A NEW YEAR

A new year is now upon us and I am finally back online at home (at least for the forseeable future!). I'm still on break from school/work, although things at Faith UMC will be starting up once again pretty soon after a short break with the ensembles. As it always goes with these long breaks (which ARE needed) - I do look forward to getting back into the swing of things come next week.

FAITH UMC: Actually, choir will start up tomorrow night. We'll be starting preparation for the annual "Festival of Choirs" in February (held at First UMC Hudson) and getting into Easter/Spring musical material by the end of January (YES - already!). I'm looking forward, too, in moving forward with the music ministry in more creative ways to facilitate a more rich worship experience. The Praise Team and Children's ensembles will begin meeting next week. The kids will begin working on a Spring musical to be presented in May. I'm not quite sure just what that will be just yet, but I will be listening and looking at several things in the next few weeks.

THE HOUSE: Well, our new roof is now on and we are almost done with the cleaning out part of things. I am in the midst of moving my office into another room and moving furniture otherwise from one part of the house to another. I've been trying to use as much of my break time as possible to get as much of this done as possible, although I know I won't get completely done - there's just too much.

OTHER STUFF I HOPE TO DO: I'm hoping also to catch up with some friends that I don't get to spend time with too often - in between everything else.

MY TRAVELS: I did get up to Georgia and the panhandle for a few days last week - after Christmas. The weather was chilly to start with, then warmed up - but I had a very good and fruitful visit.