Hi guys! We are back! :)
Im extremely thankful to be given the opportunity to travel so far away to worship God together with so many people from different churches. I believe that all of us have learned a lot from this whole process, from the preparation to the trip.
Before we started preparing for this trip, I had a really hard time singing while playing the guitar because I had just picked up guitar and I dont usually sing, but since we have no lead vocalist, all of us had no choice but to sing while focusing on playing the right notes with the right rhythm on our instruments. I thought it was impossible for me to do it in such a short period of time in the beginning, and was so nervous even till the minute before our first praise night started. But from all these years of serving, I learned to just try my best and let God do the rest (haha it rhymes,) and so I prayed that God will help me with what I thought was impossible to do. It was amazing because during that night, I was able to truly worship without worrying about playing the wrong things or singing the wrong verses like I usually do during our practices for this trip, and we were able to bring the congregation into worship. I felt that God was in the midst, listening to our praises to Him. It was a great reminder for me of Gods power. Ever since then, I was more confident and less nervous about all these things that I thought I couldnt do. I was at the same time, so thankful that although I wasnt very musically talented, God still used me, not just me but whole group in such an amazing way.
During each praise night, not only do we have sing and play our instruments, we also shared our testimonies. This gave me an opportunity to reflect upon all these things that God has done in my life. Sadly, due to the business of school and even church, I didnt have much time or even bothered to think about these things, so preparing for the testimony allowed me to see how God has guided me throughout all these years. It reminded me about how much more I need Him, how much more I need to trust Him, obey and follow Him.
We are also extremely blessed to have Jonathon Koh and Chuck Hong teach us. They brought us up to a level that weve never been. We would not be able to reach it as a band if it wasnt for them! Jonathons testimonies and lessons were so encouraging to our team, because he reminded us about the heart of worship, that worship is not about music, its about God. And we worship God not only during praise sessions, but we should be worshipping Him with everything that we do.
Lastly, it was such a great experience seeing so people from all these different churches worship our one and only God. Somehow, it brought me so much joy and encouragement. We also had opportunities to interact with the church members and they were so kind to us. The efforts that some churches have spent to outreach to the non-believers and to nurture their youths was quite encouraging to me, showing me how much more I could do for my own church.
Meixuan