キャミー・タング著「戌年」連載小説 プロのドッグトレーナーであるマリ・ムトウは、厄年を迎えている。 犬小屋と訓練所の改築をしながら、いつも不服そうにしている家族と同居することになった。母と姉に言わせれば、犬の毛とよだれかけにまみれる仕事は、家族にとって恥ずべきものだという。彼女は元カレを説得し、数ヶ月間犬を預かってもらうことにした。しかし、彼の兄は、数週間前に彼女が誤って車に追突した、怒り狂ったセキュリティ専門家であることが判明する。 アシュウィン・ケイトウは十分な問題を抱えている。叔母が玄関先に現れ、同居を希望している。彼は彼女にすべてを借りているので、断ることができません。母親が家を出て行った後、ネルおばさんはアシュウィンと弟を引き取り、愛のあるキリスト教の家庭で育てた。しかも、弟のダスティもアパートを追い出され、居場所を求めている。しかし、彼は犬を飼っている。そして、その犬の飼い主は誰だと思いますか？ しかし、旧友でオアフ島のノースショアでデイスパを経営する私立探偵のエディサ・ゲレロから依頼を受ける。マリの施設で奇妙な破壊行為があり、3年前に失踪したエディサの妹の財布を発見する。エディサはマリが危険な目に遭っているのではと心配する。警備の専門家であるアシュウィンがすでにマリを知っていることを知ったエディサは、忙しい若い女性を密かに監視することを彼に依頼する。 アシュウィンは、活発でのんびりとしたドッグトレーナーに不本意ながら惹かれていく。彼女は、幸せそうな母親を思い出させる。その母親の裏切りによって、彼は人と距離を置くようになったのだ。マリは、アシュウィンの冷たい外見を見抜き、彼が家族に忠実な男であることを認める。彼は、彼女のキャリア選択を批判するだけの母親や姉とは違う。 マリのバラバラな家庭とアシュウィンのバラバラな家庭の中で、過去を隠そうとする人たちから、彼らの周りに危険が迫ってくるようになる。彼らは、影で動く秘密に光を当てることができるのか？ 過去に発表されたパートへのリンクはこちら。 *** 第8章 - 恐ろしくも真っ白な不動産書類 『みんな仲良くできないのかな？』 マリは無用に力を込めて箱に本を投げ入れた。最近、なぜ彼女は人生の中で全員と言い争いをしているのだろう？もしかすると、これは本当に悪いアイデア
Captain’s Log, Stardate 10.31.2006
Blog book giveaway:
To enter, go to the blog links below and post a comment there.
My Thursday book giveaway is In Every Flower by Patti Hill.
My Monday book giveaway is Reluctant Burglar by Jill Elizabeth Nelson.
You can still enter both giveaways. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for the In Every Flower and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
Win an iPod Nano! Exclusively for my newsletter YahooGroup subscribers, I have a huge contest running until January 31st! Get more info on my contest page!
Click to join Camys_Loft
Check out Christian Women Online (click on the button above) to see what other women are blogging about this quote:
As some of you know, I lead worship for the youth group and for Sunday service once a month.
I sang in college in an a capella group (Testimony) and thought I was so much better than I actually am. American Idol I’m not.
I play a very indifferent guitar, but thanks to God’s grace, the kids in my youth group are incredibly talented and make up for me.
I love music. Probably not as much as some of the music connoisseurs in Relevant Magazine (they give great reviews on both mainstream and indie music), but I love how God can speak to me with a well-married melody and lyric.
It is incredibly discouraging to me to be playing a worship song that I love for the congregation on Sunday morning and have everyone staring blankly at me and not singing. Not even mouthing the words.
Come on, people. Do you need to sing like an opera singer (we actually have one in our congregation who splits time between Europe and California) to worship God?
I mean, I’m not the best musician. I’m better than the general populace, but not as good as most. But I’m still playing—leading worship, no less—and singing.
My playing isn’t great—the other worship leaders are all much better than I am. But I do it because I want to help others to worship. And I wanted to give the youth group a chance to serve in Sunday service with my mostly-youth-group worship team.
Giving God a dandelion is better than not giving Him anything at all, don’t you think?
I don’t know if the congregation even realizes how discouraging it is to the worship leaders when they’re not enjoying the music.
I try not to let it bother me. God convicted me strongly a few weeks ago that it was His responsibility to move the congregation in worship of Himself. That it was my responsibility to just worship Him authentically when I was up there.
That made me feel better. Because really, it’s His spirit that moves me when I sing a certain worship song. It’s not the song itself—the dandelion—it’s the person I’m giving it to.
But next time you’re in church, at least smile at your poor worship leader, who’s probably freaking out that the congregation doesn’t like the music.
Or maybe that’s just me?
TMI: (Camy’s overshare section)
Bible in 90 Days: Day 5. Read about the plagues. It’s interesting to read them now after seeing a documentary a few weeks ago about scientific theories explaining the plagues.
The documentary was neat because it made the Exodus entirely plausible, and their explanations aren’t bad—just not the whole truth about how God could use natural phenomena to accomplish very specific things in miraculous ways.
Reading the Bible now, I can see how God would use something like a massive earthquake and volcanic eruption but reveal His power in the timing of it all and in how he tweaked things to accomplish his purposes.
I can see how He truly showed His might in specifically protecting the Israelites from plagues that should have inflicted them, or specifically targeting firstborn sons and animals when a natural phenomenon would take out people more-or-less indiscriminately.
Writing: AAAACKKK!!! NaNoWriMo is tomorrow! I need serious help with plotting. Please pray.
Blog book giveaway:
To enter, go to the blog links below and post a comment there.
My Thursday book giveaway is In Every Flower by Patti Hill.
My Monday book giveaway is Reluctant Burglar by Jill Elizabeth Nelson.
You can still enter both giveaways. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for the In Every Flower and post the title for another book I'm giving away.
Win an iPod Nano! Exclusively for my newsletter YahooGroup subscribers, I have a huge contest running until January 31st! Get more info on my contest page!
Click to join Camys_Loft
Check out Christian Women Online (click on the button above) to see what other women are blogging about this quote:
"Like the proud mother who is thrilled to receive a wilted bouquet of dandelions from her child, so God celebrates our feeble expressions of gratitude."
~ Richard Foster~
As some of you know, I lead worship for the youth group and for Sunday service once a month.
I sang in college in an a capella group (Testimony) and thought I was so much better than I actually am. American Idol I’m not.
I play a very indifferent guitar, but thanks to God’s grace, the kids in my youth group are incredibly talented and make up for me.
I love music. Probably not as much as some of the music connoisseurs in Relevant Magazine (they give great reviews on both mainstream and indie music), but I love how God can speak to me with a well-married melody and lyric.
It is incredibly discouraging to me to be playing a worship song that I love for the congregation on Sunday morning and have everyone staring blankly at me and not singing. Not even mouthing the words.
Come on, people. Do you need to sing like an opera singer (we actually have one in our congregation who splits time between Europe and California) to worship God?
I mean, I’m not the best musician. I’m better than the general populace, but not as good as most. But I’m still playing—leading worship, no less—and singing.
My playing isn’t great—the other worship leaders are all much better than I am. But I do it because I want to help others to worship. And I wanted to give the youth group a chance to serve in Sunday service with my mostly-youth-group worship team.
Giving God a dandelion is better than not giving Him anything at all, don’t you think?
I don’t know if the congregation even realizes how discouraging it is to the worship leaders when they’re not enjoying the music.
I try not to let it bother me. God convicted me strongly a few weeks ago that it was His responsibility to move the congregation in worship of Himself. That it was my responsibility to just worship Him authentically when I was up there.
That made me feel better. Because really, it’s His spirit that moves me when I sing a certain worship song. It’s not the song itself—the dandelion—it’s the person I’m giving it to.
But next time you’re in church, at least smile at your poor worship leader, who’s probably freaking out that the congregation doesn’t like the music.
Or maybe that’s just me?
TMI: (Camy’s overshare section)
Bible in 90 Days: Day 5. Read about the plagues. It’s interesting to read them now after seeing a documentary a few weeks ago about scientific theories explaining the plagues.
The documentary was neat because it made the Exodus entirely plausible, and their explanations aren’t bad—just not the whole truth about how God could use natural phenomena to accomplish very specific things in miraculous ways.
Reading the Bible now, I can see how God would use something like a massive earthquake and volcanic eruption but reveal His power in the timing of it all and in how he tweaked things to accomplish his purposes.
I can see how He truly showed His might in specifically protecting the Israelites from plagues that should have inflicted them, or specifically targeting firstborn sons and animals when a natural phenomenon would take out people more-or-less indiscriminately.
Writing: AAAACKKK!!! NaNoWriMo is tomorrow! I need serious help with plotting. Please pray.
Comments
Blessings to you for faithfully serving.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on worship music :)
I love the reference to the wilted dandelions in this CWO quote! So awesome and so true!
And I'm right there with ya! I'm only partially through plotting, which normally isn't a problem, but I'm not normally writing on a 30 day time limit.
Keep at it. People have to have their own revelation of God before they can truly worship. Feel free to check out my blog for more info.
Grace & peace!
Luke 19:40
just remind the congregation of that.. lol
But now I go to a more traditional Christian Reformed church. We sing from hymnals with an organ. On of our assistant pastors says he feels very uncomfortable clapping for people when they are done sharing musical talents because he feels like he is praising them instead of worshipping God.
So there are a lot of people with a lot of baggage about worship. A shame, huh? :)
Sarah
EXACTLY.
Thank you.
All is grace,
Ann V.
Our choir director has a very nice musical background and "pedigree" and has extremely LOFTY ambitions for our small chior and many times chooses these soaring requiems for the "special" music that often strains the voices of those in the choir and it comes out sounding like some of the "lesser" contestants on AI who got together to try and hit the power high notes. LOL!
In the end though, all that matters is that you sing for God and not for anyone else because...in the end it's Him that we give praise to anyway.
Hugs!
Oh, I was also going to say that, in looking at your profile picture, your face and smile is one that radiates true joy and gentle laughing humor. It is the perfect picture for you!
Hope