I love my work!

Every week I braille the Orders of Worship for Seattle’s University Presbyterian Church (UPC) morning and evening Sunday services, as well as special seasonal services. I just finished the braille for the month of December.

UPC is a large church with a wonderful music program that includes several choirs and many accomplished musicians performing on organ, piano, strings, brass, wind, and percussion instruments. The music seems especially glorious during the Christmas season, and I find myself singing, humming, smiling broadly and looking upward as I braille the services for the joyous Christmas celebration.

Throughout the year, the Church also asks me to braille lyrics for a person who sings in one of the choirs.

Thank you, UPC, for your faithful seventeen-year mission to your braille-reading participants. I look forward to the next seventeen years.

Did I tell you, I love my work!

It started sixteen years ago when the mother of a blind 15-year-old felt her son would have more interest in attending Sunday church services if he had a braille version of the bulletin. Using braille, he could join in the recitation of printed prayers and responses, follow along with the Scripture reading, and sing the words of the hymns with the rest of the congregation.

Brailled Hymns Invite Braille Readers to Sing Along

Thus was born a new ministry for the University Presbyterian Church (UPC) which, although small in numbers of people who use the braille bulletins, renders immeasurable benefits.

I have brailled the Sunday bulletins for all of these sixteen years, and still I feel a joyful anticipation every Wednesday when the text for the morning and evening services arrives in my email box. It is a joyous interlude to the work of the day, and I find myself humming the tunes of the hymns as I braille the words.

In addition to the regular Sunday services, the church provides braille bulletins for special services such as Easter and Christmas.

UPC also ministers to those who are hearing impaired by providing signing for its morning and evening services.

University Presbyterian Church, a Christ-centered church founded in 1908, has more than 4500 members. Located in the heart of Seattle’s University District, UPC makes the big church welcoming through small groups and community ministries.

Image courtesy of www.upc.org