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Dear First
Church Friends:
It all
began in the unlikely place of Lupton, Michigan. That is north
of West Branch, where everyone exits I-75 for a hamburger.
Actually, she grew up on her family's third-generation farm
north of town. So how did she make her way downstate to work
in a 3,000-member church and help them choose and design a
new million dollar organ?
There
was always music. The house was full of it. If not piano practice,
then the record player was blaring a Beethoven symphony, Chopin
waltzes, operettas- all classical. Her mother subscribed to
the RCA Victor record club. Piano lessons started at age 5,
church pianist by age 13, recitals, competitions, summer sessions
at Interlochen music camp. Then time for college. That was
a no-brainer. She was already maize and blue from those Interlochen
summers.
Always
there was music, but still no organ music. Four wonderful
years in Ann Arbor as a pianist still offered no clue as to
what to make of all this music. But she remembers the day
she saw the notice on the bulletin board for "guinea
pig" students for the Doctoral organ students: a promise
of free lessons so they could learn how to teach. That was
it. Done. One lesson later, there was no doubt where this
journey was headed-to the organ bench!
Organ
study at Wayne State University led first to jobs at St. Columba
Episcopal Church in Detroit and then to Royal Oak First UMC.
Both were kind to a novice organist and confirmed for her
that the pipe organ was indeed the king of instruments. Its
place in the church seemed so right. Next to the human voice,
could there be a more fitting voice for the praise and worship
of God? The next leg of the journey led straight up Woodward
Avenue and over west a bit to the largest church yet. Only
this time, the challenge wasn't so much to master the organ,
but to gracefully retire it!
How privileged
I am to be the one who somehow ended up on the organ bench
of a most amazing church. I accept with humility and gratitude
my place in this holy puzzle. How frustrating for some churches
where dreams and visions remain forever on the "wish
list." Miracles here seem to be the norm. We expect them,
plan for them, implement them. Come May of 2005, a miracle
will happen via ground transport from the Schoenstein Organ
Company of San Francisco. I hope to be waiting in the parking
lot and even carry some of those organ pipes myself.
We come
to church for years and are used to its beauty and comfort.
We tend not to notice its weaknesses, and therefore don't
realize our full potential as worshippers. For me, personally,
this new organ is an awesome next step in ministry here. I
believe that worship must remain the heart of our congregation,
and that a new organ and sanctuary improvements will enable
us in ways only imagined. The great composer, J. S. Bach,
inscribed his music with SOLI DEO GLORIA: To God alone the
glory! And so for:
an instrument
of greater beauty and power,
a chancel
redesigned for better singing,
enlivened
acoustics to aid corporate worship,
better
lighting and sound,
a congregation
with faith, vision, and enthusiasm,
SOLI DEO
GLORIA!
But for
now, this farm girl had better start practicing. "To
whom much is given, much will be required."
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