Sunday, May 13th, MOTHER'S DAY

Good morning, It's 10:25 and normally I would be sitting in a church pew listening to our pastor give the morning message, but today my wife of 51 years got a touch of food poisoning, and we had to leave and come home before the service started.

So today, we will come to God in a different way of worshiping. In reading over the brochure "Connection" which comes in our bulletin periodically, it talked about Dundas Castle, near Edinburg, Scotland. I looked up the website on Google and was delighted in what it told about the castle and its long history. Look it up. God uses so many different castles, flowers, birds and humans in connecting folks with one another.

From time to time in our church we share "God Sightings", something that brings our attention to God in a new different way. This week, on Thursday and Friday, I had many "God Sightings" for I attended the Best of the Northwest Choir Festival at the University of Portland. This group of choir's were from Northwest Schools in and around Portland, although some came from as far away as Spanaway, Washington and Olympia, Washington.

The group to the left above was a 20 member choir from LaCenter, Washington, the smallest group of singers in the two day span. This group sang seven selections, one titled "Even When God is Silent" a very touching song that we all should hear and think about. Roger Doyle, Professor of Music at the University selected this choir as his choice as best choir, siting the choral selections, the performance of the choir, and the leading of the choir director.

The largest choir, the group to the right above is the Sprague High School Concert choir of Salem, Oregon was selected as the number 1, choir by the judges. This 117 member choir, won for the 4th year in a row. Again some excellent numbers. When this choir came in, around 25 were left on the stairwell on the left and around 25 to the right stairwell to the stage. When they sang their first number this "surround" music was just outstanding. I recall they did this last year as well.

I listened to approximately 558 voices on Friday, and many more on Thursday, and my heart just swelled up to hear so many of our youth in America perform in this way. In looking over the songs selected, over half were directed to the things of God. I am not very good at latin, and many were titled in latin, so they may not all have been to God, but many, many were. PTL for that.

I look at these young faces, and say to God, "Oh, if they would all stay so innocent and sing to your Glory for the rest of their lives, or at least till they leave High School", just think of what our world and country could be like.

A very sobering thought as I looked at the newspaper articles that Julie & Dan sent of the tornado damage to the town of Greensburg, Kansas. Block after block of homes and businesses are just wiped off the face of the earth. This town of 1400 people will rebuild, but its very sobering to see what can happen in just a few minutes, remember them in your prayers.

Will try and put several of the photos on next posting. Must close for now.

Cherrio