The Neely Team

We’re back-tracking in time, because we just realized that, due to the craziness of other things going on at the same time, we never wrote anything about a very important event that occurred last fall! But, keep in mind, that the timing of this post has nothing to do with it’s importance in our lives!

This “event” was a much-anticipated Hymn Arranging Seminar, put on by our wonderful violin teacher, Mr. Pinner (with Pinner Studios). Seeing our interest in learning more about writing, composing, and arranging music, Mr. Pinner graciously put together an exciting weekend for us, complete with sessions, master class opportunities to have our pieces critiqued by guest clinicians from Bob Jones University (Dr. David Rasbach, Mr. Duane Ream, Mrs. Joan Pinkston, and Dr. Dwight Gustafson), productive Q & A, a choral concert written and directed by gifted composer/publisher Craig Courtney of Beckenhorst Press, and a whole morning in the BJU computer lab working on Finale software with Dr. David Parker! We were humbled… honored… amazed by all of the opportunities that weekend presented. The things we learned were tremendously helpful and we look forward to doing more in this field of music in the future. We also came away encouraged by the focus of the clinicians. In everything they did, they stressed our purpose in life: to glorify the Lord.

Thank you, Mr. Pinner!!

As our country remembers the events of September 11, 2001, we as a nation have forgotten the foundations on which our country was founded. As we remember the heroics of people who sacrificed for others, we have forgotten the God who gives us grace to remain a great nation. As we contemplate our desire for peace in the world, we have forgotten the God of peace.

In 1897, as a commemoration to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, Rudyard Kipling wrote “Recessional” (“God of Our Fathers”) not only as a tribute to the might and power of the British Empire, but as a stark reminder that we had best heed the warnings of Scripture or suffer the fate of all nations who fall victim to their own success and fail to walk in humility before Almighty God.

Deuteronomy 8:11-14 gives another warning to the perils of prosperity: “Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God.”

As the blessings of God lead to repentance, once again we cry out, “God bless America!”

Click here to hear samples of other songs from our patriotic recording.

A few weeks ago we were able to spend several days in Northern VA with our dear, dear friends, the Wilkes Team. One thing we have always appreciated about them is their heart for ministry, whether that be to each other, their neighbors, their community, their church family, or us! We were with them for the 4th of July, and once again they concocted an idea to reach out and minister to those around: through a Family Encouragement Float at the Culpeper Parade!

Keep in mind that none of us had ever done this before. Thus, as it got down “to the wire” and we had only an hour and a half left before it was time to be lining up at the parade, we saw a very obvious manifestation of the Lord’s blessing and what team work can do when the team is of one heart and mind! Lunch had yet to be finished, signs to be made, people to be dressed, candy to be attached to flyers of encouragement, a plan for how the float would actually look to be arranged (kinda important ), and much more, but all got done in record time as each individual pitched in with their unique giftings and abilities and worked with the joy of the Lord flowing from them! Our goal was to have the float communicate a message of hope and encouragement to families, since they are the indispensible building block of society! As goes the family, so goes the nation…

There is nothing like working together as families to encourage other families! Praise the Lord for holding off the rain for the parade and allowing us the opportunity to reach out to the people of Culpeper! God is good! 

Thank you, Wilkes Team, Uncle Nathan and Aunt Summer, and Grandpa and Grandma Wilkes for including us in your family and letting us be a part of this wonderful occasion!

Teaching stringed instruments has been a field of interest for many years, particularly teaching violin. For two of us, this dream became reality about a year and a half ago. Those two (Kathryn and I) have really enjoyed this area of ministry, have had bunches of fun, learned a ton, and asked lots of questions. Our wonderful violin teacher, Mr. Pinner, has told us over and over and over again that if we ever have any questions about teaching or any related topics, he is more than willing to help.

A few weeks ago I went to Mr. Pinner with quite a few teaching-related questions. What should I do in this situation? How would you handle this? How do you teach this? What should I do different? How can I help my student understand this concept better?

If you’ve ever taught an instrument, I’m sure you can relate. I’m so thankful that we have a teacher whose goal is to teach his students to teach, and who is ready, willing, and beyond capable of answering questions.

So with current teaching opportunities and the possibility of more, Mr. Pinner graciously offered to put together a String Pedagogy Workshop. He covered many topics including how to set up a string studio, how to mark and edit music, how to teach vibrato, dynamics, and bow control, string repair and maintenance, studio taxes, and much more!!!

Four of us Neelys participated, and we all came away motivated and excited about what the Lord has in store for us in this field of music. It was a fabulous time— worth every minute of it!!!

Thank you, Mr. Pinner, for letting the Lord use you in this way. You are an inspiration to many, and we look forward to learning more under your tutelage as the Lord allows!

Also, special thanks to the Wiginton family for hosting us for the weekend! What a blessing it was to us!

Have you ever considered that fellowship with other believers is sort-of like an energy swap? The power and joy of the Lord working in the lives of His children generates this unique, beautiful strength, and so when families get together for small periods of refreshment, and each individual has a focus first on Christ, and then on how he can bless those around him, the possibilities for the ways this energy can be exchanged are immeasurable!

What a privilege to have the Wilkes Team here for a few days!! The entire visit was truly one ginormous energy exchange (cross between ‘gigantic’ and ‘enormous’ ), as each individual shared freely from the abundant stores God has given. Gifts of testimony, praise, song, creativity, enthusiasm, and service were unrelentingly passed from person to person, until, in the end, we all came away completely filled up and ready to press on in life’s race.

One particular highlight for everyone on this visit was the night when our wonderful parents took the opportunity for a “double date,” leaving the other 19 of us at home alone. We declared it to be National Opposite Night, where we ate piping-hot soup from a cup with our least-trained hand, drank from bowls, and ate dessert on the kitchen floor. Ahhhh…. memories!

Another important feature of our days together was all the time we spent reading the Word, discussing what we’d read and many other aspects of the Christian life, singing the praise of our God, and coming before Him in prayer. These four elements helped to keep His goodness continually before our eyes, and kept us acknowledging Him in all of our ways. (Proverbs 3)

Thank you, once again, Wilkes Team, for being so willing to let the Lord use you to influence, encourage, and refresh us. May we all go forward with the mindset of being fountains of energy, bubbling with the joy of Jesus – so that others will be drawn to Him, and He gets the glory!

Yes, we know, it’s been way too long since we last posted anything… sorry about that. We’ll just have to blame it on the busyness of life – because it has been CRAZY here the past few weeks!! Anyway, we wanted to at least pop in and say “hi”, just so you know that we really haven’t dropped off the face of the earth… not yet, at least. We still have a good bit going on for a while, so until we have time to post something a little more interesting, here are some clips from a couple of  the songs we recorded a few weeks ago.

To hear the clip, click on the title; a couple buttons will pop up, then click the little “play” arrow.

Turn the Tide

Patriot’s Honor

God bless you all!!!

I stood back and eyed the washing machine, already full to capacity, and debated whether it would hold the last few items. Deciding that it probably wouldn’t complain about a little more, I picked up the last couple skirts, crammed them into the machine, and pushed the door shut. After filling the compartment of detergent and starting the wash cycle, I turned around and surveyed the mountains of dirty laundry around me. (Well, at 10:00 at night after a busy week and long day of traveling, it SEEMED like mountains!) Laundry baskets were stacked high with multicolored articles of clothing. Skirts, shirts, and pants were piled on the floor, and hangers seemed to be falling out of every bag I picked up. You could hardly step into the room! I shook my head and chuckled as I calculated the cause of the  mess. Six days worth of clothing for one person is a pretty decent amount; six days worth for twelve people… that’s seventy-two outfits (seventy-two shirts, seventy-two skirts/pairs of pants, one hundred forty-four socks, etc, etc.)!! That’s as many clothes as one person could wear in two in a half months all piled in our laundry room!!

So you’re probably thinking, “Okay, that’s really cool and everything, but…… why is all that laundry piled up in your laundry room??” Oh yeah. I was just getting to that.

Sunday night, we returned from our trip to Indianapolis where we recorded our patriotic program. Before I go any further, let me say on behalf of the family, thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who supported us in prayer as we worked on this project! You’ll never know what a blessing and encouragement it was to us to know that we were surrounded by friends and family who were lifting us up before the throne of grace!

We had a wonderful three days in the studio. Our engineer, Mr. Ben Vawter, was fantastic! His patience was incredible, as over and over again he would stop us to rework a rhythm or fix a pitch. His quick wit and ready humor were also great; after all, laughter is a great way to ward off those potentially stressful moments!! We also need to give credit to Mom, who was the behind-the-scenes manager – a huge blessing!! Our lunches were delicious, and whenever we had a quick break, she was there with snacks, water, and encouragement. Without her physical and moral support, it would’ve been a lot harder to do the project!

While the whole thing was a lot of work, we also had a lot of fun, and made a lot of memories. Over the  course of the three days, we started writing down the funny little things that were said. Some things were just words that we used as part of our terminology, but which would sound a bit unusual in the “real” world, such as punch, stack, and obble-gobble (a much more fun way of saying “obbligato”). Mr. Vawter had a few oft-repeated phrases which grew to be humorous as we heard them over and over:  “Not quite…”; “One more time!”; "Use your pretty voice."; “It’s a little pitchy.”; “I think we have a song!” (YES!! ) And then, of course, there was the usual chat and banter: Just do it! Correct lyrics there, please. I think we should stack that part. Come on, y’all! Let’s add some sauce. Can we punch it? You’re a little under. Why don’t we just sing the song! (Wow! Imagine doing that!!) It’s a little pitchy. What’s the verdict? Oh, gross!! Enunciate clearly. We might need to back up and punt. What? Where? Huh?? The high part is sharp. Blend!  Your notes are chipping. Let’s punch at the beginning of the obble-gobble. WHAT?! Oops! That’s okay – we know how you meant it to sound. Put your wants aside – do what we NEED!!!

While we thoroughly enjoyed the recording  process, we are also glad to have that part of the project behind us, and now we look forward to getting it completely finished. The Lord has shown His care for so many of our little concerns already – we marvel at seeing His hand working out details in ways that we never imagined! We pray that everything will continue to come together in God’s timing and God’s way, and that everything we do will bring Him glory!