A look back, a look ahead

2011. What a year. In my world, it was an amazing year. It definitely didn't start that way! It started with a whole lot more questions than I had answers to. My wife's part-time youth ministry position was cut by the church, for no other reason than money. We were deeply hurt by this choice, and it led me to wrestle with plenty of questions as to what God was doing in this church, whether I was supposed to be there, and ultimately, if serving full-time in church ministry was truly what I was supposed to be doing. Deep huh? Well, to make an extremely long and complicated story short (just ask if you want the long story), I'm still serving the church, and while not all of the questions have been answered, most have.

So the year started with lots of questions and a whole lot of trust in God to provide, and in His own unique and perfect way, He did. We found out in March that we were going to have a second child! Which was an answer to many prayers we prayed, and prayers we didn't realize we were praying! Throughout the course of the months, we saw God's hand directing and leading us in ways we didn't expect.

Then came the last 2 months of the year. The unexpected blessings. On November 21st, Emily Claire Harmann entered the world. Of course, she has been a great blessing and joy bringer to our family! But we were overwhelmed with love, gifts and food from the congregation and our friends. When Christmas came around, the gifts we received were more than usual. And usually, I'm thinking about how unnecessary all of the gift cards and other gifts are, but are very sweet. This year, I'm thankful and rejoicing, because it is a reminder of how God provides in unexpected, surprising to me ways.

So looking ahead to 2012, what do I expect? I expect laughter. I expect joy. I expect challenges. I expect tears. I expect God to work in ways that He's already planned out, but not in the ways I expected. And I will do my best to look for His hand of blessing in my life and rejoice every time I see it!

I resolve.....

I've been thinking a lot this week about New Years' resolutions. And on New Years' Eve, I thought it would be fitting. As I've pondered resolutions, I've come to a conclusion. They can be summed up in one thing. I want to do/be better.... A few examples:

I want to be better at not shoving food in my face....
I want to be better at exercising to rid myself of the extra weight from shoving food in face....
I want to be better at being organized....

Now, these are good, noble things to attain. But something's missing. Or, should I say, someONE is missing. If it's up to us to make changes in our life, we'll fail. In the next week, gyms will be full of people hard at work on their resolutions....but if you go back in 3 weeks, there's will be less people and if you go back in 6 months, there will be even less!

So what to do? Well, I've discovered a few things. We must make resolutions daily. But, we must make resolutions that WITH GOD'S HELP, we'll change. And my New Years' resolution is that with God's help, I seek first God's kingdom. If I start looking at things through God's eyes, my attitude changes. My heart changes. The way I care for my body changes. The way I love my family changes. All those things I want to change will change.

How does this happen? I'll be imperfect at it. I know it. But here are my action steps toward striving toward the goal.

Each morning, I will get up at 5:15, and spend 15 minutes in quiet meditation on God's Word before my walk.
During my day, as I'm making choices, I will pray for God's guidance and direction.
In the evening, I will make my family my focus for my time and attention.

These three things aren't the end-all, be-all, but for my life, these 3 are steps in a direction to help me maintain my focus on seeking God's will and direction. I pray that in this upcoming new year, you seek God first in all things!

Christmas is about.....

This Christmas, I have definitely been doing some pondering, praying and thinking about what Christmas is about. An insight that came to me in this process was the amount of trust. Let me explain. Mary trusted that God had a plan in allowing her to be the mother of Jesus. Joseph trusted the same way. The Shepherds trusted the word of the angels singing in the heavens about a baby born in a stable, and immediately hurried to Bethlehem. If you didn't have that level of trust, do you just up and leave your job, your sheep you are supposed to be tending, to go see a baby? Or what about the Wise Men? They traveled a long way (how far, we're not sure) to see a baby. Why? They trusted that the new star in the sky was the fulfilling of a prophecy.

So where does that leave us believers, some 2,000 years after the birth of the Savior of the world? Do we have that level of trust? I know some days, I start off with a high level of trust in God and His plan, and 5 minutes later, I'm not there. I pray daily that God would allow me that level of complete and total trust in Him. The past few months for me have been an opportunity to see His hand. We've been blessed in ways that cannot be imagined or explained other than God's provision. And so it's been my opportunity to remind myself that while money seems tight, things break and there's the ups and downs of life, God provides in His own unique way, in His own unique time. Just as in His own unique way, there was no fanfare for the world to know the Savior, the Son of God, entered the world to redeem it, just a beautiful serenade by angels to Shepherds in the field. It's one of the qualities of God that I am so intrigued and amazed by. His unique way of doing things. But the funny part is, it's not unique. It's perfect. It's just not the way I think things should be done!

Waiting, waiting, waiting....

There was a song that I liked to listen to called "The Waiting" by Tom Petty. The line that hit me in the song was "The waiting is the hardest part". And waiting is extremely tough! My wife and I just experienced the joy of the birth of our second daughter, Emily. She was born one day before her due date. And when we went in for induction at 6 AM, we figured it wouldn't be long and we'd be meeting her. And we waited....and we waited....finally, we experienced the joy of seeing her at 5:45 PM. Quite a long day of waiting, following up 9+ months of more waiting!

In the church, we experience a season called Advent. Most of the world around wants it to be Christmas. But it's not yet. Why do we Christians do this to ourselves? Why can't we just start singing the Christmas Carols now? That way, we can sing them longer! Well, it comes back to why even celebrate Christmas? Is it for Santa Claus, the gifts, the food, the decorations? No, those aren't the real reasons. You see, Christmas really is a means to an end. While singing about the birth of the baby Jesus is great and wonderful, it's really not about THAT birth. It's about OUR birth into heaven. We're happy to be around cute little babies, and rejoice with parents who are bleary eyed and overwhelmed with what to do with this new little bundle of joy. We're not so happy to be at funerals. We don't like death. We like life. But the problem is, our thinking is backward. Death=Life. The birth of Jesus starts a chain reaction of events in God's plan of salvation, culminating on Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead. If we stop with the baby Jesus in the manger, we're only telling half of the story.

There's a song by the band Relient K that I really like, called "I Celebrate the Day". A powerful lyric in the song is "I, I celebrate the day that You were born to die." That's it! That's what we're doing as Christians. We rejoice at the birth of Jesus, and we give gifts to others because of that beautiful, amazing and undeserved gift that God has given to us in salvation!

So why wait? That's what life is about. Waiting for a child to be born, waiting in lines, waiting in traffic, waiting, waiting, waiting. The anticipation of what's to come starts to build, whether that's Christmas, getting to our destination, opening that special present, or getting to heaven! As we wait, let's tell the story as often and as loudly as we can. And in that waiting, we get to practice patience, something we all need practice at! But when we're done waiting here on earth, what joy will be ours in heaven!

Strong Enough

Strong Enough by Matthew West
You must
You must think I'm strong
To give me what I'm going through
Well, forgive me
Forgive me if I'm wrong
But this looks like more than I can do
On my own

I know I'm not strong enough to be everything that I'm supposed to be
I give up I'm not stong enough
Hands of mercy won't you cover me Lord right now I'm asking you to be
Strong enough Strong enough
For the both of us

Well, maybe
Maybe that's the point
To reach the point of giving up
Cause when I'm finally
Finally at rock bottom
Well, that's when I start looking up
And reaching out

I know I'm not strong enough to be Everything that I'm supposed to be I give up
I'm not strong enough Hands of mercy won't you cover me
Lord right now I'm asking you to be
Strong enough Strong enough

Cause I'm broken Down to nothing
But I'm still holding on to the one thing You are God and you are strong
When I am weak

I can do all things Through Christ who gives me strength
And I don't have to be Strong enough Strong enough



Last night, I was blessed to go to a concert feature Lainey Wright, Jonny Diaz, and Matthew West. All three are amazingly blessed and talented songwriters, and great singers to boot! Over the last month+ I have been wrestling with a lot of things personally, and this song has been my prayer, because I know I can't live life on my own. Yet, I tried. I tried my best, and one morning a few weeks ago, I shared all of my concerns and struggles with my wife, Heather. We both cried, and of course she had to ask the obligatory question, "Why didn't you share this with me?". My response? "I thought I was strong enough to handle it". The next time I heard this song, I was convicted. Did realizing that God is in control of it all change the things I was dealing with? Nope. Everything's still the same, however my perspective and attitude changed.

I think that's where we fail. We think we're strong enough on our own. We try, fail miserably, and destroy lots in trying to do it. But when we realize we're NOT strong enough, and give it over to God, our attitude changes. I can do it on my own, becomes, "I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who gives me strength." There's freedom and power in that! When we think we're not strong enough, God reminds us through His Word, through others around us, that God is there for us, giving us the strength and whatever we need to do it.

Just a reminder for all of you thinking you're not strong enough. You're not.....when you try to do it on your own. But praise be to God for giving us the strength to do what we need to do!

What am I supposed to do?

That's a question we probably all ask ourselves over and over in different points of our day, our week, and our lives. I've asked it about myself career-wise and in many endeavors. In spending 5 years training to teach in a Lutheran high school and only doing that for one year would possibly seem to be a waste, I don't see it being the case. I've used that training, resources and connections in many different ways. I enjoy challenging myself in writing music, and for a time, I thought making money doing that was a way to go. God closed that door by only having a few responses. In praying and thinking about it and asking the question "What am I supposed to do", I received a surprising answer. Keep writing, but don't charge for the music. Why? I realized that in trying to write music and make money doing it, it was from a self centered point of view. The songs aren't from me. They're from God. So, that is what I'm doing. If people want to give me money, great, but the music will be there for the use. I've had many more ideas come into my head after being led to this decision, which seems to me that this is the right choice! I hope you check out my website as I add more and more to it. Use it, and please give me feedback!

It happens in a blink...

That was one of many songs I was blessed to hear at Rock the Desert this week. And that's been a phrase that has summed up my life recently. Things have been going busily and rapidly. And it feels like a blink. But, in the grand scheme of things, isn't that our life? Just a blink, something that is here and then goes away just as quickly as it appeared? But what do we do in that blink? The chorus of the song is:
It happens in a blink, it happens in a flash
It happens in the time it takes to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there's no stopping time:
What is it I've done with my life?

This song has significance to me because not only does it remind me to focus on what is important, it is the first song on the radio that my 2 year old, Ella, sang along to. Yeah, it was just the word "blink", at the right time, but I believe that's God's reminder to me that as a parent, the answer to the question "what is it I've done with my life?" is just that. To be pouring into my daughters. Teaching them to be godly women and encouraging them to look at themselves how God sees them, not how the world sees them.

That is why the band Superchick took on more meaning to me when I heard them. Yeah, they have great, fun, wonderful music. But, I'm responsible for being an encouragement to 3 females in my life. So, I have be about encouraging them to look in God's mirror, not theirs.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday was "Anton Armstrong Day" in my world. 3 out of the 5 sessions I went to were led by Dr. Anton Armstrong of St. Olaf. I feel much more encouraged as a director because of it, and also convicted on not giving my best to my choirs because I am sitting at the piano accompanying and not freed completely to direct. That's something I am looking to remedy. Friday, was finishing a few children's choir seminars, and heading home. Overall, I feel inspired, encouraged, and challenged. And at the VBS closing on Friday night, I was able to see what happens when delegation happens. I was gone all week, but had planned to be there to lead our closing. Our 2 singers were prepared, did a great job, and because there was a baptism, our pastor led the closing. It was great to stand back, watch, encourage and appreciate! That's what music ministry at King of Kings can look like! One of the great sayings that Michael Bedford shared is that as church musicians, we are working to replace ourselves! By encouraging others, building up those who are all around us, that's the goal! And I am very excited to get to work!

A God-led detour

Yesterday did not go like I had expected or mapped out. But that was alright. In fact, it was better than alright. It was amazing and a tremendous blessing! In the morning, I sat in on how to put on a musical and got great ideas and tips! I definitely think that putting on a musical is something we can do at King of Kings next summer. Of course planning has to start now! But it's within the realm of feasibility! Then I sang through a great number of wonderful children's choir pieces. All the while, I was thinking "these are nice pieces, but why couldn't I write music like this". Why couldn't I? I haven't dedicated the time, that's why. Recently, I've stepped back from writing music because I was spending time analyzing my motivations. Was I writing and submitting to publishers because I wanted to be published, or was I writing to fill a need for King of Kings and a greater need for the church? I hadn't, but my time this week has refocused and recommitted me to it! Then my lunch. That's where things detoured. I had signed up for a lunch to talk about youth choir. The few in there were sharing about their 40 voice choir, or their tours their groups go on. This is not us! Last year, in starting out, we had 5. 5 tremendously talented singers, but you can only go so far with 5 singers, good or bad! So I spoke up, and asked how do you get youth to participate! Not a whole lot of answers, because there really aren't too many, but I got encouragement. Then, afterward, I got to talking with a couple. The husband, David Angerman, is a published composer and is the Music Director at Bethany Lutheran in Austin. His wife directs their youth choir. So we got to talking about being Lutheran, and many other things. And I said that I would love to get together and pick their brains about ideas, resources and get input from them. Next thing I know, we're at Starbucks, drinking coffee and talking for 2 hours! It was fantastic! I'm sure that the 2 seminars I missed would have provided beneficial information, but this was what my heart and my soul needed! It was great! Then, I decided to challenge myself, instead of walking or driving across campus to the organ seminar I had planned on, I went to listen to new piano pieces. One of the things I haven't been challenging myself on is to keep up with playing the piano, outside of accompaniments. So, that was great and beneficial. Then Anton Armstrong. An amazing man, has a great way of making you laugh, but also, has a great way of simply making you as a singer do what he wants you to do. The information I picked up during that rehearsal time I know will be beneficial to me as a director, and as a leader. I can't wait for rehearsals to start to implement it all! So, today (unless detours happen) will be about handbells and children's choir. I can't wait to see what God has in store!

Day 1

Yesterday was absolutely amazing! I have to admit, the "non-Lutheran" tune to the hymn "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" is really beginning to grow on me! It was the first hymn last year, and again this year in our worship time. Very majestic and pomp and circumstancy! Our first music reading session had some really great pieces, and it's always neat to hear the composers explain about their pieces. To me, it helps me to understand their mindset in writing it. Then I had a 2 part seminar on preparing for, leading and analyzing a children's choir rehearsal. I have had plenty of opportunities to do many different kinds of rehearsals and children's choir is always the one I feel less competent to do. I think a big part of it is me and my getting myself set back even before I begin. I am seeing how to fix that, and this has me extremely excited to prepare rehearsals for the fall. It's always nice to be away from things and have an opportunity to brainstorm and think. And I had an "a-ha" moment! Since our youth praise band consists of 3, two of them already in youth choir, and 3 others who are interested in participating, but don't want to be in front....why not have the youth choir sing contemporary, traditional and a wide mix of styles? Integrating the instrumental musicians into both styles, and the more I processed it over the night, the more I absolutely love this brainstorm! I am rejoicing that God put it in my head! Today, my first seminar is one how to put on a musical. I can't wait, because as I have been thinking and praying in regard to next summer, along with talking to a few people, I see a musical being the biggest potential opportunity to reach out to the community, doing something radically different, and of course, having a blast in the process! Lots more children's choir stuff today, so I am looking forward to the ideas and resources shared to help make me feel more competent in what I am doing. Then tonight, I'm extremely excited. I get to be led in a choir rehearsal by THE Dr. Anton Armstrong of THE St. Olaf University. He's one of the top directors, so to be able to get input from him will be a tremendous blessing! Well, it's off I go!

Anticipation!

Well, the day has arrived! Last year, I didn't know what to expect, so I was totally blown away! This year, I have an idea of what to expect, but I still know that God will work through the music and the presentations to fill me up, energize and challenge me! The primary things that I am looking for and hoping to get out of this week is ideas and direction to being a better children's choir director, ideas on how to put on a summer musical and publicize and promote events, and how to be a better handbell director, and a director overall. Not a few things, I know. But each one of the seminars that I am targeting will help me focus on these things. My biggest focus is on children's choir, as I still feel that I am learning how to do this, even after 6 years now of time spent directing and teaching children and children's choirs. As I think toward the fall and into next year, though, I am getting very, very excited! I look forward to getting big ideas, sharing big ideas, and seeing how God leads, blesses and directs those big ideas, as I and all involved in the Music Ministry at King of Kings grow in relationship to God, one another, and reach out to the community around us, while growing as musicians! I know that starts with me first and foremost! But more on that later...

A busy week!!

Aren't they all? At least in my life they are seeming to be. This one is a different kind of busy, though. Today (Monday), I head to Lakeway, outside of Austin, to meet with my leadership team for the Central Texas Choristers Guild chapter to do two things. Sign our charter, creating our chapter, and planning for our event in August! I am thankful that God has blessed this, one year in the making! It was a year ago, in talking to the membership coordinator at Choristers' Guild that I brought up this idea and was pursuing it. It's awesome to see! Then, from there, I head to Waco to spend the week shuttling back and forth between my parents' house and Baylor University. I get to have the blessing to be filled with new and exciting ideas, be recharged and reinvigorated to start seriously planning, preparing and setting forth a vision for the Music Ministry of King of Kings for 2011, 2012 and beyond. And if the ideas that I've already had are just a taste of what's to come, I'm excited to see God's hand! Of course, it means time away from my girls and missing our VBS, but I've learned that you can't always be in two places at once! Being in Waco is where I am supposed to be, and I can't wait! Who knows....maybe I'll bump into David Crowder.....probably not. But one can hope! Anyway, keep checking back for stream of thought ideas and things that I will be sharing during the week!

What a month!!

It's been a month since I last posted, so here goes the last month in a nutshell.....BUUUUUSSSSYYYY!!!! I suggested integrating music into our childcare in the fall and it was met with a tremendous response! Now to make things appear with little to no money! Ha! God will provide, I know that! I'm now up to 16, possibly 18 students in July. I am trying to plan ahead for the rest of 2011 and into 2012, since once the baby comes in November, life gets crazy!

This past weekend was amazing! We got to go to Waco to my parent's house to see family and spend time celebrating and honoring my dad for 50 years as a pastor. It was an emotional and special day. One I will never forget. There's still plenty coming up over the summer, and somewhere in the midst of all this busy-ness and work, I'd like to make time to write music, but we'll see how that goes!

Hope continued...

This theme of hope has been repeated over and over in my life over the past week. I have heard myself saying or thinking....

"I hope it rains"
"I hope I can schedule 20 summer students so that I don't have to take on another part-time job"
"I hope I can get planned ahead over the summer"
"I hope I can get the house organized this weekend"
"I hope that I can have time to work on writing music"

And many more thoughts or words have gone through my mind and off of my lips over the past week. I have been convicted of using hope in place of trust. Hope is good, but I have used hope more than trust. I TRUST that God will send rain in His time. I TRUST that God will provide the students I need to take care of our bills over the summer, and if He doesn't, He will provide another opportunity to provide for us. I TRUST that God has given me skills to plan my time well and that this weekend, I will get the house cleaned and organized, which will lead to time best used to plan ahead in ministry and write music. Many times, I haven't always taken that step from hope to trust. And that's where I find myself.

So, how does it get fixed? Well, interestingly enough, in my life, God usually sends these little revelations to snap me back into His reality. Do I listen? Not all the time. But having this realization as I have a planned quiet weekend to focus on hearing God's voice, and working on specific steps to get things in life physically, mentally, ministry-wise, and most importantly, spiritually in order, is a great place to start! Hopefully after this weekend, I will have more insight and direction after this weekend.

I have hope....

"Where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?" Job 17:15

Last night, I had the privilege and blessing of accompanying 2 families of the congregation I serve and a couple who has visited the church twice to see the band Building 429 in concert. I had seen them a few years ago, and knew they would be great. They didn't disappoint. But their new song "Listen to the Sound" was one I was looking forward to hearing, as it has become one of my "anthem songs" over the past few months. The third song in, I knew when they started the instrumental part, this was it! But God laid something completely different on my heart. Instead of listening to the music be amazing, sing along at the top of my lungs, my heart was focused on the words. Oh, I still sang at the top of my lungs! But the chorus starts off with the words "Listen to the sound of hope that's rising up over your old horizon". I could not and still can not stop thinking about those words. I knew them before I showed up for the concert, but the idea of hope struck me in a new and different way.

The past year personally and ministry-wise has been challenging. Pretty much, both influence and affect each other. I have wrestled with family health struggles, financial struggles, my wife's ministry position being cut, whether or not I am doing what I am supposed to to be supporting my family, whether or not I am being the dad, husband and church musician that I best can be, and having another child. All of these things have knocked me down emotionally, and have challenged me on many, many levels. But the one thing as a believer in God is that I have hope. Hope is a topic that comes up plenty in the Bible, and I've had revelations recently about hope.

Hope comes through faith. I've known that. But, it's more than that. I had a revelation that hope comes through patient trust in God's promises. A few examples from the Bible. After Adam and Eve sinned and God banished them from the garden, God promised salvation. For hundreds and hundreds of years, God's people hoped for a Savior. That hope came from trusting in the promise. The promise of Jesus' return has given many hope throughout the centuries! That hope comes from trusting that God's promise is sure. Those are just two examples out of many. At the beginning of this post I quoted Job. Job is one of my favorite books to go to in times of struggle, because in all of the calamity and hardship Job had, HE DID NOT LOSE HOPE! Why? He trusted in God's promise. That's what I cling to. I don't know where everything will lead, but I see signs already of God's healing and strengthening and working through those challenges I mentioned before. But, I know from experience that He uses those challenges for much, much more than we think!

The next line of the chorus to "Listen to the Sound" continues..."And listen to the sound of a new beginning, oh, this is where the old is ending". As believers, we know that we daily (and even every second) have the opportunity for a new beginning. What do we do with that new beginning? Do we shout from the mountaintops the amazing things God has done to strengthen, encourage us and give us hope? Or do we keep it inside of ourselves? The congregation I serve has recently struggled with a major decision regarding the ministry of our childcare. We voted to close it, then at the urging of a few members, reconsidered and it will stay open. We've made plenty of challenges for ourselves, but there is still hope! Why? God has promised to never abandon us, never forget about us! He's also given us brains, talents and abilities, so we must use those all, united together to serve Him and the community around us! God has given us a new beginning as believers, as a congregation, and we MUST share it with the world around us! If you've noticed, the world needs hope. Let us be the lights of hope in our world! God will strengthen us, give us the words and actions necessary, as long as we listen to that sound of hope!

"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?" Romans 8:24

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I have once again neglected my blog. Surprise of surprises! It really was not intentional! I have plenty of reasons, I mean, excuses for my neglecting. Another Lenten/Easter journey, keeping up with a busy, on-the-go two year old, and the news that baby #2 is coming November 22nd! Lots of joys, emotions and busyness in everything!

But the idea of change has been weighing heavy on my heart and in my life over the past few months. I am trying to change my body shape by losing weight and exercise, which, God-willing will lead to a positive change in my blood pressure when I go to the doctor in about a month. It's been an up and down process, but I have definitely been doing more exercise, which leads to quiet time to hear God's voice and pray, two things I haven't done as much as I should.

Outside of personal change, I have been convicted and convinced of many changes in direction for ministry! The congregation I serve is going through struggles of trying to decide to close our childcare and what direction to go. While this saddens me, the idea of figuring out a direction excites me! I have been praying fervently for a direction for the music ministry that I am charged with leading and it there is one major idea that comes up over and over again. Children's (and Youth) music! Now, if you've known me for more than 9 years, you know that little children scared me! I spent 5 years training to teach high school students, only to do that for 1 year. God redirected me positively to serve in congregations after my first year of teaching, and that led me to be around the little kids that scared me so much. While they scare me less and less, the idea of the church stepping up to fill a need created by budget crises in the public schools, and the need to be reaching out into the community, makes me realize that this is the direction to go. How to get there? That's up to God's leading. I am asking the question, praying, thinking and researching directions to go, and hopefully soon, we will have a direction.

Publishing moving forward!

Well, it's been a busy, crazy season of life since I last update the ol' blog. I have had some life transitions, with my wife having her part-time youth director position cut, so we made the choice to have her be a stay at home mom and me take on more financial responsibility by teaching more private music lessons. So, that has been good and going well. I am blessed and very thankful for that. But, I've been trying to make time to compose in the midst of all of that, and I've found it to be challenging. In spite of my challenges, I see God's hand blessing me as I continue to seek His direction on this thought that has been laid in my brain. I received notice this past week from Concordia Publishing House that the 2 pieces I submitted for Doctrinal Review to sell on their Concordia Writers' Cooperative DID, in fact, pass the review and are now for sale. I laughed when I saw it, because I didn't think they would, not because of bad theology, but they're children's songs! Very simple, but very fun. Then, I was commissioned by a friend of mine from college to write an Easter piece for her congregation's handbell choir. I combined the hymn "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" with "The Hallelujah Chorus" and I am very proud of how it turned out! So, I have a renewed inspiration and direction for this music self-publishing thing. I know that I will not become rich doing it, and that isn't my point in doing it. I want to provide resources for congregations that are accessible, fit their needs and yet are musically challenging. So, I continue to pray that God directs and I am confident that He is going to take this thing wherever HE decides, and probably will go a different direction that I think it will go right now. That's why I've learned to not expect a direction from God and then I'm always surprised!! :-)