For twenty years, I worked as a musician in various health care settings, serving through community music programs, ensembles, as a singer-songwriter and as a Certified Music Practitioner. With guitar, percussions, songbooks and flutes in hand, I visited diverse patient populations in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, memory care units and psychiatric facilities.

God of new beginnings,
Be with us—students, educators, and we who love them—as a new school year begins. Bless us with awareness of Your presence amidst our excitement, stress, busyness, and anticipation. Allow us to be open to Your work in us throughout this new school year.

For many of us, summer is a great time to catch up on reading! The AUMC community is committed to the Christian call to inclusivity and to continually growing in our spiritual journey, which is reflected in many of the books we’ve been reading and sharing. We are excited to share these mini-reviews for books that members of AUMC have found meaningful and would love to hear about what you’ve been reading lately!

Working with RST requires at least one skill: the ability to be flexible and adjust to unexpected circumstances. When we arrived at the apartment, we learned the Syads would be living in a one bedroom for a short time. Not sure how that was even possible, with five people in the family. We shifted and looked for bunk beds, finding an inexpensive set online. The Douglas’ picked them up and delivered to the apartment.