Church Hopping

Bethany United Methodist Church

Last month I was asked to help with the final lighting of the Advent candles at church,  Jefferson Untied Methodist.  I practiced my lines and bible verses for two weeks and this morning everything went without a hitch.  Church services during the weeks leading up to Christmas are entertaining and musical with bells, children's plays and lots of singing.  Last week the children told the Christmas story through the eyes of the farm animals that were in the stable with Mary and Joseph.  They dressed up as cows, chickens, goats and shepherds.  This morning they played the bells.

My friend Debby picked me up at 4:30 and we headed to the West Jefferson Methodist Church for their annual Festival of Carols and Candles.  The church is beautiful with wooden floors, light yellow walls, huge stained glass windows and oak pews.  The choir had a large area with padded chairs and an organ on one side and a piano on the other.  The program started with the youth group on the handbells and continued on with the choir and pastor telling the Christmas story.  There were solos and duets and audience participation.  We snuck out of there after the "Little Drummer Boy" which was sung by a  young lady and accompanied by a group of boys ranging in ages three to eight.  Four of the younger boys had drums and by the time the youngest got on stage his drum was turned sideways.  He hit it with his stick for a few minutes and then got distracted.  He noticed someone in the choir that he knew and he started to wave to them.  Then he slowly started to make his way around the other boys and  head into the choir. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing.

We wanted to catch a bite to eat before heading to Bethany United Methodist Church for their Holiday Handbell Concert.  There are not many places to eat on a Sunday night in Jefferson if you want a quick bite.  We ended up at the Japanese restaurant and ordered, ate and paid in time to make the 15 minute journey to the next church.  Even though we practiced the ride last week, everything looked different in dark.  We drove right on past the church into the inky blackness of the countryside.  After a few minutes we turned around and made it just in time for the show.

"The Ding-a-Lings" have been playing handbells and chimes since 1987 and have 14 members led by Jane Lonon (the director of the Ashe Arts Council).  Their concert started with An Appalachian Christmas medley and only continued to get better from there.  All of the songs were done with bells and some were accompanied by a piano, flute or percussion.  Listening to White Christmas played on the flute and bells was a treat.  My favorite part of the concert was when Jane picked a fellow from the audience, bought him up on stage, fitted him with a blinking red nose and antlers and handed him some sticks.  The choir played Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer and Rudolph hit his sticks to the music.

Last year's Ding-A-Lings