Oh, I had no idea who you were!"
It's... kind of fun and kind of amusing.
It was really fun to say "Thank you" to the musicians and singers as well. It was a really beautiful service, and I got someone who pounced on my knitting bag going, "Where in the world did you get those yarns?"
That was fun. It's always cool to have someone that gets why the yarns I have in there are unique... *laughs* And she wanted the pattern I was doing, so I just tore the url off the top right corner, and gave that to her. So that was really cool.
Jet decided to stay at a friend's house for the afternoon, so John and I had the afternoon to ourselves. I managed to beta something forcmc42 (the second time as we had a technological mismatch), do a lot of edits on three chapters of something I'd rp'ed with irana nearly two months ago so that she could post them on Y!. I didn't get the stories and chapters done, but I got an idea for the Ukitake chapters... so that was good and an idea for a birthday fic for mysocalledhell. So maybe tomorrow I'll have enough peace and quiet (and sleep) to tackle all of those.
But I'm pretty exhausted. We had leftover red beans and rice for dinner. Leftover shrimp and potatoes for lunch, and Jet and John did hot tub for the night, and Jet fell asleep before I'd even done the four pages of The New Way Things Work. Between that and "How It's Made" and "Mythbusters" Jet's getting a pretty thorough grounding in basic mechanical stuff. It's amazing how much he now knows about manufacturing practices of lots and lots of things.
amberley asked, here is our church's web page. If anyone wants to contribute to our Biloxi mission, feel free to send the church a check made out to FC UCC, with the memo filled out as "For Biloxi Mission". It'll be tax deductable and will go completely for just the trip and to the folks that are finding it harder to afford going this year than some years. Jazz Sunday went really well. There was some astonishing music.
I have to admit that I've never been much for gospel or religiously sourced music until after going to the gospel services last year in both Seattle and Biloxi... there's something about singing those songs with people who really *do* find comfort in the words that... it changes how I hear them. Rather than the discomfort, suspicion and, I'll admit it, embarrassment, I used to have, it's really changed when I've heard and seen what a difference a song can make to an attitude.
So actually hearing "All God's Children Got Swing" sung by our pastor and the choir director, with neat interjections of humor was pretty good; and then one of the ladies that I did the Bible study class with, Claire, sang "God has his eye on the Sparrow" while some of our more elderly ladies danced to it. That... blew me away, because she has that wistful little grown girl voice that really fit the words. Our top tenor took on "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," which blew me away as it was one of the songs that had been sung in the Seattle gospel service, and finally hearing it without my background irony was... bemusing.
All topped off with "This Little Light of Mine." *giggles* The kids loved that one and it always makes my throat close on tears when I see Jet singing it with all his might.
Damnit, to raise a whole bunch of kids that will let their lights shine... that... whew.
Anyway... they also did a laying on of hands commission for all of us that were going on the Biloxi Mission, to wish us safe travels, good health, and the strength to get through everything. It felt okay to do it.
Then I ducked out of the rest of the service to make yet more coffee. We had so many people at the service that the crowd went through twice the coffee the congregation usually does, and I just kept brewing... and someone stopped at the kitchen, after she'd gotten her coffee, and she said, "I noticed, when you were up there, that you really are beautiful..."
I had to kind of blink at that. Uhm. And then I did the polite thing and said, "Thank you. I... wow. Okay. Thank you."
morgainelefae, you may now look entirely too smug.It was interesting, though... as many of the guests and most of the congregation had done the polite thing of dressing up for the occasion, dresses, suits, and beautiful things. But all of the Biloxi crew had been asked to wear their t-shirts, so we stuck out in the crowd in our plain, light blue shirts and, mostly, in jeans. *laughs* It was an interesting case of backwards 'status', as I wore my jacket during the pre-service time, and just sat knitting for a bit in the hallway and greeted and helped out visitors that were puzzled about what to do or where to go or whatever...
And then, after the service, they were all coming up going, "Oh, I had no idea who you were!"
It's... kind of fun and kind of amusing.
It was really fun to say "Thank you" to the musicians and singers as well. It was a really beautiful service, and I got someone who pounced on my knitting bag going, "Where in the world did you get those yarns?"
That was fun. It's always cool to have someone that gets why the yarns I have in there are unique... *laughs* And she wanted the pattern I was doing, so I just tore the url off the top right corner, and gave that to her. So that was really cool.
Jet decided to stay at a friend's house for the afternoon, so John and I had the afternoon to ourselves. I managed to beta something for
cmc42 (the second time as we had a technological mismatch), do a lot of edits on three chapters of something I'd rp'ed with irana nearly two months ago so that she could post them on Y!. I didn't get the stories and chapters done, but I got an idea for the Ukitake chapters... so that was good and an idea for a birthday fic for mysocalledhell. So maybe tomorrow I'll have enough peace and quiet (and sleep) to tackle all of those.But I'm pretty exhausted. We had leftover red beans and rice for dinner. Leftover shrimp and potatoes for lunch, and Jet and John did hot tub for the night, and Jet fell asleep before I'd even done the four pages of The New Way Things Work. Between that and "How It's Made" and "Mythbusters" Jet's getting a pretty thorough grounding in basic mechanical stuff. It's amazing how much he now knows about manufacturing practices of lots and lots of things.