My Job

This is for you, Allen.

So, Allen was asking what I do for my job & I think that's a good question because I never go into much detail about it. Not sure why--just haven't. I am a Children's Choir Director for a church. I have the special privilege of it being a paid position at a church that is not my home church, so I end up with two home churches, really. Which = a lot of love & support & prayers, etc. to give & receive.

My job technically is to teach the children songs about Jesus that they can sing in church every so often--about 4 times per year. But really, it's about casting vision for these kids for their ministry & their lives :) What an honor! During 1st semester & through Christmas, I had about 45 kids & tonight there were 26 (spring tends to lose some kids to sports, dang it!! WHAT are these parents thinking?!?!). I'm kinda nervous about this semester with Isaac on his way & leaving my volunteers "on their own." But I'm also excited about the music we're doing.

When I first started, I was totally overwhelmed. Honored that they had faith in me to accomplish the task...but no real wisdom or much skill to lead me. I was given the goals from the last choir teacher before me who, from the comments I heard, was not very well suited for the job. They included things like, "10 minute vocal warm-up, sit still during rehearsal, sing out during performance, etc" and came with a huge box of sheet music with things like, "Be Thou My Vision" & "Collection of Sacred Hymns." Not bashing those songs or goals but I had NO idea what to do with them. I just knew songs I liked & knew that I wanted to use accompaniment CD's for the most part b/c I'm NOT skilled at all on sight-reading or mastering sheet music on piano.

It's so cool...After the 1st week, which was a little shaky, I have left looking for someone to call & share with about how wonderfully it has gone. We do some fun activities to learn music & then we sing, practice plays, & I remind them about why we do what we do. We have a lot of fun & they have really gotten confident about singing in front of people. I think they trust me & I think they have fun & believe in what they're doing. As much as they can recognize those things as 1st-6th graders, anyway. I try to do a lot of parent-coaching, too. I give the parents subjects to discuss with their kids, ask them to pray with their children before singing in church, & disciplinary reminders.

The funnest part has been watching a few kids in particular blossom :) Some kids really connect through music & it's awesome to be a part of that as they discover their talent and/or passion for music. Oh, & the volunteers I've been blessed to work with. They are amazing. I could write another whole post on them :) But I'm getting sleepy tonight.

And apparently I was when I was getting dressed earlier today...My undershirt kept bunching up in the back & my sweater was tight enough to show when it did, which left me tugging on it all day, in addition to the usual ritual of pulling up my pants. *pull pants up...pull shirts down* Sooo, when I got home tonight, I realized my undershirt was on backwards. Classic.