Week in Review

This has been a busy week. There are a number things I thought I'd share.

Sara and the kids traveled to Leesville, Louisiana, for the affirmation of baptism for Joel & Natalie's baby girl, Emma. They were planning to drive on Tuesday, when Gustav hit that area. They waited a day to come home, but didn't get much damage there. The nearest WELS church experienced flooding, though.

I visited a shut-in this week who is not really responsive. I had not met her before, but she's unable to carry on a real conversation. But there was no hesitation on her part when I asked if I could read a psalm to her. And the moment I started singing a hymn to her, she clearly sang along with much of the first stanza. I have been teaching hymnology in our school here, and these kind of events just solidify my conviction that we need to keep teaching these hymns. This week I taught "Salvation Unto Us Has Come" (CW 390)—next week's Hymn of the Day.

The first week of the month we have our board meetings (before the council meeting next week). So this week I met with the Boards of Discipleship, Elders, and Education. I have been very encouraged my the commitment and support these people give. Not everything that we have to talk about is always fun, but it has been encouraging to work with these partners in the gospel.

I heard earlier in the week that people had seen mice droppings in the church kitchen. So I picked up a couple mouse traps and set them out yesterday. I actually caught two of them today. While I was preparing for Sunday in the sanctuary today, I saw a mouse run across the floor under the pews. I tried chasing him for a while—it was pretty funny. But as I was doing that, I starting thinking about various "church mouse" books or cartoons, and I imagined that perhaps there was a group of church mice who come out when the church is empty to learn about the church year or something. I didn't catch him, but I set another trap in the working sacristy.

Tomorrow I'll be covering the Creed in our Bible class on the songs of the liturgy. Tomorrow's is interesting because it is the one part of the ordinary that is most often not sung. I've always found that interesting, and I wonder why it is. I wonder why people don't write settings of the Creed like the wide variety of settings of the Kyrie or the Gloria, for example.

Tomorrow we're going to start a new quarter of Sunday School and begin using the Growing in Christ curriculum. I've got 4 teachers lined up and 16 kids registered in K-8, though I'm expecting a few more. I'm looking forward to working with the teachers, and just in general giving Sunday School the attention that it deserves.

Now I'm ready for this week to come to a close and begin a new week with the Lord in his Word and Sacrament.