2nd time guitarist

My turn to be backup guitarist. 2nd time I'm playing for the CG. Had a good practice on wed, though I kinda struggle with it cos of lack of practice. I managed to play it reasonably well later on.. even tried different strumming styles at home after that.

On actual day, which is today, I have to go on site to a client to install and configure some software. This took abt the whole day, and even stretched into OT as there were many problems with the configurations. As I was doing, I was looking at the time.. gonna be very late!! So as soon as I can, I rushed off and had to book a cab as the place was too deserted to see any available cab.

When I arrive, I saw the rest doing testimonies, mainly Elaine.. hehe.. I thought I was in time.. but I was told later that they were actually waiting for me!! When its time to worship, Merv started playing for the first song. At the 2nd and 3rd song, its my turn. I played quite badly, I feel, as I couldn't concentrate. I hadn't had lunch and dinner, and was feeling a bit of headache. I was drifting in and out of concentration, and I think missed or played wrongly a lot of parts. Nevertheless, I finished my part, and Merv completed the P&W with the last song.

What a disastrous 2nd debut I had.. realised that I need time to quieten down my heart, as my heart was still in the working mode after such an intensive and frustrating day... also, I need to practice before the whole thing start to get into the mood.

First Guitar debut

We have a special CG today. Due to the unexpected change of plans, our programme today is a campfire style P&W and a workshop by our dear Ink. Junming thought of the idea. All those who went for the Believer Music courses are to play the guitar and the rest shall sing. During the practice, we tried to play together at first. Merv was horrified (he was helping us to make this last minute thing possible), we were so out of sync with each other. wonder how we manage to follow the instructor's beat.. hmm.. we decided that its best that we each play a song. And it kinda turned out ok.. haha.. though with alot of tries on my side..

So, today, on our actual day, I was the first one to play, to start the P&W. We were seated all around instead of standing. I was a bit nervous, though I told myself that I've competed in dancing in front of total strangers before, this is nothing.. but then again, these are people I know, and this is something sacred, dun wanna spoil their atmosphere of worship!!

So, I played my song in a simple March 2 strumming (those who went for Believer Music will know whats that). Surprisingly, I managed to finish the song without any major glitches.. hee.. feel so happy abt that.. so the next was Reina's. She played 2 songs with more complicated strumming styles. This is followed by Tiger Ming, also with more advanced strumming style. Tze Yee didn't play cos she's the P&W leader. The whole atmosphere was very good with TY leading, and Reina and Tiger playing.

Key to evangelism
Ink conducted a workshop for evangelism to prepare us to do what all christians should do, evangelise. His topic was on the forgotten key to evangelism. It goes like this..

What some do is to tell other people that they need to be saved, that if they dun accept Christ, they're going to Hell!! This is not productive, cos people either get offended, or they feel they dun need, cos they dun see what they did wrong.

Ink gave an example.. if someone came over and tell u that u have a fine of $20,000, but the good news is that it has been paid for by someone. What u'll think is that why should u be fined, cos u didn't do anything wrong, so u won't feel any gratitude or reason for someone paying for u.

However, if that same person tell u that u've driven above the allowed max speed, say 60km/h where limit is 30km/h, over a stretch of road where there are schools and children's pedestrian crossing. Then u'll realise what wrong u've done and will appreciate the help that was given.

So, in the case of evangelism, what we need to do is to fall back on God's laws in the Bible. To know and show others what wrongs they've done. Not to force it down people's throat or condemn people (Christians are supposed to have a gentle heart, so should be gentle to others), but to "inform" them with regards to their life. Hopefully, and with the help of prayers and the Holy Spirit, that person will realise that he need Jesus, and be grateful someone paid for his sins, and also that God is so gracious.