Miscelleaneous celebrations

Have been busy. Last week we went to two Oktoberfests, one at Bethel, where there must have been 400 people at least, the beer was served by the pitcher and the pastors put on skits in hilarious get-ups. The other one was in St. Michael and featured creative and intricate decorations, amazing food, a 8 piece live band, dancing and, amazingly, the Premier of the Province was there all night. We just about bumped into him on the dance floor. I have not partied this much in one week ever before, and certainly not this close to the head of the province.

I was sorely tempted to corner the Premier and do some lobbying either on the behalf of Concordia College or the laws surrounding driving in the province, but he did have body guards standing around discretely. Just joking. Well, the bodyguards were there. The Premier grew up 10 km from St. Michael and his relatives were some of the people who won prizes for selling the most tickets. Now, we know how he got there.

I did a lot of dancing, too, mostly with a young female adult from our church who lives in a group home. She never got tired of it, either, unlike some of the males. So, I always had a partner.

There were other adventures last week, which I'd love to talk about with some, but in person.

Also, it was Reformation Sunday. I don't have any great thoughts on that just this minute, except I enjoyed singing "Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word." The electricity was sort of out in church (a few things worked), so we were cold and had to use the piano instead of the pipe organ.

You can find the song "Lord keep us steadfast In You Word." in English and in German at the "cyberhymnal",--which can quickly get on your nerves,(try it, you'll see what I mean). I, strangely could not find the song on YouTube, just numerous Bach and Buxtehude preludes to it.

But instead, I found this other hymn, sung so simply by this young man and loved it very much. (It also makes a good reformation hymn.) The words are very easy to understand. Wonderful song.



Lutheran Service Book has it just like this at #585. It says there that the first verse is by Melanchton. In my German hymnal it says by Melanchton after the "Vespera iam venit". The rest by Nicolaus Selnecker. This tune is supposed to be Luther's (in the English hymnal), but the German hymnal has "Lord keep us steadfast in Your Word" as the tune. Now, I get it (!), that's how this hymn came up on YouTube looking for "Lord keep us steadfast in Your Word." (Oh, the deep research, so late at night. Better, get to bed.)