Hope this Christmas (Advent at Home)

 As some of you may or may not know, every year since I have been at my school (all 14 years!), I have composed an original song for the children to sing at the church for our Christmas performance.  It's one of my favourite things I do in the year and to hear our children singing my own song always makes me very proud. As we teach the children, it is important that you learn to write for a specific audience, be that writing instructions for a recipe, a letter to your local MP, a fairy tale story for Reception children, a fanfare for a king and in this case, a Christmas song for a choir or school and I do this as an exercise to show that the learning never stops, nor does the creative process, no matter how old you are and that being a teacher is not all we are- we have skills, interests and hobbies that we do beyond the classroom.  As well as, of course, showing the children I care about them by writing something FOR THEM specifically.  

  Over the years, pretty much every aspect of the Christmas story and our performance has had a song written for it- Donkeys, Mary receiving the message, the baby sleeping, Caesar Augustus and his census, the Kings, the (swinging) shepherds, the innkeepers, the angels, the introduction part, a party song at the end, the message of Love being the best gift etc.

This year, I wanted to write a song of Hope, not aimed at telling an aspect of the Christmas story but to remind people in the year of 2020: you and all of our children and parents to have hope, stay positive, be kind, trust and never give up, no matter how hard things have been or are getting.  It was going to be a surprise that in the last week, I was going to record each class singing a section of it and then I was going to stitch it together and send it to the parents on the last day.

 

BUT, because we were having to stick to bubbles, this wasn't going to be possible so I adapted and was going to just  record it with choir this week (we learnt it last week on Tuesday but I wanted all the quarantining children to be part of the recording) .  Of course, my enforced isolation has put paid to that  and I've been unable to do that. Best laid plans and all that.

However, I still wanted to send the message of hope to all of you so I recorded myself singing and playing it.  No comments, positive or negative on the singing please, it's a little cringy (& a bit strangled cat!)  as it is intended to be sung by a large group of children for maximum impact, not by a slightly embarrassed teacher, trying to play the piano part correctly simultaneously, hoping her neighbours don't hear her!

The message is what is important- there will always be light if you keep it alive in your heart with hope.

Hope this Christmas

It’s been a hard year and we’ve found things changing too much.

It’s hard to see when the hardships and restrictions can all cease.

Times are strange and there’s sadness so

We must stay strong, keep our faith and let’s have

Hope this Christmas,         Hope this Christmas,

Hope this Christmas,         Hope this Christmas,

Stay safe this Christmas      Stay safe this Christmas

Stay safe this Christmas      Stay safe this Christmas

Don’t give up now, Trust  and pray and keep on striving, keep the season’s Joy!

It’s been oh so hard, when we we’re lost and oh so lonely,

But we can find joy, if we try to seek it, try to let it shine,

Yes there’s fear but there’s courage, strength so

We must be kind, show our love and always:

Hope this Christmas,         Hope this Christmas,

Hope this Christmas,         Hope this Christmas,

Stay safe this Christmas      Stay safe this Christmas

Stay safe this Christmas      Stay safe this Christmas

Don’t give up now, Trust  and pray and keep on striving, keep the season’s Joy!

Keep the hope, keep the joy, don’t give up, share your love, you’ve got to keep that

Hope this Christmas,         Hope this Christmas,

Hope this Christmas,         Hope this Christmas,

Stay safe this Christmas      Stay safe this Christmas

Stay safe this Christmas      Stay safe this Christmas

Don’t give up now, Trust  and pray and keep on striving, keep the season’s Joy!

 

 This is part of my 'Advent at Home' post with Ang. 

Advent at home- Hope

 Hope is something you can always have more of. You don't have to restrict it. You can hope (and pray) for all sorts of things, big and small to happen or not happen- nothing is impossible with God.  Advent is a time of hope, the Jewish people had been hoping for years that the Messiah would come- their hope was based on God's promises and prophecies, even though many had been waiting their whole life times. You can hope for something your whole life long or for a day but you choose to keep on hoping and trusting that the thing may happen, no matter how long it takes.

I've always viewed advent as a time of hope- there is so much promise of what is to come! 

Even when times are hard, keep hoping.  Even if the thing you feared would happen, happens, then hope that there will be good in that situation. Sometimes, it is the only thing that keeps people going.  Even if the hopes are unrealistic.

Keep hoping.

Every Christmas I write a song for the children at school. I usually share the song on here but there seems to be a problem with uploading videos to Blogger at the moment so I don't know if it will save or not though I will try.   However, my song this year is called 'Hope This Christmas.'

I think we all need to keep hoping (and praying if you do) this Christmas.

xx

Adjust, Invest, Engage

I am so grateful for technology in some ways though it can give us too much of an information overload.  I am amazed, not in a good way, by how so many places are completely sold out of so many items- bread, eggs, lentils, flour, rice, pasta, noodles, tinned soup. Even online!  It's a shame CBC and I are almost out of flour and what we have is very out of date as we have a breadmaker and make our own bread. Ah well!
But today, I was blessed. The church I've been attending didn't seem to have loaded any sort of service link and my previous church were hosting their service via Facebook which I don't have.  Fatdormouse, Alison, sent me the link to her church service in France but I woke late and couldn't get Zoom to download onto my computer.  I was pondering what to do and then my friend Becky on Instagram posted her church link to her service and it was Youtube live which I COULD stream.
I was so relieved to be able to find a church service and so happy to see the pastor, that I confess to shedding a tear.  But the service was brilliant! I am so grateful to the Sutton Vineyard team who posted such a wonderful service.  The sermon was really, really, real, practical and helpful. I can't put it so succinctly as Jason, the pastor put it, so I have shared the youtube video here.
Sutton Vineyard has a dedicated Corona page.

Right now we need to do three things:

• Adjust
• Invest
• Engage

Adjustment:  right now we have a new norm.  Things are changing and we need to anchor ourselves together in the storm that is happening.  Be responsible, do the right thing. Be sensible. Connect in places like churches. Accept that we are in the storm and it is ok to be scared but Jesus can take us from fear to faith.  God has not abandoned us.  Isaiah 30 v18-30

Investment:  We need to decide what we are going to do with our time.  Are we going to invest our time in futile things that cause us to fear or spend time doing good things?  The now is the time to invest in our time with God.  Do things differently, let go of things that are keeping us from God and pray, give things away, give financially if we can, spend time hearing God.

Engagement:  As a church, 'go out' (metaphorically of course) and be agents of his kingdom- take the opportunities to live differently.  Engage with those who need help.  Think of how wonderful it will be when we can meet again.  The early church could not get together because of oppression but they grew!

The lovely thing was, when I posted to Becky that I was so grateful and I have felt truly uplifted by the service, she invited me to join in with her small group prayer.  I managed to make Zoom work and it was so exciting to see all these new faces (plus Becky) on the screen and share in prayer and positivity together.  It was a wonderful time. We'd all lit candles in our windows to acknowledge world day of prayer.

I am thankful for community aided by technology! 
 This is my Pause for Lent with Ang et al.

xx.

P.S.  Please can you let me know if there is anything specific you would like prayer for.

A Pause for Advent 2019 #3

I've mentioned on numerous occasions that I created a tradition at my school of writing a song for Christmas for my KS2 Christmas performance. Over the last decade, I have created songs for the various parts of the nativity.  It's one of my absolute favourite Christmas traditions and I'm always really excited to do it.   It is an act of worship, writing a song for parts of this story which is so important to my faith, an act of giving and love to my children; to write a song especially for them and an act of creativity; to continue to use my skills as a composer and an act of fun- I love composing!  I would not say that these are great songs-they are very much aimed at my audience- the children and their parents but I hope that they are a different way of approaching each aspect of the Christmas story and you find something you enjoy in it or it speaks to you in some way. It's also become A Pause for Advent tradition that I share my song for one of the posts.  I'm not sharing it for praise (or indeed censure- though you are welcome to your opinions) but that the act of writing is a pause to think about a particular aspect of birth of Jesus and to use the gifts, skills or interests, whichever way you wish to look at it, to offer back.

This time last year, I heard a song called Mary did you know? which was used for the dancers for our Advent carol service at my old church.  This year we actually sang it for the carol service.  I remember thinking, "I like this song- I haven't written a song about Mary for my nativity, I will do that next year."  I even started writing some basic sketches for it in the Summer holidays this year, working out the first bit, the end and the basic accompaniment for the first bit. I recorded some of these improvisations and used these to begin typing up the notation for it into Sibelius, the music software I use.  But then I got stuck on the middle bit and abandoned it.

It came to October and I knew I had to get the song finished as I needed to be teaching it the first week back to my choir (this year, my song was a choir solo rather than the whole key stage.).
It was strange because I'd been stuck on the middle section but when I looked at the direct words from Luke's gospel, all of a sudden, I became unstuck and able to work it out.  Divine inspiration for sure!

My children learnt it really quickly and they really do sing out when singing it.
The last bit is sung as a solo by one child but alas, this recording was from when I hadn't chosen the soloist so it is all of them.
You can hear me singing it first and then you will hear my children singing it in the 2nd week of their learning it. They sing it much better now, 7 weeks on but I haven't had a chance to record them again.

Mary, you are chosen,

Mary, highly favoured,

Mary, you're the one.

Mary, be not afraid,

Mary, God with you,

Mary, chosen one.

You will be with child and give birth

To a son and name him Jesus

The son of the most high.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David.

And he will reign, his kingdom ever more.

Mary, the holy spirit will come upon you.

Nothing is impossible with God upon your side.

Oooh,

Oooh,

I am the Lord's servant, let it be to me as you have said.

(Words by chosen and adapted by me based on Luke's gospel. 

Melody and accompaniment by me.

Voices: Me and my children after.)

The words of this song are saying to me right now- Trust.  Trust that there is something better, that the bleakness of the past few days aren't the end, they can't be. That God is with us even at the hardest times and he calls our name and it's our choice whether we choose to hear or not. I trust, hope and pray for something better than this earthly existence.

This is my 3rd pause for Advent with Ang and co.

If you want to hear some of my songs from a few previous years (and don't feel obliged!), you can click these links to the posts:
The innkeepers rant
Feel the Christmas beat
Join in our story
Ring out the bells

Shepherds Swing

Love is all you need at Christmas time

Light one small candle

I have to share a beautiful post from the wonderful Brenda and her blog- It's a wonderful life!
https://beautiful.wordfromhome.com/2019/12/day-13-light-up-your-world.html?showComment=1576277463540#c5129080143786315889


She shared this quote:

"It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness." Eleanor Roosevelt

I am so grateful for her sharing that quote. Oh how apt that is after the disaster of the election last night.  I have wanted to curse all indeed- indeed, I  did mad lady routine on the train by frowning at pictures of Boris Johnson on the front of the Metro and drew on his face! But I don't want to curse the darkness.  Instead, I want to try and see the light- to see the light of Advent and the small, beautiful things that aren't British politics.  Thank you for your prayers and thoughts- luckily, my mortgage completion came through the next morning and I am quite sure that was due to all of that positive prayer!


Wishing you a lovely weekend.xx