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Christmas Eve
Dec. 25th, 2018 09:07 amSo, the early service went fine; a bit stressful because of the need to warm up too much special music, and very crowded. Afterwards I raced home for a snack and a respite from the smoke of 150 candles blown out all at once. I returned quickly, though, as bulletins for the later service weren't done; I volunteered proofreading, which proved very necessary.
With that done, I went to practice piano ... alone in the sanctuary until I realized someone was looking over my shoulder. Our church is a Family Promise host-- part of a network of churches providing housing and a full range of social services for a few homeless families. Each church hosts evenings and overnights for a week; it's complicated but we make it work. This year our number came up for Christmas week, so we have two families sleeping in our Sunday school room. It was Joaquin looking over my shoulder; he's 10, Chilean, and here for some sort of medical treatment. He stayed for about five minutes; I acknowledged him but didn't try to engage, sensing that he'd bolt. He wandered out, and I took the opportunity to look up his name in my email.
I switched to organ, and there he was again. I said hello and asked if I was saying his name correctly. Gradually he got closer, and I asked him a few questions, and invited him to play. Mostly he nodded yes or no, but he did speak a few words with me, and was very happy trying out the organ. His father came in; Ardo has very little English, but thanks to Duolingo I managed to assure him that it was okay. Eventually I had to nudge Joaquin away, and told them "Yo cocino la cena manana; mas musica manana!" (apologies for lack of accents). My family is cooking their dinner tonight, and I do look forward to more music with Joaquin tonight!
Later our Family Promise coordinator was delighted to hear that they had both spoken to me; apparently that's a bit of a breakthrough. Best of all, our church just donated money to Family Promise for a piano at their home base "Day House"; I may be able to teach Joaquin for a while.
With that done, I went to practice piano ... alone in the sanctuary until I realized someone was looking over my shoulder. Our church is a Family Promise host-- part of a network of churches providing housing and a full range of social services for a few homeless families. Each church hosts evenings and overnights for a week; it's complicated but we make it work. This year our number came up for Christmas week, so we have two families sleeping in our Sunday school room. It was Joaquin looking over my shoulder; he's 10, Chilean, and here for some sort of medical treatment. He stayed for about five minutes; I acknowledged him but didn't try to engage, sensing that he'd bolt. He wandered out, and I took the opportunity to look up his name in my email.
I switched to organ, and there he was again. I said hello and asked if I was saying his name correctly. Gradually he got closer, and I asked him a few questions, and invited him to play. Mostly he nodded yes or no, but he did speak a few words with me, and was very happy trying out the organ. His father came in; Ardo has very little English, but thanks to Duolingo I managed to assure him that it was okay. Eventually I had to nudge Joaquin away, and told them "Yo cocino la cena manana; mas musica manana!" (apologies for lack of accents). My family is cooking their dinner tonight, and I do look forward to more music with Joaquin tonight!
Later our Family Promise coordinator was delighted to hear that they had both spoken to me; apparently that's a bit of a breakthrough. Best of all, our church just donated money to Family Promise for a piano at their home base "Day House"; I may be able to teach Joaquin for a while.
