An Update!

It's been some time since my last post. Quite a bit has happened. Of course, the standout event would have to be JBLC (Johor Bahru Leadership Conference), from 11-13 Nov. I played for 3 slots! It would've been awesome if I could've gotten enough sleep. I really enjoyed myself there. Few people from youth went, just those who could afford the time, but it was fun getting to know some of the ULs better! I also got to know Vincent from Hope London, and Samuel from Hope Kuching.

The Singapore team (Eugene, Jeremy & I) played for Vincent on the first night. It was very, very different to playing in Nexus! I was pretty worried actually? No Aviom in-ear monitors - what would I do!?!? I needen't have worried though - we did it the old fashioned way. We used amplifiers! Some songs required the use of electric guitars, but since no electric guitarists were available, we just made do with acoustic guitars. This made some praise songs sound a little lacking in a weird way, but when you're playing to Hope leaders from all over the world, they more than make up for it with their passion for praising God!

The second morning, we played for Ps Jazz from tertiary, with Wenjiang on the acoustic. Man, after waking fresh from a good night's sleep, the pastors and leaders were just rearing to go! And P&W leveled up hahaha! But later on that night was incredible!

Ps Jeff led in prayer while Ps Shirls led for P&W. Whoa man, Ps Jeff REALLY led in spirit. The key word in that previous sentence is "led" - he really LED the leaders in prayer! That was so inspiring! Famous 5 words: "Just a little bit more~", and boy did we pray! We prayed hard, we prayed deep, we prayed in tongues, and every time we faltered, Ps Jeff said those 5 words, and everyone just kept praying with such fervour, and we just kept praying harder and harder!

Subsequently, Ps Shirley led an absolutely anoited P&W. Praise was really interesting! From my vantage point on stage, you could see all the different styles Hope leaders from all over the world adopted for praise. Ps Markus was doing a clubber jig, an Aussie pastor was kneeling deep in worship during the chorus of a very jumpy Hillsong song, and I saw Peter Truong during worship! Everyone's hands were up, but he was the only person walking around with his hands straight up and unless my eyes deceived me, he was walking backward like that at one point in time! It's really so refreshing to see all these different actions that have the same purpose of praising and worshipping God, because in Singapore, some people just put their hands in their pockets when they worship! God deserves more than that amen? 3 words from Ps Shirls during that worship: "You're holy, holy~" and everyone's hearts just melted into worship! If that wasn't anoiting, I don't know what is haha!

I wish I did the teachings more justice though - the pastors who preached really did their best in preaching the Word of God but a combination of lack of sleep and freakishly maladjusted air-conditioning (it was so cold!) prevented me from paying full attention during the teachings... =( I did give my fullest attention during a workshop conducted by Ps Ian Foley (I hope I got his name right!) though - it was titled Interceding For Nations, and I went there expecting a teaching on how to intercede for nations. In actual fact, it wasn't so much of a "how" teaching rather than a "why" teaching. It was really interesting, what with insights into the rise and fall of nations, of conditional and unconditional prophecies, Jerusalem, and "beasts". I could tell u more personally, if you were interested. =)

I met a guy from Hope Kuching on the last day of LC - his name's Samuel (he seems African-American to me~) and he plays bass too! He played the last slot for LC, along with the other Hope Kuching musicians and Eugene - I felt that he's got great melodic sense and inbuilt funk! While we were having our last lunch before leaving Mutiara Hotel, he came over and introduced himself to us. I learnt that he listens to a lot of Kirk Franklin and Fred Hammond music. Hmm, perhaps I should acquire some of their stuff to expand my musical borders and experiment...

Well after I came back thoroughly exhausted from LC - y'know, lugging my bass around and all. But a few days after that, on Saturday I think, I paid a visit to Sunset Grill & Bar, situated in a remote corner-of-nowhere in Seletar Camp. The place is famous for it's Buffalo Wings, so that's what we were there for, "we" being Daniel, Jiancong, Walmond, Kaiwen, Peter, Ruiz, Shai and Shan. Who in that group do you think is the most likely to believe that buffalos have wings? =D Now if buffalos have wings, I think pigs could fly~ Anyway, we all started at Level 2. Now that was nice - they were really tasty! The wings are rated Level 1 to 30 in terms of spiciness, and only wings of Level 10 are listed on the menu. So subsequently, we tried Level 10, not really believing that anything could be THAT spicy. How very wrong we were. Pictures to come in the next post. ^^ Anyway, to cut a long story short, I finished mine first (had to, else I wouldn't have finished it at all!), complete with heavily trembling hands, and swallowed what must've been an ocean before my tongue stopped thrashing in agony! Thankfully, pictures of me were not included - I had not thought of taking a picture of myself while I was eating THAT. Seriously, there wasn't enough time...

Anyway, I'll post pics soon! Got to go, busy week ahead, what with assignments and all. Ciao!