2006 in review

Last year I made a post wrapping up the year so I thought I’d do that again this year. Here are some of the things (in no particular order) that made this year memorable,

• Leading worship at the Symposium on Worship. In January I played in a band with Kent Hendricks and some other fine folks for the Calvin Symposium on Worship and it was a wonderful experience. It wasn’t the first time I’ve lead worship at these events but it stands out as a time when the band was tight, the people sang well and the spirit was in the house. (read more)
• Playing music with my kids. My kids and I played an event with author Phillip Yancey. It was a great time and it was fun to work with him. (read more) My kids and I closed out the year by playing for three consecutive church services at 14^th St CRC. It was great to get the old band together.
• Curriculum consultation. The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship sponsored a day-long event so Laura and I could present a curriculum we wrote to teachers from across North America. It was fun and exciting to have a conference like this dedicated to something we wrote. (read more)
• Eric Clapton concert. I saw Eric Clapton play at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids with Bryan and my colleague Ron Sjoerdsma. It was a wonderful night and Clapton was at the top of his game. (read more)
• A very intense two weeks in July. At the end of July Laura’s dad died just before I left for my trip to India. My father-in-law had been in a nursing home for a while and his death was expected but it was still difficult. To make things a little trickier I actually left on the day of the funeral, missing the memorial service, and headed out for what may be the most exotic trip I’ll ever take. Not only that but I celebrated my birthday in India - how cool is that! My journal of the trip (including a stop in Paris) is here.
• Two good conferences with Laura. Laura and I went together to the APCE conference in St Louis and the Children’s Spirituality Conference in River Forest, IL, just outside of Chicago. They were both good events made even more fun because Laura and I got to go together.
• Lynnae in Honk! My daughter Lynnae had a role in the school musical, Honk!
• The Class of 1976 reunion. My old friend Ken Winters came out for the Calvin College Class of ’76 reunion and he and Pete and I got together and played a few songs for the get-together, reuniting our old band, Blue Sky for the first time in over 30 years. (read more)
• Mono. Three of our kids got mono this year. Not fun.
• Publishing. While I do a fair amount of writing and publishing the big news is that the book that I’ve been writing for quite some time about helping children develop faith has been signed to Baker Books and will be out in about a year. This is a bigger project than any other I’ve ever done on my own (the second math book I wrote a number of years ago was bigger than this though but I had two co-authors and a math book is different.)
• The end of my involvement in the Lazy Blue Tunas. I quit the Tunas and went out with a wonderful packed-house Christmas show at the One Trick Pony. The boys in the band sent me off in a great way and the crowd was overwhelming, including presenting me with a petition not to leave the band with four pages of signatures. It was a fun night. (read more)

So there it is, 2006 in review. The real living, though, is not in the highlights. It’s in the everyday stuff and I have been richly blessed with health, a wonderful family and a job that I like a lot. Praise God.