May ends and June begins

...and that makes it time for days and days of rehearsals preparing for ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. We had 4 ½ hours last night and we’ll have about 9 hours on Sunday night. Next week we’ll have Wednesday; tentative Thursday and Friday rehearsals; 8 or 9 hours on Saturday; and then Sunday is load-in day, moving into the Nathaniel Center. The next week we rehearse every night until we open on Friday. 4 shows at Nathaniel and we load out on Sunday. On Monday we load in at the Hobby Center and do 3 nights of rehearsal followed by 4 performances there.

Oh, and did I mention – during that week between Nathaniel and Hobby, I am also directing all the dramatic Bible teaching at VBS? It’s very improvisational and fun, but it’s going to make for a busy week.

Saturday night at the Hobby, June 21, I have 80 friends coming to enjoy the show, as well as my sister, her husband, and Alicia’s sister.

Monday, after the wrap the show, the family is taking a well-earned short vacation to San Antonio. I’ll be off most of the rest of the week.

May 19

This from our Director of Student Ministries:

Tyson Hendrickson is one of the greatest kids I’ve ever worked with. Over the past decade we have stayed in touch as he has been living and working in the San Francisco area. Recently he left his .com position to start his own firm. He wanted his first effort to be more than a website based business, he also wanted to use it for something of which God would approve. He has started a new website. Basically the aim is this

1) Help people use discount coupon codes (those things you always see at the bottom when you order something online. 20% off, free shipping, etc.) when ordering things online.

2) At the same time you provide funding to 3^rd world entrepreneurs. Giving small loans to people to start their own businesses in order to escape the cycle of poverty. This is not charity but low or no interest loans that hopefully get paid back so that they money can be used again and again.

Please check it out. The site only came online today. So any suggestions to how to make it better are welcomed.

http://coupongood.org

Annie Get your Gun is 25 days away from opening. If you’re in the Houston area you don’t want to miss out. Alicia and I have a group of over 30 people coming to the Hobby Center on Saturday, June 21. We spent 7 hours rehearsing yesterday afternoon and evening. I think this is going to be a great show.

JDRF HOUSTON held the annual Gala Fundraiser on Saturday night, in which all four of us volunteered. It was a great evening with over 900 in attendance and 1.2 million raised.

My Commute

Tickets now Available

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN

at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts,

the Crown Jewel of Houston's Theatre District

June 20-22

Hope to see you there!

A Song for Pentecost Sunday

This is set for a tune called "Beach Spring", from the Sacred Harp (1844), the source of many well-loved hymns that feel like "early American" hymns. "Sacred Harp Singing" also goes by the name "Shape Note Singing" because of the unusual notation used:(That's not the melody for this song that's pictured above, just an example of shape notation).

The melody I wrote te text for is set to the text "As we Gather at Your Table" in the Covenant Hymnal: A Worship Book, and has also been used for the text "Come ye Sinners poor and needy". (If it doesn't ring a bell, you can hear a pretty cheesy and slightly fast MIDI arrangement of it here.) I arranged it with block chords in the key of F.

Anyway the idea here was to write a text for Pentecost Sunday that placed the ministry of the Holy Spirit in a biblical context.

Holy Spirit, sent to fill us by the Father and the Son,

You were promised by our Savior, He who died to make us one.

Come and make your home within us; come and claim us as your own,

Come reveal to all your people Jesus reigning on His throne.

Come and teach us how to follow and upon you to rely.

Show to us the face of Jesus, Christ our Savior, born to die.

He came down to dwell among us, with His mighty power to save,

Gave His life for our salvation, and is risen from the grave.

In the faith may we be guided, to the truth may we be led.

Spirit cause us to remember all the words that Jesus said.

May the Love of God our father come to us and never part;

May the beauty of the Savior enter into every heart.

© 2008 Rick Lindholtz