Last night we had our young adults' worship service with NorthStar. I sang along with 8 others - three played guitar, two switched out playing keyboard, and a few people jumped on one of those box drums called Cajon. We have done this once a month for a long time, but this "band" has been together since March.
We started off praying in the little kitchen. Who knows how we get on the topics we get on when we talk, but out of that I started saying, "bee-do, bee-do, bee-do" from the minions on Despicable Me 2. We noted that four of us had on green or greenish blue shirts on and were standing next to each other and it looked like the sea with the arrays of green and blues. And then one girl, Christina, had on a bright pink and orange skirt on and so she said she was a salmon in the sea. :-) Ah, yes, our funny conversations. We finally stood and held hands and prayed.
When we got on stage, Katie started off singing, "Oceans" by Hillsong, which is one of my favorite songs. And she rocked it. The next song was, "God's Great Dance Floor," by Chris Tomlin. Juraj led this song and played guitar. He is from Slovakia and is here for 6 weeks, and has an awesome voice! I saw smiles when we started the song and Juraj said, "It is hard to introduce a song in English so... welcome to God's Great Dance Floor." Tiffany led, "One Thing Remains" and played guitar as well during all of the songs and it was great! David led, "Beautiful Things," by Gungor, and at the end Katie and I sang the girl harmony section and when everybody joined in on their parts it was loud and beautiful, but I had to keep looking back to see if Katie and I were on the same beat/words because I couldn't hear her!
For the next song, I led, "Revelation Song," and for some reason as Juraj was playing the chords leading up to me starting, I couldn't hear the note I was supposed to start on! That has never happened for me! I started in a key that was way too low. After the first verse, I stopped and tried to listen again. Juraj almost stopped playing so I nodded and made the hand gesture for him to keep going. Finally I heard it right, and started in again. When I close my eyes to sing, I imagine that I am standing right in front of the Lord singing, and that takes away any nervousness or frustration at messing up. And then I just sing.
After communion, Bryan had us pray for Joy and Catherine who are leaving in a few weeks to go out of the country for a year. We all came around them and put hands on them and those around them. I hadn't expected to cry.... or sob for that matter. Then to turn right around and have to go back up on stage was a little tough! Mat'a led, "How Great is our God," and did an awesome job! She is also from Slovakia. She and Juraj sang part of the end in Slovak while we sang it in English. Beautiful.
Katie led, "At the Cross," and it was another great song. Christina led, "Jesus, Son of God," and her sweet voice made me proud. Right at the end of that song I realized I needed water and had left it against the wall off stage, so I put the mic down at the end and ran to get my water. I couldn't sing the next song without water! Katie and I sang verses for, "How He Loves," and that song had to be last because it wore me out!
We finished by praying for Aaron who is going to Indiana for 4 years. As we went to lay hands on him as well, we joked that we ran out of places to put hands on him. When Bryan prayed, at one point he said, "Help Aaron to find a good community where he going and to find great friends there too," and a ton of people said, "yes" or "uh-huh" or "mmm-hmmm" all at once and it was so funny that we all started laughing and then David threw in, "I echo that. I'm echoing your echo," which is from this funny video where they say all the things that Christians say and ham it up a bit. I think someone also yelled out, "Amen!" and then Bryan continued. In that moment where we were all laughing in the middle of prayer I just pictured God smiling on us too. Laughter and prayer was a beautiful thing.
After lots of hugs and conversations, some of us headed to Steak-n-Shake. When the waitress brought us waters, only a few of us had arrived to order them and more had then come. "Oh, I'm not sure who just got here... who needs a drink?" Brad D. said, "It's ok, we can share until more come." Everyone stopped and looked at him like he was crazy. We were like, "Um, no. We aren't sharing waters." Haha. Brad told us about the mugs and birdhouses he has made out of clay and sells, and how he's made mugs in blue, black, and another color that was kind of neutral but I forget which color. He said he wants them to be soothing and calm colors. I said, "Will you make me one in hot pink?!" So, we'll see about that. :-) It's ok, I don't need to be calm while I drink coffee. We talked about heaven and Brad joked that he wanted his own room. AJ wondered if we will have brains and I said probably not. We talked about the trinity, about bible verses, and things going on in our lives. Brad lost 50 cents to a cheap claw machine while trying to win a stuffed animal. Joy told us how almost all of her money has been raised to go to Bosnia and that she will be sending out monthly updates to us.
I write all of this to remember it.
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