My Greatest Contribution to My Community by Allyssa

My Greatest Contribution to My Community by Allyssa - January 2024 Scholarship Essay

For many years, my church congregation had a difficult time finding musicians capable of accompanying worship services on Sundays and throughout the week. One elderly member could play the piano for most of the larger services, but nobody at the church could play the new organ that had recently been gifted to the parish at all, and of the smaller services were completely unaccompanied.
Occasionally, a younger man from outside the congregation would play the piano on Sunday to give the usual pianist a break, but everyone knew that this was not the best solution. While it was still a great blessing to have a musician who was willing and able to serve the congregation, it was difficult for someone who was not used to our style of worship to jump in and help to lead it. What my church needed was a member of the congregation who was familiar with the way the services were conducted and could accompany them regularly.
When I saw this need, I was determine to develop my skills as a keyboardist until I could play for the entire worship service. I quickly saw that it would be a huge commitment, but I was convinced that I could do it. I spent most of my time not consumed by schoolwork learning to play the organ while keeping up with my piano practice,and after several months, I was ready to play piano for the shorter services that took place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. These services were less than half the length of Sunday services, though, and playing on Sundays, as I later discovered, required over ten times as much preparation as these midweek services.
I continued playing the piano each Tuesday and Thursday for about six months before my pastor asked if I would be ready to play on a Sunday soon. The man who had been playing on occasion had moved away, and he knew that I was learning organ. He also wanted to have organ music for the upcoming Reformation Day service, one of our biggest church festival days. The idea excited me. No one at our church had ever heard that organ played before, and Reformation Day seemed like the perfect time to introduce them to the rich, triumphant sound of the instrument. I agreed, but it was a big job, so I practiced whenever I had the chance.
At the same time as all this, the husband of our normal accompanist was struggling with cancer. Her sister was also having health issues, and she was herself over eighty years old. It became evident that she would need me to play fairly often, as the stress she was experiencing made it hard for her to do it every week. I realized that I would have to play a lot more often that I had initially expected.
Since then, I have grown a lot as an organist, and I look forward to every service I accompany. It still requires three to four hours of daily practice to prepare myself, but it is well worth the effort. The leadership that I provide with my playing is needed and appreciated by the whole congregation, and there is no way I would rather serve them.