Redecorating!

SO, as you've probably noticed, my blog page looks different! I felt like I needed to spice it up a bit, and that it was time for a change. I will be adding more things also, so stay tuned.

I just got back from adult's choir practice at the church. A few weeks ago, the pastor asked me if I could help him. I said I would definitely join. I love music for SO MANY reasons, one being that I can participate and join in with the language barrier, no problem! And pastor said that was good, but he would like me to help each section practice their parts, and that he wanted me to play piano for them! It's been awhile since I've played and took lessons, but I agreed. It's been a pretty entertaining experience. It's pretty fun when things from the past come into play and become useful out of nowhere (like all my years of piano lessons). I think the adults enjoy that I play, even if it is just one hand to help them hear their different parts. I even say "tri, styri..." (which is 3,4....) to cue them in. Funny! :-) Hopefully I can continue to be useful for the choir. They're preparing two songs for Easter Sunday, both of which I already know (that's really helpful!) in English, so now I just need to learn the Slovak words. The titles of the two songs are: "Ja Viem, Zi Zije" and "Velka' Noc". Easter in Slovak, by the way, is "Velka Noc", which literally means Big Night.

P.S. Today I received a little package in the mail from the ELCA, and it was the Global Mission Annual for 2008! Exciting! There is information inside about all of ELCA's missionary and volunteer programs (Young Adults in Global Mission being just one of them), pictures of staff and all of the volunteers! It was pretty fun to look at. I will have it with me at future presentations/visits when I get back. :) I'd totally forgotten that they'd taken our pictures during orientation, and didn't even know why they did at the time. It's nice to see all of my fellow volunteers' faces again! My fellow YAGM's are in India, the Phillippines, Kenya, Germany, Slovakia, the United Kingdom (in Scotland and England), Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico.

So, I have a pray request! Please pray for:

*Beth, Rob and Laura in India
*Gretchen and Ralecia in Phillippines
*Sarah L.and Sarah W. in Kenya
*Vanessa and Toby in Germany
*Jessica, Kristen R., Mark, Mary, and myself in Slovakia
*Katherine A., Christina, Amy, Eric, Amanda, Crystal, Matt, Anthony, Kristin V., Amehed, Lindsey, Kelly, Maren, Candace, and Anna in the United Kingdom
*Kevin, Kristina D., Kristin D., Karin, Kim, and James in Argentina and Uruguay
*Katherine G., Jennifer, Jacob, Sarah R., and Winston in Mexico

Or, you could probably just pray for "all of the YAGM volunteers" :-) Thank you so much for all of your support!

*If you're interested you can check out the website: http://yagm.blogspot.com. There you will find blogs and newsletters of the other volunteers from each country, if you're interested in taking a look.