Tag: Christian Music

CLOW – Children’s Liturgy

Sundays during the school year, our Church offers Children’s Liturgy of the Word for Kindergarten through fifth grade. Two or three adult leaders form a team and lead a particular week each month.

The volunteer leaders perform various functions to help bring Mass down to an Elementary level and to engage the children differently (better) than the adult Mass.

My wife, a good friend, and I, lead 50-100 children through Children’s Liturgy every the fourth Sunday.

This past Sunday, for a variety of reasons, my wife Cheryl led it solo. Sixty-five children in all. She said they were incredibly well behaved. If you’ve never done this, you’d be amazed at how challenging it is.

We began volunteering in this ministry several years ago after a parishioner made a plea for more volunteers or the program would end.

Funny how life puts things in your path. This experience has me delivering homilies (sermons). Who would have ever thought? Me? You’ve got to be kidding.

Unfair Advantage, jeff noel

Unfair advantage goes to jeff noel and his nine-year old son.

What the? Huh?

Yes, unfair. Completely unfair.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s an absolute and utter competitive advantage.

Depends on how you view the cup.

Frequently (way too frequently) our son has migratory joint pain. It lasts from a few hours to a few days. It infests his ankle, pinky finger, wrist, knee, elbow, palm, foot, shoulder, and sometimes his hip.

And, it picks one single location, not all simultaneously. Just one.

Whenever it impacts from the waist down, it will limit his mobility. Doesn’t stop him, just limits him.

Ever seen a three-legged dog?

Sometimes he’s a one-legged boy. Everyone at his school gets it. It’s Chapin. He’s special.

Outside of familiar surroundings, people think there’s something wrong – “Why don’t his parents take him to a doctor and get him checked, and fixed”?

Dude, you have no earthly idea how many doctors, treatments, tests, x-rays, needles, medicines he’s seen.

But my wife and I have.

And even so, we feel blessed beyond measure.

And, ironically, as I type this, Jeremy Camp’s “There Will Be A Day” is playing….. There will be a day, with no more tears, no more pain, no more fears. There will be a day, when the burdens of this place will be no more and we’ll see Jesus face to face…:

To be continued…..Meanwhile, carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂

Orlando’s jeff noel Dove Award

Orlando’s jeff noel gets a Dove Award.

Not Christian Music’s – Dove Awards.

The dove award for rescuing a dove egg from a nest in his Orlando, Florida yard.

Last week, my son and I were doing some yard work, including the trimming of our cabbage palm trees, the Florida State tree.

I accidentally cut a palm frond containing a bird nest.

Using creativity, I came up with a workable and simple solution.

Make it a great day. If not today, when? Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂

Above All?

Above all what?

Cleaning up some emails and came across a You Tube video clip link. A Family member sent it. This impactful song was even more so, with the addition of the lyrics and photos.

It’s a song by Michael W. Smith. Click here to play, Above All.

Little things like this, when I take a few minutes to be still, help frame my day. Carpe diem, jeff 🙂