look in your heart and you’ll find

Messiah has come fallen into society’s latest trend…sickness. While this is probably one of the worst trends to follow, I feel as if it was inevitable. With all of the different flus and colds going around campus, everyone seems to be down with something or just getting over something. I find it surprising actually that this seems to be the first year that Messiah has really caught on to this trend. With just over 2,800 students on campus living together in a tight community, it would make sense that sickness would go around quickly and frequently. Looking back to exactly a year ago, I was actually too sick to get out of bed. At the same time though, the entire campus didn’t seem to be joining me in my sickness like people experiencing sickness this year seem to be.

In both my major and in gospel choir, people seem to be jumping on the band wagon left and right. With our first service for UVP on Sunday morning, a number of people were unable to show up because of being ill. A number of people in choir have gotten sick since then. Rehearsal on Monday seemed especially empty. The education major is definitely feeling the strain of sickness as well. With the workload of the semester really starting to pick up I can’t even imagine all of the work that is piling up behind them, which always seems to be the worst part about being sick: once you get over the actual sickness you feel worse coming back because of everything you have to do to catch up.

I am especially greatful for my ability to get out of bed and go to classes this year though. While I too have gotten sick, I luckily have just gotten a running nose and slight sore throat which is already gone. I pray that I continue to stay healthy and those around me do the same or get healthy!

Monday was our first gospel choir rehearsal. Over the summer and into the beginning of the school year I have had some worries about United Voices of Praise (UVP). Our choir is currently going through a period of transition: our director, Dr. Thomas, is on sabbatical this year…our performance coordinator, Eunice Hager, no longer holds that position and they have yet to find someone to take over those responsibilities…our student director from last year, Margaret McKay, graduated…our piano players are no longer at Messiah…etc. etc. Needless to say I have had some fears about gospel choir this year. Despite these worries about the year, I believe it is going to be a great one and we will truly be blessed this year.

This Monday’s rehearsal was definitely a huge blessing in itself. Not only did we have a large number of returning members, but a bunch of new members showed up to audition as well. Even though we only sang a few songs together, but I could feel God’s presence with us and felt as if this rehearsal was only the beginning of great things to come. Back in my home church’s youth choir, Voices of Grace, we had a little saying, “It will all work out on Sunday.” This provided all of us with a bit of encouragement even when we felt that we weren’t prepared for singing at Sunday morning’s service. All of us truly believed in this and every Sunday we sang, it would all work out! We did amazing things and we all felt especially blessed after every service. Despite any troubles we may experience as a choir throughout this year, I believe UVP will follow this same principle and it truly will all work out on Sunday!

This has been a very eventful week. Not only has there been the business of classes and the end of the semester occuring, but there were a number of special events which have gone on as well.

Last Saturday was United Voices of Praise’s Concert of Praise. Some of my family as well as my best friend from high school and her friend from school all came for the concert. It was great to visit with them. It was especially nice to go out to eat and then have everyone from home meet everyone from school. Saturday was also such a gorgeous day in general. It became so hot in the church that we decided to just wear our t-shirts for the entirety of the concert instead of robes the first half and t-shirts the second. It was different, but it was definitely nice to not have to die of heat in our robes.

I also went to see Gavin Degraw with three friends this week. The concert was amazing! It is surprising the Gavin Degraw would come to Harrisburg and do a performance at the Whitaker Center, but I am definitely glad that he did. Up until this year I had only ever been to one concert, and in the past seven months I have been to three. It makes me laugh to think that all of the sudden I have taken up concert going basically out of no where. Even though Jason Mraz’s concert was by far my favorite, all three of them have been amazing. The four of us even had fun just hanging out before and after this past concert as well.

Yesterday was one of the busiest days as well as relaxing though in the past week. Yesterday was Service Day at Messiah (the day where there are no classes and all offices are closed in order for students, faculty, and employees to go out and do some sort of service project during the day). I participated in Special Olympics. I did the same thing last year and both years have proven themselves to be amazing experiences. Special Olympics is the biggest service project that Messiah participates in because it is one campus and a number of people are needed either to be a buddy to a participant or to run an event. The past two years, I have worked at the high jump and have moved the bar to up and down as well as reset it after it fell down. Now at first this job might not seem very important or completely as a great act of service and rightly so.  Granted it needs to be done and without it the process would just take even longer than it already does, but there is also so much to it. Just standing there and watching the participants as they jump over the bar is life changing. They are always so incredibly proud of themselves and you can tell how much fun they are having. It is amazing to see how much life and enthusiasm these kids have. Even the littlest thing that you can do in order to help someone and make their day a little brighter, can truly make your life a little brighter as well.

Break should be a time of relaxation and revitalization, but that never seems to be the case. This is especially true once it actually comes time to get back to work. This break was no different. My break began with the United Voices of Praise tour to Ohio which was amazing. We all had a blast worshiping and ministering to others as well as getting to know each other much better. After tour I went home expecting to have a fun relaxing rest of the week. Even though I did get the chance to sleep in and relax a little bit, I also felt as if I was continuously running here and there and I never seemed to actually catch up on any work or sleep which I desperately needed. I had so much fun running around meeting friends and getting a few other things accomplished despite the lack of rest though. My roommate, Danielle, also came to visit me at the end of the week which was a lot of fun. It was nice to finally get to show her the little town I call home and to have her meet a few of my friends.

Now that I’m back at school though it seems as if I have thrown right back into the thick of things. Work is beginning to pile up now that we have less than 6 weeks of school left. It is also that time of year to figure out rooming and classes for Fall semester which can be quite a hectic time on campus. It is not in this busyness that I am truly feeling my lack of rest of break. Tuesday night even I was so exhausted that I went to bed at 9:30! That is completely crazy! I don’t even know the last time I went to bed before 10:00. I think now that it is the end of the first week back though, I am back in the swing of things and back to the busyness of school.

Spring break is fast approaching and I cannot wait. Spending this past weekend writing a paper, I’m definitely ready for a break. Even though I have a little bit of work to do over break, it will be a nice time to do some relaxing and hanging out with friends. A number of my friends have already been home or are home now on break so I will not be able to see a number of my friends, but I am excited to be able to see those who will be home. Break also starts off with UVP’s tour to a couple churches and a Christian school in Ohio, which I am also really looking forward to. Danielle and Sarah are also coming home with my the second half of break to get a little taste of Indiana. I am even more excited for their stay in my little town. Overall I’m just ready for break. This semester has been a pretty draining one with the number of general education classes I’m taking compared to my major classes. Even though the gen eds are not exactly hard, they become harder considering the interest level is much lower. This week I simply continue to push forward to looking at what is coming up next week.

Last night United Voices of Praise went and performed at an African-American History month service at a church in Carlisle. I love going to American-American/ Baptist churches with gospel choir. The amount of spiritual excitement and energy present in the church is just so much more there than you would find at any other church. Their rich traditions are show throughout the entire service and I just love it. Last night was no exception. During the prayers, songs, dances, readings, etc. there were always a number of Hallelujahs and Praise the Lords being sung from the congregation. There was one family in particular that really caught my attention. While the congregation was filled with a number of older men and women, there was one family with five children ranging in age from around 2 to 15. All five of the children seemed to be completely filled with the spirit and loving the worship energy of the evening. One moment particularly touched me though. As in any service, there was an offering taken at last night’s service as well. Following the tradition of the church each member of the congregation came up one at a time and gave their offering. Standing up front singing the offertory, I saw the youngest girl of the family (around 2 years old) holding her sister’s hand coming up to give her offering. As she walked up to the front she stared wide eyed at the choir and the band taking it all in. I noticed however that in her hand she held a dollar bill. It was one of the cutest/touching things I had ever seen. This little girl of no more than two years old was coming up with her family and giving an offering to God which many Christians don’t typically think of until they get their first paycheck or even long after that. It was truly amazing to see that adorable little girl walk up to the front of the sanctuary with her offering and place her dollar in the basket.

This is the time of the year when everyone is super busy. Students are trying to finish the semester and have a bunch of tests to study for on top of a bunch of papers to write. Even those who don’t find themselves at the end of the semester are still running around doing holiday activities. This is the time when we all visit our family and friends, go shopping a million times, since one trip is just not enough to finish off our Christmas gift lists, and bake all of those holiday goodies.

This past week I have found myself super busy. While the rest of the semester I have a fair amount of spare time the past week has not been that way and I see the next week being the same. This weekend I had two large papers to write (which are still not entirely finished) along with other small assignments and studying. I was only able to take a break Friday night for a holiday/gingerbread house decorating party and then Saturday for a few hours to watch the USC game (during which I was too stressed to do any work and now I’m super excited/super nervous for the Rose bowl, but thats an entirely different story).  Looking ahead to the eight days I have two papers, one reflection paper, three presentations, one test, and three finals. On top of that our Gospel choir concert is this weekend (Saturday at 7:30 in Miller auditorium, you should come!) and some Christmas shopping to get done. I cannot wait for this semester to be over. I am definitely ready to go home, visit with my family and high school friends, and relax for a couple weeks. Even though I know I will be busy running around, I know I will still be able to slow down at least a little bit once break comes. And I just can’t wait!

This morning United Voices of Praise, Messiah’s gospel choir, sang at chapel. Being that United Voices of Praise is my favorite thing about Messiah, I love doing pretty much anything involving the choir. Singing with the rest of the group provides such a great sense of unity and pure worship. The entire group is based upon worshiping God and not necessarily the quality of the performance.

This morning’s time in chapel was especially nice considering some of the circumstances which have been occurring within our group in the past few weeks. To say the least, the United Voices of Praise were beginning to slowly loose that sense of unity. After having a discussion and making the issue known last night, it was nice that everything went so smoothly this morning. The dynamic of the group had definitely changed and it was definitely for the betterment of the entire group.

This morning our group was especially getting into that sense of worship. You could also tell that the rest of the students, professors, and staff in chapel were getting involved in that same level of worship as well. It is amazing what a blessing it can be to just come together as one group and worship together. Whether this group is found in a choir (where I tend to find mine) or in just a random group of people, God can truly bless you. The greatest blessings tend to come from the oddest places and in the seemingly smallest things.