33RD ANNUAL MUSICAL PRODUCTION AT HFM
December 14 and 16, 7:00 PM --The Holland Free Methodist Church will present Agnus Dei, a worshipful concert of beautiful Christmas music, including songs by Michael W. Smith and traditional carols. Adult and children's choirs, dramatists portraying Biblical characters narrating the Christmas story, angel dancers, the children's choir in a middle-eastern caravan with the Wise Men --elegant costuming, video art --will tell the age-old story of Mary's little lamb who became the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Directors are music educators Stephanie Rohrs Hulbert with her sister, Christine Rohrs. Med student Katie Rodewald is our choreographer. College students Brent Simmons and Courtney Lucas compiled the video art. Twp. Trustee Bob Bethel will portray Matthew; CPA Bruce Hulbert is Luke; retired IT director at U.T. and MCO, Bill Dusseau, will portray Isaiah; and Pastor Keith Simpson will be Paul. Jon Rohrs, MD, will have a solo as will each of his four adult children, including soon to be PA John Rohrs and soon to be nuclear med. tech. Rob. Alyssa Ringger, a talented 7th grader will solo, as will Jenni King, public school English educator and now stay at home Mom. Andrew Winckles, grad student in English, will solo, as will Dean Bell,a guest soloist from Miss Rohrs' school where he is ass't principal, choir accompaniest, and a community choir director/performer. Accountant Becky Perez and her teen daughters, Ashley and Kayla, Courtney Lucas, Betsy Conklin Hurner (MBA) and Andrea Conklin, a marketing grad will also be featured singers in trios.
Mayor Mike Yunker's wife, Annie, is our lighting director and Brent Simmons is our sound tech.
I listed these descriptions of just some of our participants, because I am so often visited here in Blog-ville by people who think that Christians are ignoramuses, and mentally unfit --ready for the asylum, not fit for any sort of usefulness in society.
We also have a nurse practitioner, a dental receptionist in transition to grad school, a Mich. State grad student in English, a postal employee, 2 Honeywell engineers, a retired engineer, and an engineering student, a mother from India who works in a nursing home, a job placement exec, who works to place the disabled and unemployed, one of his clients with CP, a music grad clarinet instructor, a retired Sweet Adelines singer, a secretary in social services, a retired child care person, and a former college math professor. And me, wife, Mom, Grandma, ex English and music teacher, piano teacher, and church musician. And then there are a couple dozen children and finally, some young ladies dancing as angels during Michael W. Smith's joyous "Gloria!"
And to Mudrake: none of us is crazy! Just peculiar people --like the New Testament says we should be.
Our candlelight Christmas Eve Service will be at 6:00 PM --on the night before Christmas!
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
Monday, November 26, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
SHOP WALMART ~ SUPPORT MARRIAGE
Some gay advocacy group has called for a boycott of Walmart because they don't give benefits to housemates and gay partners --just to hetero- married couples. They want us to shop Target instead.
So the American Family Association has suggested we be sure to support Walmart this Christmas and suggested the stores evaluate the difference in their December revenue to see which agenda is more popular with Americans --the pro-family or the pro-gay agenda. [source: AFA via email]
American education continues to participate in the fight against traditional marriage in America. In California, the legislature passed a law that the schools must observe their new definition of "family" to chidren as young as 5 (k-12) and that they must say nothing about the pro-traditional-marriage view. That would be hate speech, I assume. [Source: Citizen magazine, current issue]
Citizen magazine also reports that there is a respectable university study that gives favorable evaluation of ex-gay reality --and Exodus ministry. They say there are many ex-gays, re-oriented, and others who are living by Biblical standards, and some who were not converted by Exodus, etc. but that no one could prove harm to themselves by the ministry.
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
So the American Family Association has suggested we be sure to support Walmart this Christmas and suggested the stores evaluate the difference in their December revenue to see which agenda is more popular with Americans --the pro-family or the pro-gay agenda. [source: AFA via email]
American education continues to participate in the fight against traditional marriage in America. In California, the legislature passed a law that the schools must observe their new definition of "family" to chidren as young as 5 (k-12) and that they must say nothing about the pro-traditional-marriage view. That would be hate speech, I assume. [Source: Citizen magazine, current issue]
Citizen magazine also reports that there is a respectable university study that gives favorable evaluation of ex-gay reality --and Exodus ministry. They say there are many ex-gays, re-oriented, and others who are living by Biblical standards, and some who were not converted by Exodus, etc. but that no one could prove harm to themselves by the ministry.
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Greetings on this Day of Thanks ~ 2007
Often called the first Thanksgiving feast of 1621, a feast was held in celebration of the Harvest and in gratitude to God –the Pilgrims’ account is printed annually by our local city newspaper as the lead editorial
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071122/OPINION02/711220301
90 Indians and their “king” –Massasoit –were there for the celebration.
Last year, the paper included a passage about Squanto and how they considered him to be a blessing from God to them.
On the other side of the coin: The Indian massacre of 1622 (also known as the Jamestown Massacre) occurred in the Virginia Colony on Good Friday, March 22, 1622. About 347 people [1], or almost one-third of the English population of Jamestown, were killed by a coordinated series of surprise attacks of the Powhatan Confederacy under Chief Opechancanough.
From what I gleaned in a rapid reading –an Englishman had murdered an important Indian aide of this chief–and that started the conflict. Then the enmity was on between some Indian groups and the English –but a young Indian boy warned the settlers at one point of an imminent attack.
–and as with most wars and ethnic group feuds , each side was afraid of the other and seeking revenge or security by killing off the other, hoping to intimidate each other into more peaceful ways –which did happen at one point according to the account link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Massacre_of_1622
President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. He wrote, “Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country…for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed…and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually…To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.”
(George was a Master of the run-on sentence!)
Today, Geo. Washington would be shocked to see all the flack the Georgia governor got from secularists for petitioning God in public prayer for rain for his parched state. I don’t know if he got it, but our state did. We got buckets yesterday–it is brightening up here today.
As for the Indians having a general feeling that all the land was theirs and that there was no room for the Europeans –no welcome for them –and the idea that the immigrants brutalized the Indians and vice versa, right off the bat –that is not the case from what I’ve googled and found today.
The Harvest feast of 1621 -a year after the Mayflower’s arrival, shows that the Indians and the Europeans were interested in one another and friendly. The Indians, did indeed help the Europeans adapt and prosper in The New World.
Now we head over to my daughter’s –7 minutes away by car–to eat traditional turkey, pumpkin desserts, mashed potatoes, green beans and corn, and apple pan dowdy –cranberry sauce –
We stuff ourselves, feasting, to celebrate our blessings –and will thank God also. My daughter will have everyone tell something they are thankful to God for –and while the adults have devotional talk, the kids will color a picture from a Thanksgiving coloring book — she has pilgrim hats for them to wear –and probably will have colorful Indian corn and gourds for decor.
May you all have a blessed day of counting your blessings! Everyone has some --whether it be good health --or good medicine --or good friends --or good family --SOMETHING! LIFE itself. I had a nose bleed last week--and was so glad for the clotting factor God built into our blood. Imagine --if there were no clotting factor, the human race would've bled to death at the first cut! Evolved without a designer God?? I don't think so!!!
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071122/OPINION02/711220301
90 Indians and their “king” –Massasoit –were there for the celebration.
Last year, the paper included a passage about Squanto and how they considered him to be a blessing from God to them.
On the other side of the coin: The Indian massacre of 1622 (also known as the Jamestown Massacre) occurred in the Virginia Colony on Good Friday, March 22, 1622. About 347 people [1], or almost one-third of the English population of Jamestown, were killed by a coordinated series of surprise attacks of the Powhatan Confederacy under Chief Opechancanough.
From what I gleaned in a rapid reading –an Englishman had murdered an important Indian aide of this chief–and that started the conflict. Then the enmity was on between some Indian groups and the English –but a young Indian boy warned the settlers at one point of an imminent attack.
–and as with most wars and ethnic group feuds , each side was afraid of the other and seeking revenge or security by killing off the other, hoping to intimidate each other into more peaceful ways –which did happen at one point according to the account link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Massacre_of_1622
President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. He wrote, “Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country…for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed…and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually…To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.”
(George was a Master of the run-on sentence!)
Today, Geo. Washington would be shocked to see all the flack the Georgia governor got from secularists for petitioning God in public prayer for rain for his parched state. I don’t know if he got it, but our state did. We got buckets yesterday–it is brightening up here today.
As for the Indians having a general feeling that all the land was theirs and that there was no room for the Europeans –no welcome for them –and the idea that the immigrants brutalized the Indians and vice versa, right off the bat –that is not the case from what I’ve googled and found today.
The Harvest feast of 1621 -a year after the Mayflower’s arrival, shows that the Indians and the Europeans were interested in one another and friendly. The Indians, did indeed help the Europeans adapt and prosper in The New World.
Now we head over to my daughter’s –7 minutes away by car–to eat traditional turkey, pumpkin desserts, mashed potatoes, green beans and corn, and apple pan dowdy –cranberry sauce –
We stuff ourselves, feasting, to celebrate our blessings –and will thank God also. My daughter will have everyone tell something they are thankful to God for –and while the adults have devotional talk, the kids will color a picture from a Thanksgiving coloring book — she has pilgrim hats for them to wear –and probably will have colorful Indian corn and gourds for decor.
May you all have a blessed day of counting your blessings! Everyone has some --whether it be good health --or good medicine --or good friends --or good family --SOMETHING! LIFE itself. I had a nose bleed last week--and was so glad for the clotting factor God built into our blood. Imagine --if there were no clotting factor, the human race would've bled to death at the first cut! Evolved without a designer God?? I don't think so!!!
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
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