GTWPMS

This stands for the Greater Tyler Women's Prayer Ministry Seminar. It's a big deal. Glenwood is hosting it this coming Thursday, January 25. The ministry itself is made up of women from all different denominations. They meet once a month to pray together. I know very little about it! From what I've read, this is the first time they've put a big seminar together. Why they chose to host it at Glenwood, I have no idea.

Julie Brown, the conference committee chairman, had planned on bringing her congregation's band for the praise and worship session that evening before the keynote speaker (Dee Brestin, author of “The Friendship of Women;” also co-authored the “Falling in Love with Jesus” trilogy studies with Kathy Troccoli). Apparently this had just never come up when coordinating with Virginia, the Glenwood representative of the committee

... until last week.

Julie was just going to double check with Virginia to make sure Glenwood had the accommodations for the band. Virginia said she would need to check on that ... and the elders put their foot down and said, "Absolutely not." Don't get me started on how ridiculous I think that is.

Anyway, Virginia asked if Julie's band could do something a capella. Julie relayed the question to the band, and I think the worship leader just laughed in her face. Julie then told Virginia basically, "If it's your rules, YOU come up with an a capella praise and worship session!"

This is where John enters the picture. Virginia came to John to see what he could come up with. John said, "Kim will do it!" Great. 45 minutes of all-ladies a capella and less than 2 weeks to practice. I agreed, like I had a choice, and we had our first rehearsal last night.

We will have 8 ladies up in front on mics. I wish, I wish we had more time to arrange all the songs for women's voices, but since we're limited (big understatement) on time, we're just going to sing the SAT & B parts, with T & B and octave high, of course.

Rehearsal went well, I thought. The kicker is that we have 25 songs to practice! The sopranos and altos know their parts just fine, but the poor ladies who are singing tenor and bass for the first time! They did a good job, but one of their biggest challenges is to be able to feel comfortable enough to get their heads out of the music, since they are all new parts to them. If we can all do that, then I think we will be able to get the focus off of ourselves and onto God.

Kind of funny how the roles are reversed. If it was a room full of C of C'ers, a band might be distracting to us. But for a room full of mostly non-C of C'ers, I'm afraid our a capella will be distracting!

I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. We have a good opportunity with a big responsibility!

Please pray for the seminar to go well and also the praise & worship session. Pray that the ladies' hearts will be open to hearing the words of the songs and to look past the style. Pray that all involved will be blessed by what they hear.