lessons and carols...

Can I just say I'm so proud of my little church??

Sure, we're just a church plant, only in our 3rd year of existence.

Sure, we're meeting in an elementary school cafeteria and don't have our own building yet.

But God has been so good to provide us with a sweet congregation of folks with lots of musical talent.

And today, at our 2nd annual "Lessons and Carols" service, we got to hear much of that talent!

So, for those of you who, like me (Amy), didn't grow up with Lessons & Carols, it's a traditional service where various readers read a passage of Scripture, which is then followed by a Christmas carol that corresponds to that reading. The idea is that it walks you through the ONE story of the entire Bible-- from the Old Testament to the New-- a Savior whose birth fulfilled the prophecy and "reversed the curse" from Genesis 3, and who ultimately "shall come to Thee, O Israel" yet again. It's a lot of participation from the congregation, so if you ever attend a service like this, get ready to SING! It's wonderful.

As the worship director for our church, Mercy Presbyterian, Lessons and Carols is the biggest thing I do all year. It takes countless hours to pull this much music and this many people together. (I'm totally exhausted after a week of long rehearsals and today's service!)

Thankfully this year, I have a worship intern! You have probably seen Lindsay on our blog before-- she is one of our original RUF students from when we first arrived in Lynchburg, and now as a senior music major, she is getting school credits to do an internship with me! (yay!) (what's funny is that our current RUF intern is also named Lindsey, so Marc & I joke about each of us having Lindsay interns! "Wait-- your Lindsey or my Lindsay?") :)

Anyways, I don't know what I would have done if it hadn't been for Lindsay's help in putting everything together!! She's been SO helpful and valuable to our worship program this semester, and I'm thrilled we get to do it all again for one more semester before she graduates! (thank you, Lindsay!! You are amazing!, as is our entire worship team!)

Thought you might like to see some photos from the rest of the morning. It was beautiful to see our entire body worship together.

The children's choir, and yes... you'll probably be seeing a video of a certain-little-someone singing very soon...

Praise God for how He has blessed Mercy! To Him be the glory.