What Did You Do Wednesday Night?

I got a call while Aaron was sleeping this afternoon. It was from our church secretary telling me that these were sitting in the choir room with my name on them.














So when Steve got home from work, I headed out the door, leaving him to put the boys to bed. When I got there, I spent two and half hours opening, unwrapping, folding, and sorting. this is what the final product looked like:














Are you curious yet?



Wait no more...














Yes, our hand bells have arrived. Thanks to a very generous family in our church, we are now the proud owners of three octaves of hand bells and all of the "fixin's".

I am excited and scared to death at the same time. I started the tone chime groups in our church five years ago. Throughout that time, I have dealt with tempers flaring about so many things. It seems that whatever I do to try to make things "fair" for people, someone gets mad. I know that is just the way of being a church employee, but it is still always hard when someone has been inadvertently upset about something.

I feel as if the expectations of our group have now reached a new level. Should someone play the wrong bell, lose their place in the music, DROP a bell, not get to play ENOUGH, or umpteen million other things that can go wrong, it all falls on my shoulders.

I spend countless hours planning for performances and practices, and will continue to do so to the best of my ability. I don't expect recognition for these efforts. My reward is a successful performance, of which we had quite a few for the first time this past year. I would, however, wish for a little lenience this time around as we are getting our feet wet. This is new to all of us.

I will pray for patience each and every week as we prepare. I will also pray that others will share the same courtesy of patience with me. I feel it is important to play well, in order to enhance the worship experience of the congregation, rather than impede. To play such a vital role in the worship service cannot be taken lightly. To the rest of the group, this is a fun church activity. To me, it is a commitment to God, my church, and our members to give it my all and be responsible for every note being played and every sound being made. I just don't want to disappoint anyone, especially those who invested money or time. I feel as if there is this huge weight on my shoulder and I don't want anyone to believe that I am not doing all I can to make their efforts worth while.

I am sure I will share a video of our first performance in September. I know that we, the Joyful Ringers of Ada Congregational Church, are all excited and you, my blog friends, will be along for the ride.

This being said, aren't they pretty?

Happy Thursday.