Sue and I met while attending college at Concordia in Moorhead, MN, back in 1968. We must have had the right amount of similarities and differences to get married and this year we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. We are blessed with two daughters, six granddaughters, one grandson, and rumors of an arrival of a “great” next spring.
A shared similarity for Sue and me was our upbringing in the Lutheran faith along with its strong choral traditions. With missionary uncles and cousins, plus a brother and nephews as Lutheran pastors, and a long history of Toso’s attending Concordia College, all things Lutheran from baptism on was inevitable for me. I am confident that this has always been a blessing for both of us.
Zion became our church home when we moved to Buffalo over 40 years ago. We greatly appreciated the variety of ways we could be actively involved with our new church family. I have served on the Church Council and Personnel Committee, Sue with Harvest of Hands and other groups, but both of us would say that our long involvement with the Senior Choir has been our biggest blessing.
Those who sing pray twice,
is attributed to St. Augustine, and Martin Luther’s further comment on this was
…that the devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God…
For me, these remarks remind me of the many rewards of being a part of Zion’s Senior Choir. It has been great to have a closer family within our church family to have as choir teammates, working together to musically complement the gospel lessons and glorify God. I believe the texts in the liturgy, hymns and songs we learn as a congregation and share as a choir can help uplift all of us to meet life’s challenges and inspire us as we respond worshipfully to God’s love.
Hopefully, the choral traditions at Zion will always be an important part of our congregation’s worship and more will consider adding their voices to the Senior Choir. We do have a few excellent soloists, but our greatest need is more supporting voices during all or part of the year.
