A GIFT FOR ME - FOR THEM - FOR ALL!

Yesterday was a very special day for me, one that I think I will carry in my heart for the rest of my life.

This day should have happened a month ago, but a snow storm and a stomach flu prevented it from occurring then... so yesterday was the day.

I played the organ for the church service at the little church in Waldersee Manitoba - which as it turned out this month happened to be the Remembrance Day Service.  I have talked about this church and it's significance to my family here before, but even I was surprised at how I would react to this event.

Yesterday was the first time I played the organ in that church before a congregation, and other than one very brief practice three weeks ago, that particular organ was unknown to me.  I am not an organist, I am a pianist, so playing any organ is a challenge for me, but I said I would do it - so I did.

I was so nervous, but the hymns I had to play were very familiar to me, I had played them for years on the piano... so how difficult could it be?

My Prelude was beautiful - played just as I imagined - and then came the Opening Hymn.  I played a full verse as an introduction and then the congregation started to sing.  The one thing I remember so vividly about attending this church as a child with my Mother or with Aunts and Uncles, was the way the people in this congregation sang.  Full out - pour your heart into the music and the poetry - mouths wide open, straight from the diaphragm - LOUD!

I teared up by the second bar of music, and by the middle of the first verse, I couldn't even see the music.  My hands stumbled, I fumbled, and I started to panic.

But then the most extraordinary thing happened.  I thought of my Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles who rest just beyond those church walls in the little cemetery behind the church.

 

 I thought of how happy and yes, how proud, they would be to know that I was here, playing in their beloved church - something that was so far out of any realm of possibilities in my life, until now.

My hands steadied, my eyes cleared and I put my heart into the task at hand.  No more fumbles, mistakes, tears - just music, along with this incredible peace and contentment in what I was doing.

The service ended... and I was applauded!

Can you imagine - applause - for me!  Just for a moment those tears threatened again...  I was thanked over and over and over again for giving them all music to sing to.  I never imagined that they would be so overjoyed to hear a pianist play an organ - but they were - and then some.

I left the church feeling like I had been given the most precious gift.  It was a morning I won't forget...ever.

When I got home I went straight to the piano bench and dug out my Advent music.  In one month's time I will be playing again - and I am going to give them as much Advent music as I can squeeze into the service.

This gift goes beyond me and beyond the congregation... This gift is flowing out the doors of this beautiful place to the beyond. 

For me - for them - for All!