Nashira Williams
April 5
Post # 8



I think this had to be my favorite practicum even though it had to be one of the more simple practicums. But I participated in Palm Sunday and I enjoyed it soo much. I had to be at church a half and hour earlier to help the pastor with whatever. It was quite interesting how many people were there setting up and just making themselves available. It was a beautiful sight. As a member sometimes you never think about how much work goes into preparation for service. But I felt so apart of God's House it was an incredible feeling just making myself available to whatever they needed from me. First, I helped set up for the children's ministry. I made some example palm trees out of green construction paper. Then I was asked to make copies for the pastor. Next, I was very surprised that the pastor wanted me to be apart of the servive. For second service they brought in a donkey. So my job was to put tarp down in the ground while everyone greeted one another. Then I had to sit on the stage along the side so that I could remove the tarp when the donkey was removed. Afterward I retrieved palm branches and cloth that were used for demonstration during the service. It felt a bit akward sitting on the stage the entire time but then again it felt kind of good because it made me think about the future and me becoming a pastor. This was just a powerful experience. Even though it seems small I dont think I'll forget it.

posted by Nashira @ 2:34 PM [[ 1 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
March 28,2007
Blog #7

I spent some time with one of the prayer leaders of the church. In the service they have a time when the prayer team goes up to the front of the church or infront of the altar making themselves available to pray for anyone. Something I always wondered as I grew was whether or not it took something special to be a part of the prayer group in church and is a person gifted in prayer. I suppose people are because if people have a gift for preaching then they can surely have a gift of prayer. And that is excalty what she said; she felt that prayer was gift. Furthermore, she explained that she was so intrigued and very focused on prayer because it was emphasized in her home since she was little. One thing she emphasized was then neccesity of asking the Holy Spirit to direct the prayer before anything. In, additiion she said that you must be authoritve in your prayer believing every word you say and believing that God will move in the person you are praying for. And in conclusion of the prayer it is important to mention the name of Jesus ;He completes everything.
I proceded to ask the prayer leader what are the most common prayers and in response she said it mainly has to do with children and marraige. Most people pray for their children to follow the Lord and very often parents are praying for their children who are in the world.
She gave me some good pointers/advice:
1. We have to understand prayer is important because Jesus mandated it! Amen he did
2. We must pray without ceasing. It should be engrained in us.
3.Builds community, time for confession, and builds the body up. It is very therapeutic

In, conclusion I would be happy to go to the altar and have her pray for me.lol

posted by Nashira @ 4:55 PM [[ 3 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
Sorry this is #6
March 22


This week I had the privelege to do the praise and worship for children's church. At first I was a bit nervous about it because I was asked the day of but in either case I enjoyed it so much. My initial approach to this was to do Christian camps songs and then one of the other staff suggested oldder childish songs like "Father Abraham" But in either case we did not take that approach and decided to sing actual praise and worship songs. I first started off with a bit of a chant to get the children excited about worship. They had a bit of a competition between the guys and girls in which each side would say" We love Jesus yes we do. We love Jesus how about you?". Then we proceeded in prayer and then praise and worship songs. I had some of the children sing with me and it was just amazing just seeing them worship the Lord. The children were only in the fourth and fifth grade yet they praised the Lord as if they were Christians for such a long time. They raised their hands and they did movements to the songs. They were enthusiastic and excited about singing for the Lord. It seems as though they would have done the same no matter what songs were sung. It made me think about how we treat or show lack of appreciation for the many songs of worship. We want them to be this way and song in this style and then there are the children who worship the Lord no matter what is being played. So this was definitely a blessing.

posted by Nashira @ 6:40 PM [[ 2 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
March 16, 2007
Blog # 6

It was so insightful learning in debt the full role of a greeter. I sat down and talked with members of God's House and they explained to me how they became involved in the ministry. Surprisingly it wasn't quite the story I expected. There was no " I love meeting people" type of answer, but raher joining this ministry was an act of submission and obedience. They explained that greeting people was out of their comfort zone, which is hard to believe because as a couple they do a really good job. But this job has allowed them to grow and be more about serving others rather than satisfying their own wants and doing what is comfortable.

But in either case, their role is about making connections with people who are coming to church for the first time and just making a connection in general. Greeting is about making people feel comfortable because they may feel out of their element. They emphasized that is important to make people feel loved. They said there are two typical attitudes when entering church. The first being cold and "stand offish" and surprised and joyous. Greeting is about meeting these people and making sure that when they walk into church they are prepared to enter the Lord's presence without any worries,without feeling isolated or strange. Furthermore, you have to be intentional with people; greeting goes beyond Sunday and beyond shaking someone's hand or giving hugs. They emphasize learning people's names and showing an interest in learning about the people. They like to call people during the week just to see how they are doing, not to ask them about coming to church the next Sunday.

One thing they said that grabbed my attention was that everyone plays a role in the church community and making others feel comfortable or welcomed. They said we are a whole body.

posted by Nashira @ 9:24 PM [[ 1 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
March 2
Blog # 4

This week I spoke with the women who takes care of the cafe at church. I know whoever may read this is wondering how this purtains to the service. The cafe is right in back of the sanctuary and is opened before service and about a half and hour into the service. This cafe is another venue for fellowship. People usually go there before the service while the announcements are on the powerpoint. It is a wonderful time to talk with people and to hear about what is going on their lives. Furthermore, the pastor also encourages people to go back to the cafe during the greeting period. The cafe is truly a blessings because the proceeds go to their ministry in Zambia.

posted by Nashira @ 9:58 PM [[ 0 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
Week # 3

Well it took me a while to update this profile with google but I got it now. In either case this week I met with the pastor to see how he created the bullentin for church. Well he doesn't really have a bullentin because he doesn't really like how they are set up and he didnt really go into detail about that. But what he does is create a half sheet which includes the upcoming events at church. He uses the program print shop which is probably the only graphic or art like program that I do not know how to operate. I am familiar with Photoshop, Publisher, Word, Illustrator and Pagemaker so this was a good experience for me. I liked this program because it had a lot of pictures but there were also a lot of pictures pertaining to religion which is another reason why he prefers this software. What he tries to do with this "bullentin" is add alot of color, he wants to make sure that it pops up. One thing he emphasized was that he wants to grab the reader and he wants anyone to be able to pick it up and say I want to go to that whether they are a member or just entering in. In addition, he was telling me that he was going to be changing the announcement sheet (that seems more suitable) by adding a greeting for new comers. Furthermore, for this week he decided to add the weather to the bottom of the sheet to provide convience for the members and to get them looking at the announcements everyday as they check the weather. That was my job to get a five day forecast, well I actually created it on Publisher and sent it to him. It was a privelege to work with Pastor Ryan and his wife Katara was there as well. I just love how they are willing to improve their church in every aspect. They are always trying new things to get more people into church and to inspire the growth of the church. Blessing to you! Thank you for reading

posted by Nashira @ 4:01 PM [[ 4 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
February 6 2007
Post # 2

This week I had the privilege to sit with the technician who operated the projector and sound. I loved her attitude and her willingness to show me all what she knew. She definitely made me feel welcomed and not as if I was burdening her. But in either case she began showing me how she developed the slides shows for praise and worship. She has this particular program where you put the lyrics on a background so that the congregation can read the songs. Although it seemed simple to put his all together it still took time and she has to watch the worship team to know when to switch the slides. I asked her how she became interested in this job and if she went to school for it. She responded saying that she did it because no one else would. Her brother began the church and they needed someone to control the sound and the projector. I was so amazed by her willingness to take over a job which she had no experience with and still do it joyously. I proceeded to ask her questions about the sound. They have this big machine that have several controls for all of the microphones, instruments, and speakers. I was fascinated by the fact that she did both things at once. The sound machine has so many controls and switches, you would think only one person would operate it. She told me that it took her a while to understand and remember how to operate it. On top of that she also records the service and transfers it onto a cd. In addition, she does the cd covers and labels.

It was so rewarding to see how dedicated this woman was to the church. Despite what she wanted to do she stepped out and took on a position that needed to be done. We have to appreciate these peolpe even more.

posted by Nashira @ 6:05 PM [[ 3 comments ]]