It feels good to sit here in the living room and be able to see the Christmas tree all lit up and decorated in our dining room.

We had a great time yesterday afternoon picking out a new (artificial) tree and bringing it home and setting it up and decorating. We knew our upcoming calendar-schedule and its over-filled nature, so we opted for an early setup this year and it’s a decision I think we’re all pleased with making!

It’s fun to watch the wide-eyes of Ella and Ezra as we get out the ornaments and decorations and get things set up – they do thoroughly enjoy getting the house prepped for the Christmas season!

For the past several years we’ve setup and decorated our family Christmas tree and shot a time lapse of the process.

2013 –

2012 –

2011 –

2010 –

2009 –

2008 –

2007 –
I wish I knew why I have no video from 2007. Not 100% sure we even did a time lapse in ’07.

2006 –

I can’t stop listening to this brand new song from Lacey Sturm that was a part of the My Hope broadcast from Billy Graham. The lyrics are a POWERFUL reminder of the undeserved mercy available through Jesus Christ!

Embedded video. If you can’t see it, click here.

The track, “Mercy Tree” is available on the album, “My Hope: Songs Inspired By The Message And Mission Of Billy Graham” here on Amazon.

Lyrics:

On a hill called Calvary
Stands an endless mercy tree
Every broken weary soul
Find your rest and be made whole

Stripes of blood that stain its frame
Shed to wash away our shame
From the scars pure love released
Salvation by the mercy tree

In the sky between two thieves
Hung the blameless Prince of Peace
Bruised and battered, scarred and scorned
Sacred head pierced by our thorns

“It is finished” was His cry
The perfect Lamb was crucified
The Sacrifice our victory
Our Savior chose the mercy tree

Hope went dark that violent day
The whole earth quaked at Love’s display
Three days silent in the ground
This Body born for Heaven’s crown

But on that bright and glorious day
When Heaven opened up the grave
He’s alive and risen indeed
Oh praise Him for the mercy tree

Death has died Love has won
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Jesus Christ has overcome
He has risen from the dead

Death has died Love has won
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Jesus Christ has overcome
He has risen from the dead

One day soon we’ll see His face
And every tear He’ll wipe away
No more pain or suffering
Oh praise Him for the mercy tree

Death has died Love has won
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Jesus Christ has overcome
He has risen from the dead

Death has died Love has won
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Jesus Christ has overcome
He has risen from the dead

On a hill called Calvary
Stands an endless mercy tree

We had such fun at the Maplewood pumpkin patch this past Saturday! I’m so glad I brought the GoPro along to capture some of the adventure from Ella’s and Ezra’s perspective.

Maplewood has a deal that you can pay $8 for everything you (as in: one person) can carry out of their pumpkin patch. I was up to the challenge and managed to carry our three largest pumpkins out on my own. We think we definitely saved some money because the other option was to use a cart and pay 39-cents per pound of cart-carried pumpkins!

This was our first pumpkin-picking adventure at Maplewood, but we’re already talking about going back again next year!

Embedded video – if you can’t see it, click here.

We were a “musical” family growing up. I didn’t necessarily love that fact growing up (singing a song about “our family gathering around a table” as we literally gathered around someone else’s table wasn’t my favorite thing in the world). We sang in church, at nursing homes, in the car, and most places in between.

There are vague memories of “pieces of songs” that sometimes come to the surface of my already-full brain and these ‘pieces’ can literally drive me crazy for a few days until I can uncover more of the pieces and try and put the mental puzzle together. Some of these “pieces” have recently been put back together in my head since we invested in the Psalty (the singing songbook) collection for our family – reliving some of those albums has been absolutely phenomenal. I’m waiting for some other pieces to be fitted together as I continue to try and amass more and more of my childhood music collection through various sources.

The Internet has proven to be the most-effective source of information in my personal puzzle-completing-quest in the area of trying to relive some of my musical past.

Just recently a single repeating phrase re-entered my brain and I couldn’t remember anything beyond that single phrase: “Hur the Handholder”. I knew there was a song somewhere in my past that included that phrase and I was trying to figure out the tune and anything else lyrically that accompanied it. I was trying desperately.

Typing in the phrase into Google gave me little to no help, unfortunately. My next-step was to email the phrase to my almost all-knowing (memory-wise) sister, Sherilyn, who was actually able to dig a little deeper and find some obscure information at this link. This at least gave me the official title of what was apparently an entire musical that included this musical number. The musical, “Hur the Handholder and Five other Old Testament Musical Stories for Children” was published 5-years before I was born. The link also revealed that the lyrics and stories were written by Sharon Odegaard and the music arranged by Edwin M. Willmington.

Almost as soon as my sister sent me the link I began searching for “Sharon Odegaard”. Turns out a woman by the same name blogs at sharonodegaard.com AND listed her email address on her contact page! What could it hurt, right?

So I e-mailed her on September 2nd:

Sharon –
By chance, are you the Sharon Odegaard who wrote the lyrics and stories for the “Hurt the Handholder” musical?

I found the name “Sharon Odegaard” listed about halfway down on this page – http://www.copyrightencyclopedia.com/hur-the-handholder-and-five-other-old-testament-musical/ today after I emailed my sister and asked her if she could remember any lyrics to the song that had just popped into my brain from our childhood. (all I could remember was “Hur the handholder . . .” and she came up with that link.

If you ARE the same Sharon Odegaard, do you have any idea if there would be a way to find that musical or at least that song that I would LOVE to hear again (and possibly play for my two music/Bible-loving kids?)

Thanks for letting me grasp at straws by emailing you!

I had almost given up hope on hearing back from this stranger who was no-doubt confused by my email until 20-days later on September 22nd, I received this reply:

Hi, Stevan,
Thank you for writing about Hur the Handholder! Yes, I’m the same Sharon Odegaard who wrote the script for that musical. I’m so pleased to know that you remember it and want to share it with your kids.

I would suggest contacting Ed Willmington (the composer), as I don’t have any links to a publisher and don’t have copies of this. It has been a LONG time! But I bet Ed can help you. He is at the Brehm Center’s Fred Bock Worship program. You can contact him with the link in the website:
http://www.brehmcenter.com/initiatives/fredbock/contact/

I hope this works for you! It’s heartwarming to know that this musical boosted your love for God in some small way :)
Blessings to you and your family!

I was very excited to try and contact Ed Willmington, so I contacted him through the Brehm Center contact form that same day after hearing from Sharon.

I received his response the very next day on September 23:

Hello, Stevan

How great to hear from a HUR THE HANDHOLDER fan! They are few in number. Thanks to Sharon for sending you my way. I’m afraid I’m not much help for you either. The rights and product are now in the hands of Alfred Music…after lots of buyouts, etc. They may have some product sitting around somewhere they could offer you. I have a couple of books for my personal library, and a cassette or 2, but nothing I could give you…in fact, I’d be afraid to try playing the tapes at this point. It was a fun work…one of my daughter’s sang on the recording when she was in 3rd grade…and she’s now a mom, and has the music stored on her ipod and plays it for her kids. We were going to do a New Testament sequel when the company was sold and everything changed.

So, sorry I can’t help, and thanks for the note!

Blessings to you, Ed

Obviously, not the response I was hoping for but at least I had the name of the rights-holder! I Googled “Alfred Music” and managed to find and email address of their customer service department and quickly tapped out the following email on September 25:

Greeetings, my name is Stevan Sheets. I am a pastor in Shippensburg, PA and have recently been on a quest to find an obscure piece of music from my childhood. I have done as much digging as I could and found the woman who wrote the script to this childhood musical that I grew up listening to. I was able to contact her and she forwarded me to the musical’s composer, Dr. Edwin Willmington – I was able to make contact with him and he has directed me to Alfred because he says you are the rights-owners of the music after several buy-outs.

The musical is entitled, “Hur the Handholder” and was something I listened to as a child growing up. I’m reaching out to you, hoping that perhaps an old cassette tape may be locked away in a back storage closet somewhere or perhaps somewhere else. I would LOVE to get my hands on this music to relive this childhood memory and fill-in the gaps that time has left me.

Thanks, in advance, for helping me in my quest!

A few days after sending the email, I received a call from an unknown number in California and on the other end was a gentleman named Chaz who told me he was on a personal quest to find this obscure piece of music for me! He had actually located a printed-version of it in an Alfred Music warehouse in New York and it was already in the mail to him there in California. He assured me that when it arrived, he would digitize it and send it to me!

Just a couple days ago, I received an email from Chaz with an attachment:

Hello Stevan,

I would like to let you know that we received the piece into the office and have now converted it to a digital copy. You will find the piece attached in this email.

We are lucky here at Alfred to have an amazing team of individuals dedicated to helping anyone we can enjoy music. Everyone from our archive team in Miami to our wonderful digital print specialist here were glad to make this happen for you.

Thank you and enjoy!

The attachment was this 3-page PDF of the song, “Hur the Handholder”! I actually had it!

I almost-instantly read through the (very short) lyrics and tried to hum along with the printed music as best I could. But I was still hoping (needing!) to hear the actual song, of course.

I reached out on Facebook to my talented friends and family asking if anyone had access to software that they could input my newly-acquired childhood memory and output an actual audio file (that I could sing-along to in the privacy of my own home).

One of our friends, Brynn, came to my rescue and within a day or two and sent me the audio! I uploaded it to my SoundCloud account:

Honestly, it’s slightly anti-climatic – probably because the song was much shorter than I expected and because I still can’t place where we even heard this song originally or why I even knew the part I did remember. The rights-holders have already informed me that they don’t have anything other than this song from the original musical. It’s been fun for the past couple of hours to listen and sing-along to this 57-second song from my childhood.

Maybe since blogging about this experience, my rabbit-trail chasing can serve a greater purpose. If anyone who eventually reads this post happens to have access to anything more from this musical, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

I had the opportunity to serve as the “guest chaplain” at the Pennsylvania State Senate session on Wednesday, September 25th. I had received a letter more than a year ago asking if I would consider this role and be willing to be added to the list of possible chaplains. I replied with a “yes” and never imagined I’d actually have the chance.

The phone call happened only the week-before and I asked all of the questions in my head and the correspondence with the Senators’ offices answered the ones I didn’t think to ask.

I reached out to some family and friends for any tips and tricks they could share with me for preparing for such a unique opportunity. The feedback they all gave me was valuable.

On that Wednesday morning I drove Ella to school and then headed off to Harrisburg to our State Capitol building in my pressed suit and tie. I was given a parking spot for the day – reserved for the guest chaplain – and was able to park close to the entrance.

Once inside, I was instantly overwhelmed. Security was expected, but what was not was the grandeur of the architecture and the hustle-and-bustle of the people inside. I was a jaw-dropped, picture-snapping tourist almost instantly.

I found my Senator’s office and went inside to introduce myself and get my instructions for the rest of my time there. I met Senator Richard Alloway’s Chief-of-Staff and his Administrative Assistant and had wonderful conversations with both of them. The office was gorgeous and historic. I was still in tourist-mode, but was trying to play it cool in the company of these employees. Senator Alloway had numerous visitors before the Senate session, so I was not able to meet him until a few minutes before the session began up on the Senate floor.

I was ushered out of the office-area and walked down the hallway and into the Senator’s elevator and up to the Senate level. I was walked down another hallway and then had to crouch through a small doorway into the actual Senate chamber. (this “crouching” through the short doorway, I found out during my building-tour later, was an intentional design to force those coming in to the chamber to humble themselves by needing to bow to get in!)

Inside the chamber I was introduced to our Lieutenant Governor, Jim Cawley and was told that he would be introducing me. I met a few other Senators and others who were there in the chamber fulfilling various roles. Quickly, Senator Alloway came in and we were introduced and he thanked me for coming and filling the role of guest chaplain. We were then met by a photographer who snapped our photos and I was shown where I would be sitting during the session.

Lt. Gov. Cawley brought the session to order with a powerful gavel-pounding and before I knew it I was being introduced and was offering my prayer for the session.

It was quite an honor and an opportunity I know I’ll remember for a lifetime.

Just today I received, in the mail, a package from Sen Alloway’s office – the two photos that were taken of the two of us and a DVD of me being introduced and praying at the opening of the session.

You can watch the video here:

(embedded video, if you can’t see it, click here)

After my prayer and after the Pledge of Allegiance, I was seated back in my “Chaplain’s chair” (more like a throne) and I sat through the remainder of the Senate session (not a requirement, but something I wanted to do). It was fantastic watching the business take place right in front of me (literally). I wasn’t allowed to take pictures during the session so I felt as though I also needed to sit as motionless (read: behaved) as possible there in my up-front seat. I did, I think.

The session was short that day and I met Senator Alloway’s assistant out in the hallway and she took me back downstairs (in the Senator’s elevator again). She took me over to the lobby where I could sign up for a building tour. I did. I learned a lot about our PA Capitol, the history of our great Commonwealth, and our founder- William Penn. There is a virtual tour of this amazing building here. I am planning to take the whole family back again for a tour of this great building in the near future!