A song in our heart

This month has been full of singing, as I mentioned last week. We have been in Haarlem, Eindhoven and Cologne for a time of teaching singing and singing in fellowship. And we enjoyed a Family Day at camp singing together with brothers and sisters from the Netherlands and Belgium. God has made us to sing. He has given us the song in our hearts, filling us with His joy. 

I have always been a singer. My family used to sing Christmas carols in the home. My dad got us into singing Barbershop when we were young, and I sang in the choir when I was in the Catholic Church and during my school years. So singing is natural for me. But not everyone can “feel” the harmonies or has experience with music. As a matter of fact, many in the church here in Europe have never had to sing with music notation. 

So that is one of the things that I try to pass on to congregations when we learn. What is a fermata? What does “mp” mean? How in the world can I make sense of all those chicken scratches on the page of that thick book? And where is my lyric? We spend time learning a bit, but not stressing too much. The most important thing, after all, is that we understand the words we are singing and truly mean them. 

We spend time singing songs we know and love, but which are a challenge. “Greatest Commands” is a favorite of many people, but is a challenge if you are not use to keeping your own part (soprano, alto, tenor or bass) and keeping time as well. Simply ;earning to count can help a lot. And then learning about dynamics in a song can help the words really dig deeper into our hearts and minds. We talk about enunciation, breathing and ending sentences with full words - “God” instead of “Gaww”. 

It is exciting to see brothers and sisters asking questions, struggling with new concepts and wanting to sing with their hearts to the Lord. We are thankful that God has put us in a situation where we can assists others to sing with their hearts and learn new songs at the same time. We also continue recording songs - mostly in Dutch - so that congregations can hear what a song sounds like and learn songs together. You can find our recordings (many also organized by our colleague Luk Brazle in Ghent) right here. 

Take time to put a song in your heart this week. Take time to sing together, paying attention to the words that you sing. Thank God and praise Him for the song He puts in our hearts every day. 

(Photo of the group this past Saturday in Haarlem)

Sing and be happy

This month is a month of singing. We are thankful that we can help congregations in their singing. We enjoy the time together as much as they and we all learn something from one another. This has always been a part of our ministry and as long as I can sing it will remain so. God has put a song in our hearts and singing is what we all will be doing together when we finally get Home. 

This month we have several opportunities to help in singing. The congregation in Haarlem (about 2,5 hours north of us) asked me to come and help them learn new songs and learn how to sing better. We went up at the end of August and will return near the end of September. This is a mix of learning music notation - what is a fermata, what is the difference between ff and mp, why do we breathe at a comma - and remembering that singing for God is about singing with your heart and your head. 

I always want to remind people that God made us to sing. Singing is divine, built for who and what we are. It is the only thing that touches mind and soul at the same time. You can literally feel the sound in your body, but you need to pay attention to the words you are singing. So taking time to look at the words in a song, making sure we understand it, is just as important as learning the rhythm or tempo or harmony. 

The group in Haarlem was excited to learn new songs and to learn more about singing. It was also a great time of fellowship, especially for us. We do not get to see the members of this congregation very often, although many of my Dutch roots come from here. I worked as an evangelism apprentice here when I first came to the Netherlands and learned my Dutch in this city. 

This past weekend we were in Cologne, Germany for a day of singing. Every February Uli and I see each other at the Advanced Bible Study Series (ABSS) in Germany. He is from the congregation in Cologne and I am from Maastricht. We started getting together for a singing back in 2014 when we talked about including Aachen again in some way. Aachen is in the middle between the two cities. We organized a singing and have kept this up (with some exceptions during corona years) every year. We have been in Cologne twice, in Aachen twice and in Maastricht three or four times. 

This singing day n Cologne brings us together with another congregation. We had 6 members from Maastricht attend (it would have been 8, but two were incapacitated, including Shirley). The group also included a refugee couple and a visiting couple from the neighborhood. We sing and speak more in German, but this time we also sang some in French. When we started members from Liege, Maastricht, Aachen and Cologne all attended, making it quite international. This time in Cologne we remembered that in heaven we will all be able to sing together in whatever language it will be. 

This coming weekend several of the members from Maastricht will join others from around the Netherlands and Belgium at the Family Day at camp. So we will get to sing and once again enjoy the wonderful fellowship of being together. This time we will simply take part in the singing, rather than lead any of it. But a week later we will be in Eindhoven for our monthly 3rd Wednesday singing there where we also help with learning new songs. Often people simply need to learn a song and see that they can sing it. 

We enjoy singing songs that members in the Netherlands and Belgium have written, songs written by Russian brothers and translated either into English or Dutch (or German), or new songs crossing over to Europe from other areas of the world. It is exciting to see how the song that God has put in our hearts continues to pour over into words of praise to Him. 

(You can find more photos of our time in Haarlem and Cologne here.)

With heart and soul

Looking back on 2018 I see that we have a lot of activities that have to do with song. Every first Friday of the month we sing with the French-speaking brethren from Liége. Each 3rd Wednesday Shirley and I are with the congregation in Eindhoven for their singing. In March and October Scott organizes a Song Workshop to help members learn how to sing or learn new songs. This year in October that meant that several new songs were even written by members. In September the church in Maastricht gets together with the church from Cologne, Germany for fellowship and song. 

In addition to these moments, there is a camp meeting in January which is also a Family Day with congregational singing. And at the end of the summer Bible camp weeks we have a Family Day where we sing some more. And in the congregation in Maastricht, we love singing. Most Sunday’s the worship service will end with one of the members humming the last song and others joining in and re-singing the song, or someone beginning a new song while others join in around the coffee. 

Singing is essential to our spiritual well-being. We are made to sing, created by the wondrous Creator with the capacity to put emotion to word and thought and so encourage and teach one another. And although there is a rich Dutch-speaking history of hymnody, much of it is quite classical. Newer songs tend to be in English – and then perhaps translated into Dutch. That is why we are so excited about the opportunities to add to the church hymnody with our own members developing the talents, sharing the inspiration that God has given them. 

In the coming months Scott will be getting a group together from around the Netherlands and Flanders and recording as many of the songs that have been written by our own members as possible. These will be presented online as recordings and in music notation so that other congregations can learn them. Many of these songs are designed around texts straight from Scripture, so that members will be able to carry God’s word in their hearts and minds daily. We will pass on the site address once it is online (although most of the songs will be in Dutch). Until then, if you are interested in some of the previous projects we have had, you can hear the songs by linking through the Maastricht church website here. 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns andspiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.Colossians 3:16 (RSV1885)