Guatemala Eyeglass Mission Trip Fundraising

In August I will be traveling with a team of eleven people from Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church to Guatemala for a mission trip to provide eyeglasses and the Gospel to villagers in remote mountain and valleys. We will be trained by MOST Ministries in how to measure eyesight and how to fit the glasses to each person. Many of the people we will meet have never had glasses. They will be seeing the world in a completely new light. We also hope to bring the light of Christ to them, many of whom have not heard of  Jesus, or have reverted to the Mayan religious customs and beliefs of their ancestors.

Each team member is helping to raise funds for the travel expenses by participating in group and individual fund raising. I have learned from Pastor Ada and Schultz that fund raising is not just a pragmatic way to pay for church activities, but a way to involve the whole congregation and those outside the congregation with the mission, to give them ownership and to share with them the blessings of serving our neighbors and God. 

We learned of a web site fundrazr.com that helps individuals and groups raise money for projects. Through their site I have created a web page to allow donors to contribute to help with my expenses for the trip. My site is at http://fnd.us/c/bVoA8. There you may use a credit card or PayPal to contribute to my Paypal account and keep up to date on my training and preparation for the trip. Or you may simply click on the widget on the right that says "Give." It will connect you to Fundrazr. com and PayPal.

I am so excited about going on my first foreign mission trip. I pray that God bless the people involved in planning, supporting and executing the trip. Tomorrow I get my shots at the Walgreen clinic. I'll try not to wince. 

Video of Final Class on Music in the Church, 1900-Present

Sing to the Lord, Music in the Church, 1900-today from William Wingfield on Vimeo.

Matt Redman on Contemporary Christian Music Lyrics

A video by one of contemporary Christian music's popular writers on the tendency of many of the lyrics to sound like love songs.

Video of Class on Music in the Church, Part V, the 19th Century

Sing to the Lord, Music in the Church, the 19th Century from William Wingfield on Vimeo.

Psalm 42 by William Billings

William Billings was an American singing school master. He taught people in towns and villages how to read music, staying with them for several weeks. There were no instructional books with examples of music to teach, so Billings collected his own teaching materials, which included his original compositions. This setting of Psalm 42 is an example of a fuguing tune, a choral composition that starts with a homophonic texture and goes on to a section of imitational polyphony, in the manner of a fugue, where one voice enters, followed by another until all the voices are singing together.
Billings was not concerned with following formal rules of voice leading and treatment of dissonance. He let his ear and taste be his guide. His music has a Renaissance feel to it, which music reformers like Lowell Mason objected to.

In Paradisum from Gabriel Faure's Requiem

Many composers, (Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, Duruflé, Stravinsky, Britten)  have composed music for the Requiem mass, the mass for the dead. One of the most sublime was that composed by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) around 1887-1980.

The text of the final section, "In Paradisum"(starts around 32 minutes into the video below) describes the wishes of the grieving that the departed loved one be received by the martyrs and led into the holy city, Jerusalem.
The cadence (the term for the ending formula of a musical phrase) at around 33:15-33:27 minutes in is one of the most exquisite in all music, joined to the words, "sanctam Ierusalem"--Holy Jerusalem. The child of God has arrived at the City of God on the last day. There are not words to describe the feeling of pure bliss of homecoming that these brief measures of music and words create: a gift of God.

" And I saw  the holy city,  new Jerusalem,  coming down out of heaven from God,  prepared  as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold,  the dwelling place  of God is with man. He will  dwell with them, and they will be his people,  and God himself will be with them as their God.   He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and  death shall be no more,  neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Rev. 21:2-4 (ESV).

The Latin and English texts:

In paradisum deducant te Angeli;
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem.

Chorus angelorum te suscipiat,
et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.

May the choir of angels lead you into paradise;
upon your arrival may the martyrs receive you
and lead you to the holy city, Jerusalem.

May the chorus of angels receive you,
and with Lazarus, who was once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.

Video of Class on Music in the Church in the 18th Century

Music in the Church, the 18th Century from William Wingfield on Vimeo.

This class focused on J.S. Bach's contribution to music for the church, especially his chorale settings, chorale preludes, and cantatas. This video does not have all the slides superimposed as in the previous class videos.