Articles for Church Newsletter

A couple of weeks ago, I started driving lessons with Solomon. It reminded me of the early years of my driving. I remember that small differences between each car seemed huge, such as size of the cars and the sensitivity of brake and engine. After some years of driving, I recognized that those differences do not affect my driving that much.

During the American Guild of Organists convention in Indianapolis I attended with Miah in July, I enjoyed many concerts performed by excellent organists w...

From late spring to early summer, I usually see many houses open their yards for garage sales.  Warm weather conditions may make people want to clean their houses and get more space to relax and breathe more air.  Cleaning up and organizing are activities we should never stop throughout our lives, but this is the season when we do them more.

I think this is the season we need to clean up our minds and spirits too.  This is the time when we reflect on our past and reconnect our relationships wi...

The season of sowing has come back, and I put some seeds of my favorite vegetable, green perilla, in a pot.  It is not a well-known vegetable to most Americans but is a necessity on Koreans’ dining tables, especially for pork dishes.  Its smell is so attractive and also helps get rid of the bad smell of pork.  Because it’s available only at Korean grocery stores and the nearest town I can go to is Iowa City, I decided to grow it myself.  Last year, I tried and got only weeds. This year, I...

May is the last month of the church choir year.  After our annual Spring Concert on May 3, we will start to get ready to close this choir year.  As I recall our year of 2014-2015, many good memories make me smile. Among them, I especially feel happy about our children’s choir group, Praise Ringers. The children have sung and played bells regularly throughout this year.  On Sunday, April 12, they played bells and showed us the signs of important words of the song, while Sanctuary Choir suppo...

At this moment, as I write this article, I am preparing two musical events: "Jerusalem Journey - drama and music" on Palm Sunday,  and our annual "Spring Concert" on May 3.  At the same time, I need to work on our Palm Sunday service, morning services in Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter services.  

If I didn't have to write this article, I might not have had the chance to stop and think about the meaning of this period of time and reflect on God's plan to save us by the sa...

If someone asked me what the most important task and consistent challenge for my work as a music conductor is, I would say "listening" during each rehearsal and performance.  There are many things to learn and equip myself with to be a better music director, such as working hard on copies of music, developing communication skills, and finding more and more repertories of fine music.  But, if there's one most important fact, which distinguishes ordinary music directors from excellent ones, it'...

I once read a report saying that elderly people were more optimistic about the future than younger people were.  Maybe part of the reason is there will be less time left for old people than for younger.  But that does not explain it fully.  I believe that experiences we have throughout our lives prove that most of the difficulties we have in our lives are not that bad compared to what  we usually predict beforehand, and there have been ways to overcome those troubles beyond our expectations.
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During the Christmas holidays, I watched a movie, "A Christmas without Snow" on cable. These days I watch movies mostly on Netflix and Amazon. This way, I can more effectively search and find movies according to my interests. So, finding and watching this movie on television felt a bit old-fashioned.

The setting of this movie was a church and its choir. One of the most memorable scenes happened right after the audition to select soloists for the Handel's Messiah concert.  One soprano, who th...

The last month of the year 2014 is coming soon .  Around Thanksgiving and Christmas it's the time to remind ourselves of the importance of family because of the fact that we will gather with our families during this season more than any other time of the year.  Why is family so important to us? 

Good relationships with people, especially with our families, give us confidence and courage in challenging times and comfort in difficult times, and they generally allow us to be ourselves in most s...