When a picture is worth a thousand words...

Here's 2000.

Don't forget our parent meeting on the 19th! Only two more rehearsals left before then - March 22 and 29 - see you then!

Looking Ahead

PLANNING
Pneuma and the Westminster Bells are hard at work preparing for Palm Sunday. The children and the Chancel Choir will sing and the Bells will play as we celebrate the coming of our Lord. New ringers (and some returning) are being brought into to fill the ranks for this exciting piece. Both ensembles will take a break for the afternoons of April 5 (Palm Sunday) and April 12 (Easter) to enjoy time with their families. The next Sunday night will be a planning night for both groups: on Sunday, April 19, Pneuma will have a Parents’ planning meeting where we will make plans for the rest of the year, so please come let your voices be heard. All parents of children ages 4 through 5th grade are encouraged to attend, even if your singer isn’t participating with us, so that we can get a clearer picture of what our Children’s Music Ministry needs to grow into. Come help us shape the future! Pneuma will gather at their regular time, 3:45 pm that night. In the meantime, we will still rehearse for Palm Sunday for the remaining rehearsals, March 15, 22, and 29.

Peter Plans

Sunday afternoon Pneuma rehearsed some of the music for Palm Sunday, the next time they’ll sing in worship (April 5). We sang through a good number of songs, talked about the first paragraph of our Social Creed and acted through (experienced?!) a couple of Peter Pan acting exercises. Everybody had a great time and we’re all excited about next week, which is “Bring a Friend Week.” See you then!

Roadtrip!

Yesterday's trip was a great success! Families and friends were able to go together and experience the Roundhouse Museum (check out some interesting pictures of the place at http://www.theothersavannah.com/html/index2.html) and a great time was had by everyone!

Don't forget, we'll be singing and acting in both services on the 22nd, so we'll gather at 8:15am and 10:45am in our Pneuma shirts and khakis.

NEWS: The Pneuma Staff has decided to give the kids the afternoon off each time they sing in worship, so on the afternoon the 22nd, there will be no rehearsal!

UPCOMING DATES: April 5 (Palm Sunday) and May 3 (the day of the Production and the Sunday before Mother's Day).

Blessings, Ronn

Pictures from December (Tone Chime Day) 12/28

Angels Aware Videos available now!

Chris Anderson sent me this e-mail this morning:

"Ronn,
I've finally got some dvd copies of Angels Aware. I had to have a little editing help from my brother. Is there any way you can put this on the blog and in the church bulletin? If anyone wants one, they can give us a call at 925-3799.....and/or I could give you a few to keep and pass out (just remind them that I'm not Spielberg). I've got 10 to start and can get more copies if needed.

Chris"

So drop us a line or call us at the church office and we'd be happy to get you a copy. Blessings, R

Change Is Good

"Lord of all Creation, I pray that as we step into the New Year that you grant us wisdom and guidance as we seek to build the Children’s Music ministry not as we would want it to be but as You would want it to be. Help the Pneuma staff and me to find that way and to follow it with all of our hearts. In Your Son’s Name we pray. Amen."

When we finished 2008 with the musical, Angels Aware, we were all elated; the kids had enjoyed a fantastic success and we were all (justifiably) proud of them. And we (the Pneuma staff and I) imagined that the New Year would bring only bigger and better things for these great kids. And the New Year began. A time when many consider and reconsider priorities. More than a few families are struggling with so many, many activities available to their kids and decisions are being made.
Going into the Year the Pneuma staff felt that a simpler approach was called for. Shorter rehearsal times for our youngest singers and no lines to memorize this term. Still, in a desire to help the kids connect more with our Bible, we introduced the Parables of Jesus to them in a particularly creative style. The parable is read by a narrator and the kids explore the motions the story calls for (while hearing the words of Christ!). And we started teaching how to read music. In this case that means seeing a note and singing it without piano and starting to understand the patterns and applying them. Challenging stuff!

We are looking at several options of how to best serve these children for the rest of the term and will soon be in contact with each set of parents to see if the time is the best (Wednesday evening after Church Night Supper for Tone Chimes was one thing we’re considering). We’re going to refocus on the songs that we learned as kids with less emphasis (especially for our younger kids) in reading music and more into just singing and having a good time with God’s music. We’re going to sing some of the songs of the emerging tradition including praise choruses and hymns. For the rest of the spring term, we’re doing away with the attendance requirement. We hope that the kids will be here as often as possible, but we realize that modern families have difficult schedules and we want o give them the best experience with God’s music that we possibly can. So we’d really like to hear from you: what time is best on Sundays? From 3-4pm or later in the day like 5-6pm? Let us know what you’d like to see so that we can give the kids the best experience. Call me at the Church Office or e-mail me at ronnalford@bellsouth.net. Let me hear from you today!