Childlike Faith: That One Thing That Jesus Talked About One Time

I’ve been helping out with child care on Thursday mornings at the church I attend.  A women’s bible study is meeting and involved mothers will drop their pre-kindergarten youngsters off for a morning of fun with the similar-aged anklebiters.  I signed up not knowing what exactly it would be like; I’ve worked with children of almost all ages from grade school to college (mostly in the capacity of instructor), but toddlers are somewhat of a new bag for me.  Somewhere along the path of aging I seem to have lost the capacity for “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and put-your-hands-in-your-lap-and-quiet-down rhymes.

At the most recent gathering, I found myself hesitating to perform along with my supervisor as she led the children in a Jesu-centric rhyme involving hugging oneself and waggling fingers:

“Jesus is kind and gentle and good.  I’ll be like Jesus and do as I should.”

 

Solitude, Bonhoeffer, and John 18

[Note: I wrote this before September 1st, but didn't finish it until today, October 13th]

As I said in my previous post, time to update has been scarce lately.  Owing both to Imprint, the backpacking sojourn into Mineral King which the Residence Life staff and RAs took a few weeks ago (already?), as well as to the rigidly organized and jam (or preserves, if you prefer)- packed training regimen of the past fourteen days.  There has hardly been time to stop and think, much less crank out a coherent set of paragraphs on any particular subject.

 

Bach, Brahms…

This weekend I went with my grandparents to the Carmel Bach Festival and had the opportunity to hear both Bach’s B-Minor Mass and Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis Cantata (BWV 21), both for the first time.  The Cantata was the first part of a two-part concert, with the second part being Brahms’sEin Deustches Requiem.

 

Three Musicals In Two Days

I recently discovered the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts while listening to the radio on the way to work. When I found out that they were doing an extended run of Godspell, I hastily signed on, excited at the prospect of seeing the musical that Westmont’s CC’s cafe (the fundraiser event for the college choir) did incredibly well in early 2007. Some friends and I also bought tickets for Ragtime, which I had never seen before, and the timing worked out so that we saw Ragtime on Saturday the 12th, which happened to be its opening night, and I saw Godspell the next evening on my way to Fresno from Santa Barbara for my vacation. After the shows I can definitely say that I am very impressed with the professionalism and talent of PCPA.