Finals complete, car packed, home in the distance. Only thing left is playing for graduation on Saturday. Look for another Union post around the middle of August.
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Here it is. The last stretch. The end of the sophomore year is in sight. It’s been a long and enjoyable ride (with a few bumps), but thank heavens I’m almost done. I have five finals standing between me and the best summer of my life. Of course, once I completed board exams last Friday, I had no worries at all. That’s the joy of being a music major. No big finals to take, except for maybe a few.
Anyhow, this past weekend, I got to hang out with some pretty awesome people down in Selmer. First, I spent the night with my sweet Mimi and Grampy on Friday. I had planned on eating supper with them, then go to rehearsal, and then go home to unpack a few things from my car. Well, rehearsal got canceled so I just stayed the night. The next day, I went to Mud Creek to unpack and few things and spent some time with Grandmother and Grandaddy.
Later on in the evening, I went to Selmer and hung out with some locals who just love to get together and listen to good rockabilly and classic country music. Rich Gilbert and Eileen Rose, the inspirations for the new Rockabilly Highway Mural, were on hand to give us McNairy Countians a little concert. Yes, the rain poured. Yes, we had a good time anyway.
This is why I go home every, single weekend 
Well, the weekend was so close to being a complete best friend reunion weekend. Miss Kailyn Lovelace stayed in Nashville again, so I wasn’t able to see her. But I get to next week and I’m pretty excited about that! COME HOME KAILYNmarieLOVELACE!
Anyway, I did get to see my other two best friends on Saturday! Around 12:30, I met the lovely Miranda Martin at Kokomo’s for lunch. If I remember correctly, this is the first time I’ve seen her since Christmas. That’s way too long a time to come between best friends. We had such a good time catching up and laughing and telling stories and you know, best friend stuff. She’s pretty awesome. Thank goodness I’ll be staying home all summer!
And then that evening, I finally was able to reunite with the dear Samantha Browder for dinner at Mama Fia’s! My how I have missed her! We remained close friends all throughout high school and that bond has strengthened since graduation. You know those friends you graduated with that no matter how many miles or days come between you, the bond never weakens? Samantha is one of those. She has grown so much spiritually since high school and I couldn’t be prouder of her. Each time we see each other, we just pick up right where we left off. I only have a few more weeks to see her before she leaves me again! She’ll be leaving soon for Washington state to do mission work for pretty much the entire summer. As a best friend, I can deal with that…I think.
I love my best friends. Thank you, Lord.
Last night, as I finished my blog post, I realized that I had yet to blog about some pretty awesome people that I’ve spent a lot of time with this semester.
My JAM Ladies.
Right as school started up again in February, I began going to the intramural basketball games that Kathryn, Carol, and Kacee were playing in. At first, I just sat in the bleachers and cheered. One night, Kacee told me that I needed to coach them because their coach, Josh, had a test to study for. At first, I was hesitant. “All you have to do is send in subs when we get tired,” she said. So I gave in. I show up at the game and of course, I made myself do more than just sub the players. I yelled, I hollered, I jumped, and I encouraged. The team we happened to be playing that night was pretty tough and the girls were not very excited about playing them. The score was 15-13 in favor of the JAM Ladies. I was one proud coach. From then on, I was assistant coach for their basketball team.
Then along came softball. I had to be there. So, along with Carol’s boyfriend Grant, we coached those girls and went all the way to the championship game. We lost to the Pharmacy team, but we were so proud that we had made it that far. We had a blast all season long and I can’t wait to coach them again in the fall for volleyball and flag football.
You’ll be hearing me say that phrase quite often come this fall. Why? Because this ole boy is one of Union University’s newest Student Ambassadors!
That’s right! This means that I’ll be giving tours of the campus and I will also be in contact with prospective students from around the country promoting Union. This is a great opportunity that I have wanted to do since my first semester here and I’m so glad I’ll be able to do it. After working in a hole-in-the-wall (literally) in Undergraduate Admissions for a year and a half, I have been able to get an understanding of how Undergraduate Admissions works. I’ve packed the mailouts (too many times), entered the data (over a thousand students) and organized the applications. I am working my way up the social ladder! I can’t wait to start on this new journey and for those high school students reading this, come check out Union! I could be your tour guide!
How does this sound?
“Hi! Welcome to Union! My name is Logan Brasher and I’m a junior music education major. I’m so happy that you’re here today with your family and that you are considering joining us here at Union. I can’t wait to show you this place and tell of the awesome blessings I’ve received by coming here. So let’s get started!”
Today was just one of those days. Nothing seemed to be working in my favor (except for the 87 I got on my World Lit test). Some issues regarding housing arose last night that I wasn’t too excited about. I had two projects due today and one of those projects hit a major bump around midnight last night. Therefore, I was up for a quite a while. Then I totally bombed my piece that I played in repertoire class today. I hate messing up when I play the piano so that really put a dent in my day. By the time I finished talking with my piano teacher, I was just ill and ticked off and ready for the day to end. So, I decided to go get my oil changed and tires rotated from King Tire Co. since I had a coupon…and since my car had gone almost 6,000 miles since it’s last oil change.
I get there and while I’m chilling and waiting, a fellow named Brian comes up and sits down and we get to talking. It turns out that we have a mutual friend and he all but promised to come see “Into the Woods” in June. So, that was a nice conversation. But the best was yet to come.
After Brian left, a man by the name of Lee Brewer comes and sits down beside me. Mr. Brewer is 85 years old. We get to talking and talk for an hour and a half. He tells me his life story and then we get to talking about the Bible. He opened my eyes to things I had never considered in my entire life. I was entranced the whole time and that hour and a half seemed to pass by like a speeding bullet. Well, after our long and enjoyable talk, our cars were called up at the same time. We go to separate registers and when I get ready to pay, the man at the counter says, “Yours has been paid for.” I was startled and said, “What?” He replied with, “Mr. Brewer paid for your oil change, rotation, and inspection. Have you met him before?” The thing was, I had never met Mr. Brewer in my life until that day. I was speechless and very emotional. This has never happened to me before. And today was the perfect day for something like this to happen. And what did I learn from all this?
There is a God. And there are still good people in the world.
This past weekend was nothing but great. I can’t convey to you my excitement of being at home in McNairy County. And then the dismay that came when I realized I still have two weeks of classes left (plus finals).
It all started Friday night. I had my choral concert at FBC Jackson with the very last SATB Choral Union. Normally, this would be just another concert for me. Sing a few songs, listen to Singers and Proc, go home. Not this time. My whole family got to be there! Mom, Dad, Quinten, and Natalie! Plus my Nana and two cousins, Bailey and Rylie! I’ve never had that much support at one of my concerts at UU! I was beside myself!
On Saturday, I went down to Selmer to appear for my callback for Arts in McNairy’s (AiM) summer musical, “Into the Woods.” My callback was for the role of Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk). Did I mention that we’re in a brand new theatre that just happens to be the most high-tech theatre between Memphis and Nashville? No? Well, we are. And that someone donated a baby grand piano to the theatre?! But that’s another story, nevermind…ANYWAY! I show up for my callback and reunite with some of the other AiM college students like Emily Pitts, Hillary Mead, Payden and Chaseton Donahoe, and Jana Matlock. We had a great time catching up before we read and sang. Hillary and I had been talking for a few days about the auditions and we were nervous wrecks. Apparently, I did very well. Because that night, I was cast as the role of JACK! And so did she because she was cast as Rapunzel! We were in hog heaven! This is the biggest role I have ever had with AiM and I can’t wait to perform it in the new theatre!!!!!!!!!
Sunday came and the first of it was normal. After church, I went down to Mud Creek to have a meal with my Calvary Baptist Church family in their old church building. They are always so kind and I love being with them. Afterwards, I headed to The Marty in Adamsville to play the piano for Ms. Gloria Stamper’s retirement party. She has taught at the elementary school since my parents were there. She is often stereotyped as the meanest teacher at AES. While she can get a bit loud, she cares more for her students that anyone else in that building. I was never in her classroom, but I was able to work with her in the after-school program in high school. She really loves people, she just has a different way of showing it. Around 4:00, I hopped on over to the city park in Adamsville where we had our community church picnic. This included all the churches in town (plus some out-of-town churches) enjoying a meal together and worshiping with each other. It always thrills my heart when we are able to fellowship with our brothers and sisters of other denominations (or the lack thereof). Hot? Yes. Enjoyable? Absolutely.
I’ve posted a few times on this blog about those fundamentalist Christians. You know, the ones that are KJV only, hate Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), dislike other denominations other than their own, and quarantine themselves from society. Well, I ran across an article the other day that absolutely infuriated me. It takes a lot to do that since I am normally a very happy person.
In this article, a die-hard fundamentalist absolutely crucifies CCM. I’ve dealt with a lot of these kinds of articles before and even people. But reading all this makes me sick. I take this very personally. I am a worship minister who uses predominantly CCM in the services at the church I serve at. We sing hymns sometimes, but with a little more contemporary flavor. This man (whoever he is), limits music into one specific category. He blasts CCM artists. He refuses to listen to any outside source about how someone else might interpret the Bible. He is fully convinced that his interpretation is right, no two-ways about it. People like him are destroying Christianity and the church. I think I know where the problem lies…
He says that because music doesn’t fit the standards of Western tradition regarding rhythm, pitch, and intonation, it’s not worshipful. I wonder what he thinks about the Christians in Africa who play music that hardly resembles our own standards. So what if the CCM I listen to doesn’t sound like a funeral? The only things that matter are the words that I sing and the content of my heart when I sing them. Get off your high-horse and do what’s important: EVANGELIZE!
Those of us that have gone to a CCM concert before know that sometimes, an invitation is given for those who wish to be saved. Those of us that have gone to many of these concerts know that the number is great. Here’s his response to that:
“While we certainly will not say, no one can be saved at a CCM concert – we do not believe “thousands” are being saved at CCM concerts. If people are getting saved — Praise the Lord! If people are getting saved, it is for factors outside the CCM concerts, such as someone “witnessing” and “praying” for that person. It’s because that person has at some time heard the “preaching” of the word of God.”
How would he know all these things if he hasn’t gone to a CCM concert in his life? It’s my understanding that “preaching” is proclaiming the Word of God and sharing the Gospel, saying or SINGING. So what if they aren’t behind a podium in a church building when they SING the Word of God? Isn’t the Church the gathering of God’s people rather than the building and what makes it up?
His narrow-minded opinions do nothing but divide Christians. He is more obsessed with his own personal opinion that evangelizing the lost and discipling the saved. And people wonder why Christians are avoided…
Here’s the link to the article if you’d like to read it: http://www.av1611.org/cqquest.html
Don’t y’all just love your grandparents? Now that might not be as tech-savvy as we are or anything like that, but they are just precious. I’m so lucky to have so many grandparents and I always say you can never have too many. And they make life just grand with those little moments in time.So here’s a story about my Mimi
On Easter Sunday night, she invited me to come to church with her since I was staying in town for the night before going back to Jackson. This church is a real small country church in my community called Calvary Baptist. There are some of the sweetest people in the world that go there. But that’s not the best part. See, my Mimi and Grampy are fundamental, independent Baptists. Yeah, those. Without even thinking about it, I show up to church in an unironed, untucked button-up shirt and jeans with holes in them. The minute I walked in, she said, “I’m takin’ up an offerin’ to buy you patches for them jeans you got on.” She told that to pretty much everyone there and it was hysterical! We all laughed about it and even one of the older ladies there said, “JoAnn, those are in style!” In my defense, I said, “I could have been kneeling in prayer and worn these jeans plum out for all you know!”
Like I always say, “it’s the little things in life that make life worth living.”
In two years at Union, I have taken for granted my education and experiences here. I know that this is a great place, but I never really saw what made it so great. This week, my eyes were opened to the sheer excellence of this place called Union University.
On Wednesday night, I represented the College Republicans at Senate with our special guest, President David S. Dockery. We like to call those nights “DSD Senate.” Dr. Dockery took the stand and gave about 100 students a glimpse of where the university has been and where it is going. He unveiled a new item called Illuminating Minds: Union 2015 which is our newest vision campaign. I can’t tell you everything we saw (mostly because I can’t remember!), but it’s good stuff! He also showed us where our tuition money actually goes and broke down by percentages what goes where. He then compared us to Christian colleges around the country who put too much of an emphasis on one thing and not enough on the other. He said that Union has the perfect mix of the two and we are very blessed to be where we are in the life of post-secondary education. But the highlight of the night was the surprise of free housing during Winter Term 2013! I’m pretty excited
Then on Thursday, I went to my World Literature class with Dr. Gene Fant. We are studying Dido & Aeneas by Virgil, an ancient Greek. A theme he kept reiterating was that “politicians cannot let passions get in the way of what needs to be done.” Aeneas, being a great ruler, had a massive decision to make. One decision was influenced by passions, the other by society. Because he made the decision he did, he went to found Rome, and yes I mean, ROME, ITALY. We all know the stories of Rome. Dr. Fant used this illustration, plus one of his own, to let us know that we all will have an “Aeneas moment” at least once in our lifetime; a moment when the decision we make, however small we think it is, could affect the rest of our lives for the good or the better. It was incredible.
Then I went to the groundbreaking ceremony for our new library that should be completed before I graduate in 2015. It was a time of reflection and celebration. Dr. Dockery wasn’t hesitant to give God the glory for all He has done on this campus. We prayed, we read Scripture, we sang, and we dug. An awesome ceremony.
And then today, I got to see the value of my profs on a student-professor relationship basis. I had an issue that had been bothering me and I was able to go to one of my professors, discuss it with him, and come out happy. The professors listen intently, authentically caring about what you are saying, and then offer input. And the cool part is though you may not like what they say, you see the value of it and end up agreeing with them. They are stupendous.
Now you see why I love this place so much?
