Sight-reading Sympathy

With only one week to go until spring break, the days are full and exciting! Last weekend BFA hosted a festival for which students from many different schools and countries traveled to our campus. They participated in honors band, orchestra, and choir, practicing hard for several days and performing two concerts. I was originally tasked with helping to organize meals, doing airport pickups, and other logistical tasks. The weekend before the festival, I received a heads-up that the choir accompanist who was originally scheduled to come might not be able to make it. Monday morning, I was handed music and Thursday morning I found myself playing for the rehearsal. For any of you who felt compelled to pray for me last weekend, this is probably why. :) I definitely felt a lot of sympathy for my group piano students, to whom I give sight-reading assignments on a regular basis. The challenge of working with a conductor, music and students who were new to me was exciting, and the joy felt in the room was infectious. So instead of being nervous, I was caught up in the fun that the students were having, learning to sing well and make music together. I was also again reminded of the impact that God has allowed music to make in my heart and life. When a writer communicates in their own words the ways in which God has spoken to them through the truth of His Word, I catch myself longing for that depth of relationship too. Then, tracing my steps back over the last ten or twenty-ish years, and looking more closely at events that seemed arbitrary, I see His fingerprints all over them. He is faithful. As I sat on my bench at the instrument I love, and surveyed the faces of the young people in the choir, I was overcome with the calm affirmation that He Who has been faithful in my life, is equally faithful in theirs. I think that's what gives me hope as I teach and practice, and do life here, because if we're honest, in ministry there are moments in which we are desperate for a glimmer of it.
The coming days hold one final week of classes, submitting of grades, and then the students will scatter all over the world for two weeks before returning for a final quarter of school. We are thankful that for the most part the students are back to being healthy. They are tired, however, so please pray that both staff and students will finish strong during this last week of class.

Praise God:
1. That I've (nearly) made it though half the semester! His grace is truly sufficient.
2. For awesome, encouraging conversations with students, and opportunities to speak truth into their lives.
3. For you, my supporters!! Your partnership is helping to enable me in ministry here. Thank you!

Please pray:
1. For seniors still making plans for next year, especially for those in need of financial aid.
2. That I will be especially faithful in the small details of life this week.
3. For rest and refreshment over break, physically and spiritually, for both students and staff. God is at work here, but there is also much opposition. Pray that walls will be broken down, and victories given.

Thank you for praising and praying with me!!