Read Month Two
Read Month Three
Read Month Four - Rachel's Christmas letter
Hello everyone, and Happy New Year (although we seem to be
rather a long way into it now)! I didn't write a blog post for December due to
adverse weather (and Christmas) cutting short the number of weeks I was at
work, so I'll briefly include those weeks in this blog.
December began with a performance of Stargazers at
the Hagley Road Retirement Village which appeared to be well received by those
who attended. The next weekend saw some heavy snowfall, and the planned
performance of Stargazers had to be cancelled. That week I also had my
two days in the office off, and I would say I was disappointed, but I have
to confess that I very much enjoyed spending time with friends sharing in their
kids’ enthusiasm for snow days!
The last working week in December saw the office Christmas
meal at the Harvester (other restaurants are also available!) which I very much enjoyed. When
I wasn’t eating, I spent some time working on arranging Roger’s song At last
we see before our eyes for SATB choir. Before this, the closest thing I’d
done to arranging was harmonising a Bach chorale, and although many of the
techniques can be transferred from one to the other, this type of arranging was
still a new challenge. I gave it my best shot however, and when I
finished it off in the new year, I was very pleasantly surprised by the fact
that, after a few minor improvements, both Annie and Roger thought it was
acceptable. I felt that I hadn’t really had much idea of what I was doing! I
have since started work on arrangements of two more songs, and I am finding
them tricky as I still don’t have much confidence, but hopefully they will turn
out just as well as the first one did!
January saw the stocktake take place, and although it was a
little tedious at times, it was quite satisfying to think that by the end I had
counted all the vocal scores, CDs, books and DVDs in the various different
storage places – hopefully I didn’t miss any!
Another
task I had was to create a piano reduction of the string parts for the musical Wildfire. Even though
I only have basic piano ability, so I’d not be able to play what I’d written, I
tried my best to think about what would be physically possible to play, and the
best way to voice the 4 parts over two hands. Although this job was very
time-consuming, I felt a sense of achievement when it was done, and the job had
also tested my reading of alto clef, which is even more ropey than my piano
playing!
January saw two more performances of Stargazers
with the CMM choir, one in Lickey and one in Marston Green, and both of these
seemed to be well attended and appreciated by their respective audiences. I
have to admit, as the weeks go by, I’ve been becoming less and less
enthusiastic about performing a Christmas-themed musical, however I think I
need to remind myself that the message of the musical does not become
irrelevant just because secular society has stopped thinking about Christmas.
Even now, as we are heading towards Lent, looking forward to the events of the
Easter weekend, there are still things we can learn from the Wise Men and their
search for the child Jesus. For example, the Wise Men set out on their journey,
without knowing where it would lead. For those of us like myself who like to
have things planned in advance, it can be hard to relinquish control and step
into the unknown, but the Wise Men took that risk, and they ended up face to
face with the Son of God. Within our own lives, a great prize awaits us, if
only we are willing to entrust ourselves to Jesus and let him plan the path we
should take.
I couldn't write a post about January without mentioning the
untimely death of Barrie Renwick. Although I did not know him well, I had met
him three times within the first few months of my internship - a testament to
the amount of his time he gave to support the work of CMM. I know that he had a
place in the hearts of many of the people who are connected to CMM, and, having
recently experienced the loss of a very good friend of my own, I understand the
grief they are feeling. Yet, Barrie had a strong faith, as did my friend, and
as Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians, we '[should] not grieve like the
rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen
asleep in him.' (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). We can find peace in the knowledge
that Barrie, my friend, and all the other believers who have gone before us are
now in a perfect place, spending eternity in the presence of our God.
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