New songs added

Praising Hands has been part of Worship Service twice since our last posting.  Today we updated the Song Page to include those Worship Songs.

May 20, 2016 was Music Sunday.  All aspects of the music ministry were represented.  Praising Hands' song signing was "Creation Calls".  We departed a little from our usual arrangement and our offering seemed to be much appreciated.

June 12, 2016 Praising Hands chose to sign a song that was more or less a Pentecost song. That Sunday was a difficult Sunday for many people as the night before a tragic shooting had taken many lives and the whole country was in shock and morning.  Our signing offering was the instead of the last hymn of the worship service.  After service we were told by many of our church family how our offering had such a special meaning.  Some told us through tears or shaky voice.

I hope you all enjoy these songs being signed as much as we have enjoyed signing them.

Thank you for visiting.  May God Bless.

New songs added

Praising Hands has been part of Worship Service twice since our last posting.  Today we updated the Song Page to include those Worship Songs.

May 20, 2016 was Music Sunday.  All aspects of the music ministry were represented.  Praising Hands' song signing was "Creation Calls".  We departed a little from our usual arrangement and our offering seemed to be much appreciated.

June 12, 2016 Praising Hands chose to sign a song that was more or less a Pentecost song. That Sunday was a difficult Sunday for many people as the night before a tragic shooting had taken many lives and the whole country was in shock and morning.  Our signing offering was " Go Light Your World" and in place of the last hymn of the worship service.  After service we were told by many of our church family how our offering had such a special meaning.  Some told us through tears or shaky voice.

I hope you all enjoy these songs being signed as much as we have enjoyed signing them.

Thank you for visiting.  May God Bless.

"In the Garden"

Yesterday, Sunday Feb. 28, 2016, Praising Hands signed "In the Garden" with the Choir director, Jerry as vocal accompany.  A video of our signing has been uploaded.  To view it go to our song page and click on the "click here" after the song title.

I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for visiting with us.  May God bless.

INTRODUCING MOE

Moe is the newest member of Praising Hands.  He has been with us for about a year and a half.

Moe's response to the question of what brought him to join Praising Hands was:  "When I was a kid, I had a friend who could hear but couldn't speak.  So we communicated in actions.  For me, signing hymns is a deeper expression of worship.  I like to participate in things that make people feel happy, so I want to share this with my church family."

I asked Moe if there was anything else he wished to say.  He looked around and said, "Here I get to spend an hour or so with these beautiful ladies."

Thank you for visiting with us and may God bless.

NEW YEAR

     Happy New Year all.  

     This coming Friday, January 8, will start Praising Hands' spring season.  Our first song will be "In the Garden".  When we were choosing the songs for the spring time, there was a strong response to this hymn.  We decided that it should be offered as our Lent song.  That means we will present it in late February.

SILENT NIGHT

   This morning, Dec. 20, 2015, Praising Hands gave our Christmas offering.  We signed Silent Night the very beginning of the service.  After the first "Silent night", right on "Holy" the choir joined in.  What a magical feeling.  Yes, we made a few little errors here and there.  But all in all, it felt good.

    Merry Christmas Everyone.  May God bless you and yours.

PAT'S INSIGHTS

    There has been an absence in my blogging for which my only excuses is I have been overwhelmed as of late.  

    I talked with Pat about insights and thoughts she would like to share  with our readers.  She mentioned a few thoughts I will try to discuss here. 

     As with any group of singers, each member has their own voice.  We each express our own selves in our manor of expression and movements.  Pat, herself, moves with so much expression, where as Moe has so much expression on his face while he signs.

    Pat said she has been asked how our songs are chosen.  I asked her what her answer is when asked that question.  First, I as the director do not chose the songs.  I find songs that I think are with our capability and ones I like or other people have requested.  I then present them to Praising Hands as a group.  After considering them we all chose ones that make a connection with us at some level.  I think it is important that we all feel comfortable with the songs we are signing.   

Thank you for visiting.  May God bless.

INTRODUCING PAT

      Pat has been a member of Praising Hands from the beginning.  That being said I would like you to meet Pat.
  

   
     
       When asked what brought her to Praising Hands, she said, “Since I took ballet lessons as a child, I have interpreted music and lyrics through dance, or through imagining dance or figure skating or moving color patterns. The Praising Hands Choir offers me the joy of experiencing the meaning of hymns more deeply and the opportunity to share this in worship.”

         Thank you Pat for being part Praising Hands.

         Thank you for visiting.  May God Bless.

"FAITHFUL ONE" IN WORSHIP

     Today we celebrated All Saints Day in our worship.  Praising Hands offered the song "Faithful One". Even though we signed the song during offering time, the church was so, so quite.

      I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed signing it for worship. The last entry at the bottom of the Song Page has a link to youtube where we have uploaded Praising Hands signing this song.

Thank you for visiting.  May God Bless.

SINGER AND SONG WRITTER

    I am sorry for the delay in my posting.  I have been a little under the weather for a few weeks.  

    Pat will be our guest blogger today.  

    A little about the song "Faithful One" which we are offering in worship on October 25.

    Robin Mark, singer of this  contemporary Christian hymn, is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he is a singer, songwriter and worship leader in his home church, Christian Fellowship Church.

   The hymn itself was written in 1989 by Brian Doerken, a Canadian who graduated from the Mennonite Educational Institute in 1983.  Since then he has been very influential in the area of contemporary Christian worship music, as a worship leader, Singer-songwriter, and worship music producer.  He currently lies in British Columbia and leads Prairie Bible Institutes School of Worship Arts in Alberta.


Thank you Pat.  Thank you all for visiting.  May God Bless.

THOUGHTS ON SIGNING SONGS

     Last Friday was the last practice that Sandy was with us.  Looking back on what we, PH, had discussed with Sandy about signing songs, I thought we could discuss some here.  

        First It is important to realize  Signing is another language.  In fact, if a person knew ASL or another form of signing and were applying for a job, said person could legitimately claim to be bilingual.
       
       The second thing I always explain to new comers is ASL is a conceptual language.  What we sign are thoughts, concepts, not word by word what is being spoken or sung.  One sign can cover more than one word, because it is a concept.  In the English language we have more than one word for a thought, action, or feeling.  Take the words "want, desire, long for", they all are covered by one sign.  Expression or manor of signing may differentiate the degree of wanting but the sign is the same.

     The next thing that we discuss is syntax.  When we are signing songs, however, we stay closer to English syntax.  There are times when ASL syntax works better.  An example of that is in "Faithful One", the song we are signing in October.  In the song the phrase is "my rock of peace"  we sign "my peace rock.

      I will return to this subject in latter posts as each member contributes their insights on the subject.

Thank you for visiting.  May God bless.
   

CLOSING HYMN

      It is customary in our church to end the service with a hymn.  Everyone stands and joins hands while the closing hymn is sung.  Most of the year our closing hymn is "Let there be Peace ". While being sung by the congregation a member or two of PH stand at the front of the church and sign. 
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      However, during Advent and Lent the closing hymn is different and PH hasn't signed the closing hymn..  This year we have been requested to learn and sign the closing hymn, "Go Tell it on the Mountain" during Advent.  

       The first Sunday of Advent is November 29.  As I try to give our signing choir about two months to learn a song, this week we will start learning "Go Tell it on the Mountain."  That means that we will be working on two songs at once.  Always a challenge. 

Thank you for visiting.  May God bless.

GUEST BLOGGER

     Today's post is by Sandy, Praising Hands' new friend.

A great big THANK YOU to the Praising Hands of Trinity UMC

The first Sunday my husband and I attended church we were lucky enough to have the Praising Hands preforming.  Signing songs has been an interest of mine for a couple of years now and when I read in the newsletter that they were starting practices again for the season I decided to see if they would mind if I sat in while we were in town.
Rae, Moe and Pat made me feel very welcome and I have enjoyed “trying” to learn their next song (I’m not as good as they are but they really made me feel good about how I was doing.)

I am hoping to take this information home and encourage our home church to do something like this (we are lucky enough to have people there that know signing). 

What a beautiful, visual way to worship!  Again, thank you all for letting me join in for our month here in town.

Sandy

HOME COMING PICNIC

     Yesterday, Saturday, Praising Hands had it's home coming picnic.  We are all back together after a summer apart. Our spouses and our selves gathered at the State park just east of town.  We talked, ate, walked, ate, and generally had a great time.  If anyone came away without gaining at least one pound, it would be very surprising. 
     
     Our new friend, Sandy, and her husband are the camp hosts at that state park.  How glad we all were to have such a lovely setting for our gathering.  Thank you Sandy and Erick for hosting our picnic.

RAINBOWS

     As I had explained before, we try to wear sashes in the appropriate color range for the liturgical season.  However, as we wore green (ordinary times) for "May it be" in August we did no really want to wear green again in October.  We decided that we would each choose a color form the sashes we already have with the exception of Pat.  She is going to have a new sash that runs from creamish yellow through the yellows to golden orange.  It has twinkly multi-color stars on it.  Pat is making this sash from a sample piece of fabric which we were considering for sashes.  It will be fun to each have a different color brightening our appearance.  

Thanks for visiting.
    

"FAITHFUL ONE"

     I thought I would give you the lyrics to the song we are working on.

FAITHFUL ONE

Faithful One
So unchanging

Ageless One 
You're my rock of Peace

Lord of all
I depend on you

I call out to you
Again and again

I call out to you 
Again and again

Faithful One
So unchanging

Ageless One 
You're my rock of Peace

Lord of all
I depend on you

I call out to you 
Again and Again

I call out to you
Again and Again

You are my rock
In times of trouble

You lift me up
When I fall down

All through the storm
Your love is the anchor

My hope is 
In you alone

Faithful One 
So unchanging

Ageless One 
You're my rock of peace

Lord of all
I depend on you

I call out to you 
Again and again

I call out to you 
Again and again

You are my rock 
In times of trouble

You lift me up
When I fall down

All through the storm 
Your love is the anchor

My hope is
In you alone

You are my rock
In times of trouble

You lift me up 
When I fall down

All through the storm
Your love is the anchor

My hope is 
In you alone.




I hope you enjoy it as much as we are enjoying learning this song.  I really love some of the visual pictures this song invokes.  What do you think?

Thanks for visiting.  Please let us know what you think. May God Bless.

NEW FRIENDS

     Friday we had a new friend visit our practice.  She and her husband are the camp hosts at the WA state campground near our town.  After Moe and I (Rae) signed "May it be" on August 30, and the pastor announced that Praising Hands would be starting our fall practices on September 4, she decided to come and see what we were all about.  

      Our new friend is a member of a Lutheran Church in her home town and has long wanted to start a group like Praising Hands in their church.  She watched how we conduct our practices and start learning new songs.  We really enjoyed having her spend our practice time with us and invited her back.  As they, she and her husband, are only going to be here through September she will only be able to attend through this month.  

      Yet, I feel that our signing choir is making an impact, even outside of our own church.

Thank you for visiting.  Comments are always welcome.  May God Bless.  

A NEW SEASON

       Tomorrow we start our 2015 - 2016 season.  As we more or less take the summer off, our season is from September through June.  I know you are puzzled as we just signed a song in worship Sunday, August 30th.  Praising Hands was asked to sign a song on that Sunday, but Moe and I (Rae) were the only two in town.  So officially it was not during our season.

       Our first song will be "Faithful One."  I will give you the lyrics latter.  We are scheduled to sign it in October.  

        Tomorrow, I will be handing out the lyrics, playing the music video for the choir while I sign the song, and we will discus interpretation of some of the lyrics.  We will take a look at what we have scheduled for the rest of 2015.

        A brief note about the song page of this blog.  We have uploaded and linked almost all of the songs listed.  Please take a look.

Thank you for visiting.  May God Bless.     

BLOG SITE UPDATE

       We have added a new page to the site.  It is photos of Praising Hands members, both past and present.  Check it out and enjoy.

        Also, we have added our song offering from yesterday, Sunday, August 30, 2015, to the song page.  If you click the link after the song title, you can see Moe and Rae, me, signing "May it be."

Thank you for visiting.  May God Bless.

COLORS

     Way back in the beginning we decided that we would wear black, ankle length black skirts with black tops or dresses for the women and black pants and shirt for men.  After our first time signing in service, someone mentioned that we looked as if we were in morning.  So we decided to were colorful, sparkly sashes.  We try to follow the colors of the liturgical year. however once in a while we depart from tradition.  An example is when we did "Just a Closer Walk with Thee", we chose to wear golden sashes.  

      Right now is Ordinary Times so tomorrow we will be wearing green.  However, when we next will be part of the service (October) we will not want to wear the same green sashes and pocket squares.  I do not know what color we will use.  That will be decided by the group at a later date.

Thank you for visiting.  May God bless.