-Disclaimer-
This is part 2 of the trilogy... About Eden-Sol's gig on the 23rd of October. To get a bigger picture, scroll down to the next entry and read through it before coming here. Have fun reading!
***
3 weeks soon whittled down to 2 weeks, and it was the weekend. Good news over personal matters came drifting in. I scored 123/150 for my grade 8 practical examination, giving me a nice merit, and my brother's arm was healing up just fine. CT results were expected the following week, and I was pretty upbeat about it. With just a little fatigue from the jamming sessions, I came to church a happy guy. The guys in the band were alright as well.
We were due for our very first 'exco' meeting one of the days on the following week. After spending quite some time bumming around school and stuff, we finally got to meet our student helpers and tell them what was in store. I short journey down to Marina Square got everybody settled and ready to do the Lord's work. Dinner at the food court was fine, and though the loss in appetite set in, I felt pretty ok.
Dylan
Bel
Elisa
Xian Hui
Cheryl
Andrea
I think these were the people who came for the meeting besides the members of Eden-Sol. Did I miss anyone out? Once again I wanna thank them for coming.
The first time I met the helpers I was pretty excited, cos all of them seemed really mature and capable. Soon I found out the first thing wasn't true haha. But they were definitely much more capable than us guys. Guoren chaired the first meeting, explaining what we were planning, our rationale and whatever we needed from them. For a moment after Guoren explained everything most of them sat there in what seemed like shocked silence IMO.
Then Andrea said something that really encouraged us. I can't remember what exactly it was, but it convinced us that the Lord was with us on this awesome journey, and something awesome was going to happen soon. And it gave us the determination and hope to carry on.
From that week on... We had prayer meetings in the morning. And each morning we took the chance to refresh ourselves with song and prayer. Everyone came down, and some new people like Abby and Therese appeared soon. Our number of helpers were increasing day by day, and the manpower numbers were soon enough for us to successfully plan for the concert!
Remember the 5 things we lacked?
1. Manpower
2. Money
3. Music Practise
4. Script
5. Logs
With this turn of events... We finally had enough manpower to handle most of the admin stuff, as well as the logistics and food. All we had to do was supply them with the money. (Which we unfortunately did not have at that point in time.) So the only worry was money, practise, and the script. Despite that, we thanked God for the provision of so many willing and able people to help us and further His cause.
Soon midweek came, and people started getting stresssed. I could feel it really strongly. Sam and Gabriel were worried about money, as well as the practise venues for jamming sessions. YFC seemed to be getting very erratic. First, they refused to help us as Choon Wing was a Catholic. Secondly, they refused to lend us Emmanuel house for practise as they were all busy. So Sam and Gab really had lots of headaches.
Guoren had his PW and Chinese to worry about, cos he felt that his group members were letting him do all the work, and his chinese wasn't improving as much as he wanted it to be. Choon Wing was working with Cheryl and Rachel on the script. And I think he felt pretty at home with the two girls so I guess he wasn't facing that many problems. I was in charge of the evangelistic portion, and I guess that put me under lots of stress. Cos evangelism is the most important right?
Worse of all, our song list couldn't materialise cos the script wasn't done yet. We kept having to switch songs and think of new and more suitable songs to play. It was real tough. And I think we scraped through at that point in time. Guoren and Gabriel had thoughts of quitting the band, and it seemed everything was in jeopardy. But we pushed on, (regrettably) forgetting something really important along the way. I think I was second on the morale chart after Choon Wing at that point in time.
Things were about to get even worse on my side. Initially I'd felt pretty ok. I was juggling my guitar stuff, my piano stuff, my church and also my Eden-Sol commitments pretty well. And I thanked God everyday for whatever he was doing, and giving me the strength that I could use to help my band mates.
The weekend came, and after all the intense jamming I was feeling quite good considering all the stuff I had to do. The evangelistic aspect wasn't done yet, but I had quite a good idea about it so I wasn't too worried. Then came Saturday. The first half was PW day, which was pretty ok. And the second half I went to Heeren with my bros to celebrate Mel's and Shaun's (2 of my church mates) birthdays.
It was there I met a really tired out Rachel. It seemed that besides our gig, she had an additional performance right after that with the Raffles Players. In between the script planning sessions for our band, she had to go for the production rehearsals and lots of other stuff as well. It made me wonder whether we'd pushed her too hard. Although she kept up with the smiling and talking and stuff, I could see she was tired, and perhaps a bit angry at the circumstances.
She told me that I had to act. And I was amused yet horrified. I didn't expect any appearance in the skit, and I knew that acting wasn't my cup of tea. After all, I was a science student. With the evangelistic thing, it meant that I had to:
1. Play the bass
2. Play the acoustic
3. Play the keyboard
4. Deliver the Evangelistic Message
5. Act! o_O
And that made me sorta like the person who would be doing the most in terms of the performance. But that was the least of my worries.
As Rachel said on her blog, it wasn't like her at all to be so busy. It made me really guilty. After all, I was the one who roped her into this, and I felt that it was my fault. Looking at her closing her eyes or slumped on the table asleep made me really miserable through the whole thing. I cried inside even when she flashed me a tired smile. In fact, I wanted her to withdraw from the performance. After she'd left for home, I confided in Paul and Jon (my two other church friends) and they told me that it was her choice and it wasn't my fault. It didn't really help though their intentions were good.
It wasn't until I reached home that I felt better. I read through my bible. And came across Isaiah 40:30-31.
"Even youths grow tired and and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
I posted it on my blog, and sent it via text message to Rachel. And the return message made me see truly that she had decided that she would go through this cos it was her choice. In fact she counter encouraged me. And I felt much better. I could see what Paul and Jon meant by what they'd told me. And I was convinced that even though Rachel was my childhood friend and I was protective of her, I had to let her make her decisions on her own.
After that, I introduced my blog to my band-mates, and they read through it. And it was through this verse that they got encouraged, and were reminded to trust and hope in God no matter what happened. And that was the beginning of a whole new revelation for all of us, a reminder to focus on God and God alone.
But something was coming, something even more devastating and demoralising than the things listed in this post. Stay tuned to see how we overcame the greatest and largest mental attack the devil placed in our path.
Coming soon... Amazing Journey Part 3.
This is part 2 of the trilogy... About Eden-Sol's gig on the 23rd of October. To get a bigger picture, scroll down to the next entry and read through it before coming here. Have fun reading!
***
3 weeks soon whittled down to 2 weeks, and it was the weekend. Good news over personal matters came drifting in. I scored 123/150 for my grade 8 practical examination, giving me a nice merit, and my brother's arm was healing up just fine. CT results were expected the following week, and I was pretty upbeat about it. With just a little fatigue from the jamming sessions, I came to church a happy guy. The guys in the band were alright as well.
We were due for our very first 'exco' meeting one of the days on the following week. After spending quite some time bumming around school and stuff, we finally got to meet our student helpers and tell them what was in store. I short journey down to Marina Square got everybody settled and ready to do the Lord's work. Dinner at the food court was fine, and though the loss in appetite set in, I felt pretty ok.
Dylan
Bel
Elisa
Xian Hui
Cheryl
Andrea
I think these were the people who came for the meeting besides the members of Eden-Sol. Did I miss anyone out? Once again I wanna thank them for coming.
The first time I met the helpers I was pretty excited, cos all of them seemed really mature and capable. Soon I found out the first thing wasn't true haha. But they were definitely much more capable than us guys. Guoren chaired the first meeting, explaining what we were planning, our rationale and whatever we needed from them. For a moment after Guoren explained everything most of them sat there in what seemed like shocked silence IMO.
Then Andrea said something that really encouraged us. I can't remember what exactly it was, but it convinced us that the Lord was with us on this awesome journey, and something awesome was going to happen soon. And it gave us the determination and hope to carry on.
From that week on... We had prayer meetings in the morning. And each morning we took the chance to refresh ourselves with song and prayer. Everyone came down, and some new people like Abby and Therese appeared soon. Our number of helpers were increasing day by day, and the manpower numbers were soon enough for us to successfully plan for the concert!
Remember the 5 things we lacked?
1. Manpower
2. Money
3. Music Practise
4. Script
5. Logs
With this turn of events... We finally had enough manpower to handle most of the admin stuff, as well as the logistics and food. All we had to do was supply them with the money. (Which we unfortunately did not have at that point in time.) So the only worry was money, practise, and the script. Despite that, we thanked God for the provision of so many willing and able people to help us and further His cause.
Soon midweek came, and people started getting stresssed. I could feel it really strongly. Sam and Gabriel were worried about money, as well as the practise venues for jamming sessions. YFC seemed to be getting very erratic. First, they refused to help us as Choon Wing was a Catholic. Secondly, they refused to lend us Emmanuel house for practise as they were all busy. So Sam and Gab really had lots of headaches.
Guoren had his PW and Chinese to worry about, cos he felt that his group members were letting him do all the work, and his chinese wasn't improving as much as he wanted it to be. Choon Wing was working with Cheryl and Rachel on the script. And I think he felt pretty at home with the two girls so I guess he wasn't facing that many problems. I was in charge of the evangelistic portion, and I guess that put me under lots of stress. Cos evangelism is the most important right?
Worse of all, our song list couldn't materialise cos the script wasn't done yet. We kept having to switch songs and think of new and more suitable songs to play. It was real tough. And I think we scraped through at that point in time. Guoren and Gabriel had thoughts of quitting the band, and it seemed everything was in jeopardy. But we pushed on, (regrettably) forgetting something really important along the way. I think I was second on the morale chart after Choon Wing at that point in time.
Things were about to get even worse on my side. Initially I'd felt pretty ok. I was juggling my guitar stuff, my piano stuff, my church and also my Eden-Sol commitments pretty well. And I thanked God everyday for whatever he was doing, and giving me the strength that I could use to help my band mates.
The weekend came, and after all the intense jamming I was feeling quite good considering all the stuff I had to do. The evangelistic aspect wasn't done yet, but I had quite a good idea about it so I wasn't too worried. Then came Saturday. The first half was PW day, which was pretty ok. And the second half I went to Heeren with my bros to celebrate Mel's and Shaun's (2 of my church mates) birthdays.
It was there I met a really tired out Rachel. It seemed that besides our gig, she had an additional performance right after that with the Raffles Players. In between the script planning sessions for our band, she had to go for the production rehearsals and lots of other stuff as well. It made me wonder whether we'd pushed her too hard. Although she kept up with the smiling and talking and stuff, I could see she was tired, and perhaps a bit angry at the circumstances.
She told me that I had to act. And I was amused yet horrified. I didn't expect any appearance in the skit, and I knew that acting wasn't my cup of tea. After all, I was a science student. With the evangelistic thing, it meant that I had to:
1. Play the bass
2. Play the acoustic
3. Play the keyboard
4. Deliver the Evangelistic Message
5. Act! o_O
And that made me sorta like the person who would be doing the most in terms of the performance. But that was the least of my worries.
As Rachel said on her blog, it wasn't like her at all to be so busy. It made me really guilty. After all, I was the one who roped her into this, and I felt that it was my fault. Looking at her closing her eyes or slumped on the table asleep made me really miserable through the whole thing. I cried inside even when she flashed me a tired smile. In fact, I wanted her to withdraw from the performance. After she'd left for home, I confided in Paul and Jon (my two other church friends) and they told me that it was her choice and it wasn't my fault. It didn't really help though their intentions were good.
It wasn't until I reached home that I felt better. I read through my bible. And came across Isaiah 40:30-31.
"Even youths grow tired and and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
I posted it on my blog, and sent it via text message to Rachel. And the return message made me see truly that she had decided that she would go through this cos it was her choice. In fact she counter encouraged me. And I felt much better. I could see what Paul and Jon meant by what they'd told me. And I was convinced that even though Rachel was my childhood friend and I was protective of her, I had to let her make her decisions on her own.
After that, I introduced my blog to my band-mates, and they read through it. And it was through this verse that they got encouraged, and were reminded to trust and hope in God no matter what happened. And that was the beginning of a whole new revelation for all of us, a reminder to focus on God and God alone.
But something was coming, something even more devastating and demoralising than the things listed in this post. Stay tuned to see how we overcame the greatest and largest mental attack the devil placed in our path.
Coming soon... Amazing Journey Part 3.
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