Adam M. L. Tice

I wrote "God, Give Me Faith Like a Child" in 2012, shortly after moving back to Indiana. I was impressed by my then-toddler's ability to adapt to our new life, even as I struggled to figure out what to do with myself. Sally Morris provided me with the plaintive tune just a few days later. This might be the simplest track on Walk in Peace ; it is certainly one of my favorites. The vocalist is the amazing Pax Ressler and the guitarist is Matthias Stegmann , who also engineered most of the album. Rather than recording the guitar and vocalist separately (as would normally be the approach), we recorded them simultaneously. Giving the musicians some room for give-and-take makes for a beautiful track. The text and tune can be found in Stars Like Grace , in the Walk in Peace collection, or as an octavo (with another piece from the CD, "When You Wonder, When You Wander."

There's an old dresser in the guest room of our house. To an untrained eye, it looks "nice," perhaps "pretty" in an antique sort of way, and certainly functional. Look closely and you'll notice artful stenciling on the front that says, "John Kinsinger" and "1876." (Look even more closely and you'll notice that the "s" in Kinsinger is backwards.) John Kinsinger was my great-great-grandfather. The dresser was made for his 18th birthday by his grandfather, Jacob Knagy. Jacob, my great-great-great-great-grandfather, lived from 1796 to 1883, so he was around 80 when he built this piece. He was a prolific furniture maker, and his work is now considered quite collectable . Beyond its functionality and basic visual appeal, people who know anything about wood-working get very excited about the dresser. They pull open the drawers and marvel at the hand-carved dovetails, which line up perfectly. They touch the wood and comment...

I was delighted to spend Tuesday at the National Association of Pastoral Musicians annual convention in Grand Rapids. It was a wonderful day of connecting with a number of my collaborators, several of whom I met for the first time. (One of the odd things about hymn writing is that sometimes producing a piece together can happen without any direct interaction!) One of these previously un-met composers is Norah Duncan IV: Norah is best-known in Mennonite circles for the "Duncan Alleluia," which was popularized by John Bell and the Iona community, and is included in our Sing the Journey hymnal supplement. Several years ago Norah provided my text "Christ the Victorious" with an energetic choral setting in an African-American gospel style. (The "listen preview" here provides a rather buttoned-down rendition.) He tells me that the premier performance went on for 26 minutes! When I conducted it at Hyattsville Mennonite it only took four. It has also been tr...