Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Music: Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Celebration Singers will provide the musical leadership for the 11:00 a.m. service. The Songs of Gathering will pair two pieces: Jubilate Deo, a six-part canon composed by Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), with Allen Pote's A Jubilant Song. As a response to the reading of the psalm, the Singers will lead the congregation for its musical setting, On Eagle's Wings by Michael Joncas; soloists will be Evan Arrington-Tsao and Daniel Harrison. Tom Granum will play an organ setting of On Eagle's Wings for the offertory; composed by Charles Callahan, this piece was commissioned by Bobbie Epting and Lee Epting in memory of Stephen Mark Coomes, and Tom played its first presentation in 1995.

To see a video of the Celebration Singers singing A Jubilant Song in Canada, click on the video below.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

IHN Sunday 9/19/2010

Today's IHN work was light, compared to a normal end-of-IHN-week day.  Since the IHN setup was remaining in place, all we had to do was drive our guests over to the IHN Day Center in the van, and we did that about an hour later than we usually do, at 8 am.  IHN staff covered the morning, and our volunteers covered from 1 to 5 pm.  At 5, we drove them back in the van to First Presbyterian, where they were greeted by the IHN hosting volunteers from Holy Cross Lutheran Church.  Our work here is done.

Many thanks to the dozens of First Presbyterian volunteers who made this IHN host week a success.  There are more than 60 individual jobs in a host week.  We don't have quite that many volunteers during the week because some people sign up for several jobs, such as driving on multiple days.  The IHN office requested a list of our IHN volunteers -- all of them, not just the ones who worked this time.  Counting all the people who have worked during 2009 and 2010, there are just under 100.  That's roughly 10% of our congregation.  IHN is by far our largest outreach project in terms of the number of church members directly involved.  Even so, about 90% of our congregation doesn't participate.  I would very much like to increase the participation percentage, both because it's good for people to get involved, and because we should not have to depend on the same dedicated cadre ("the usual suspects") to do each and every IHN host week.

I stayed long enough this evening to see that Holy Cross Lutheran got started without problems, and then departed.  We're done for another three months or so.  Our next IHN host week is November 28 through December 5.  I hope to see you then!

Rick Simpson

Saturday, September 18, 2010

IHN Saturday 9/18/2010

As advertised, Darryl Magrino provided our guests, overnight hosts and me with a superb breakfast this morning.  The UGA football game didn't affect IHN operations much, and I don't think that we affected the parking operation at First Presbyterian.  The van and volunteers' cars left the church lot at about 9:20 this morning, before the lot began to fill up.

Tomorrow, we'll take the guests back to the IHN Day Center sometime between 7 and 8, so that the large room in the Children's Ministry area can be used for children's church and Sunday school.  IHN furniture and guests' belongings will remain in place, and Holy Cross Lutheran's volunteers will take over the operation at 5.

Friday, September 17, 2010

IHN Friday 9/17/2010

Another quiet night.  Nancy and Matthew went to Matthew's soccer game, and so missed the "formal" serving of dinner.  There was a great quantity and diversity of food, courtesy of one of the church's bridge groups.

Michael did attend the choral concert last night.  Amber and Gavin went to start with, but it was too much for young Gavin.

Some excitement this evening as we tried to find the source of the persistent high-pitched squeal that can be heard in the guest rooms, especially at night when there's very little other noise.  It turned out to be coming from the intercom speakers.  Disconnecting the speakers solved the problem for now, but we'll have to investigate next week to find and fix the real cause and reconnect the speakers.

Tomorrow should be interesting, as it is a UGA home football game day.  The church's parking lot is rented out for football parking, so we'll have to ensure that we leave in the van by about 9:30 to make the van's space available.  First Baptist also rents out their lot, but they still allow the van to park there on game days. (It has to park somewhere.)

Darryl Magrino is preparing breakfast for our guests and overnight hosts tomorrow, which will be a real treat compared to cold cereal on weekday mornings.

There's a possibility that a third family will be joining us on Sunday, but it's not yet definite.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

IHN Thursday 9/16/2010

A quiet night last night, and a quiet one so far this evening.  The van took Nancy and Matthew to a program at Milledge Avenue Baptist Church that attend every week.  Michael was going to attend the Clare College choral concert, but I don't know if he did that.  Tomorrow afternoon Matthew has a soccer game, so the van will be pressed into service again.  Ordinary family comings and goings.

FPC IHN Goes Green:  I couldn't resist taking this photo in the church parking lot yesterday.  There were only four vehicles in the lot at about 7:30am:  The IHN Coordinator's Prius, the IHN Van Driver's Prius, the IHN Overnight Hosts' Prius, and the IHN van.  We should get some sort of award.


Julie Knowlton, the IHN Director and an FPC member, will be one of the overnight hosts tomorrow night.  I think she plans to ask our guest families if they would like to attend an open-air concert at the Navy School, which would be an interesting change from everyday IHN.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

IHN Wednesday 9/15/2010

Things are still going smoothly.  Dinner this evening was thanks to Wednesday@First, and was mostly leftovers from Celebration Weekend.  I wish we could always have leftovers of that quality!   Our guests fixed plates and took them back to the Children's ministry suite for dinner, and were appreciative of the food.

The e-mail I sent yesterday mixed up the dates of the upcoming IHN Volunteer Recognition Banquet and the IHN Golf Tournament; the blog posts are correct.  The proper dates are:
  • Golf Tournament -- September 27 at Athens Country Club
  • Volunteer Recognition Banquet -- October 10, 6:30pm, at First Presbyterian Church
More information on both of these can be found via the IHN Athens web site.

We could hear Michael practicing the piano as we sat in the IHN hosting area tonight.  The piano is in the sanctuary, directly above our heads.

Tomorrow evening Nancy and Matthew attend a program at Milledge Avenue Baptist Church, so that van will be making some after-hours runs.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

IHN Tuesday 9/14/2010

Not much to report, as things are going smoothly.  Our guests like the play areas, inside and outside.  The outside area is much more useful this time than during our IHN host week, because it was much hotter then.  The weather in the late afternoons is much nicer, and so the outside play area is more fun for the children.

We are back to using "civilized" china and cutlery now.  With the completion of the large kitchen upstairs by the fellowship hall, the china that had been in boxes is now in use for church events, such as the meals we had this past weekend.  I've borrowed a few set of plates, bowls, and silverware for use in the small "catering kitchen" in the IHN area.  There is still a closet full of disposable plastic plates and utensils, but we are now serving dinner on ceramic rather than plastic plates.  The catering kitchen has a dishwasher, so cleanup is not a problem.  Less petroleum-derived stuff for the landfill.  And besides, it looks much nicer.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we won't have an IHN meal brought in by volunteers.  Instead, our guests and evening hosts will join in the Wednesday@First meal in the new fellowship hall.  We've done this in the past each time that one of our IHN host weeks falls during the Wednesday@First schedule, and everyone has enjoyed it.  The food this Wednesday should be especially good, as much of it is leftovers from the celebration meals this weekend.  Don't expect filet mignon every Wednesday.

Yesterday's blog entry described the upcoming IHN Volunteer Recognition Banquet on October 10.  The companion piece to that is the annual IHN Golf Tournament on September 27 at Athens Country Club.  This is a major fund raiser for IHN, as well as being lots of fun.  At last report, there were two teams participating from First Presbyterian Church, but more are certainly welcome.  See the IHN of Athens resource page on their web site for links to information about the tournament and for an online registration form.  On that same page, click on the image that says Volunteer Recognition Banquet for more information on that.

Monday, September 13, 2010

IHN Sunday/Monday 9/12-13/2010

We are a day-and-a-half into our Interfaith Hospitality Network host week now. We converted three rooms of the Children's Ministry Suite into bedrooms on Sunday afternoon after the last event of the church's action-packed Celebration Weekend. Just three rooms this time, because we have just two families plus the Overnight Hosts.

We have Nancy and her 7-year-old son Matthew, and Michael and Amber with their 21-month-old son Gavin.

Matthew is a really active boy, with sports events after school; he attends Malcolm Bridge Elementary in Oconee County; that's a story in itself (see below). Nancy works in event catering, for the Classic Center and for Epting Events. She has an erratic work schedule, which can make IHN van transportation problematic.

Michael and Amber are both actively seeking employment.

IHN of Athens has host churches in both Clarke and Oconee counties. Matthew attends a school in Oconee County, but for this week and some other weeks, Nancy and Matthew are in Clarke County. An Athens-Clarke school bus picks Matthew up at First Presbyterian Church and takes him to the parking lot at Kohl's on Epps Bridge Parkway, just over the Clarke-Oconee county line. From there, an Oconee school bus takes him to Malcom Bridge Elementary. I'm astounded that two government bureaucracies would coordinate like this to get a single child to his school, but they do it every day. It's faith-restoring.

So far the families *love* the inside play area (our nursery area), the outside playground, the showers, and of course the food. Not to mention the volunteers, of course. We always try to make our guests welcome, and they respond.

Michael is a classical pianist, and hopes to perform at the upcoming IHN Volunteer Recognition Banquet, which will be held at our church (with Darryl Magrino presiding in the kitchen) on October 10. You should all plan to come -- it's FREE! No charge for the dinner, nor for the entertainment by Ken Medema. Check the link to the banquet info on the IHN Athens web site.  Reservations are required (but FREE), so that the chefs know how much food to prepare.

A good start for our host week.  Holy Cross Lutheran will take over the volunteer jobs next week, but the families will stay put in our building next week.  Holy Cross has a construction project under way at their church, and can't host there.  We can relate to this, as we had to "borrow" churches twice in 2009 to do our own IHN hosting.