Singspiration

First Sunday Morning of the month. So its my turn to song lead again. I went to church early. Suddenly I find myself sweating and getting nervous before the service starts. I wore my maroon long sleeve and dark tie. Its the 1st Service, but the crowd is kinda big compared to previous 1st services. I try to psych myself before I go up.

Ok game time! I go up and I have this joke on my mind. I start saying the joke and bam! I forget the punch line. Everybody gives me this weird look. So I just smile and move on to the first song.

First song is "Lord reign in me". So i say lets sing the first song. The pianist and organist start playing and wait theres something wrong. Their playing "Doxology" "Praise God from whom all blessings flow..." So I say ok wait i think there is a mistake first song is "Lord reign in me" So the Accompanists start playing the right song. Whew! I'm kinda sweating now.

So we start singing and I noticed something wrong . The Congregation isn't singing. So I look around and the LCD is blank. Ok whats happening? I look up and the LCD guy is motioning with his hands that I didn't give him the lyrics.

AHHHH! I'm Dead meat! Puff! I wake up. Wow! that was a nightmare. Its 4am sunday morning 7 days before game time. I usually get nightmares the night before I go up stage but this is a week before. I remember my first translation I had 3 nightmares on one night. But this is new, one week before and I start getting nightmares :(

I asked my fellow co-workers about getting nervous and in my mind these guys are professionals but they tell me they still get nervous. I guess you can't get rid of stage fright you just have to face it head on. I have to be honest I can song lead but its not my forte. I want to do it but I feel other people are more qualified in doing it.

I wanted to write down why i chose the songs for this coming Sunday

Text: Eph 6:21-22
21Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. 22I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.

Speaker: Rev Lim

Topic: Dealing with God, Coworkers and Christians

Background: Rev Lim is wrapping up his series on Eph. He just finished talking about the armor of God. So he is now talking about dealing with with fellow believers.

Tychicus, good thing I did a little research on 2 tim and we touched on Tychicus. Well he is a co-worker of Paul. Everything said about him is good. He is a faithful servant and dependable.

Well Rev Lim didn't give me an outline. So i'm thinking maybe he wants to talk about encouragement or building up one another.

Congregation: Now this is my dilemma.
We have the old timers. Grandmothers, The 1st and 2nd generation Chinese. maybe 50 years old and above. They like to sing hymns especially from the 閩南聖詩

Chinese Mainlanders. no english or 闽南话. Just 普通话.

The 2nd or 3rd generation Chinese. They can sing min nan hua & English. But prefer in English

the 3rd and 4th generation the "Youth" and non-chinese speaking group. Just sing English songs and sing silently on the Chinese songs. The like Hillsongs.

So I have to balance the songs to fit the congregation. ITs obvioud that I can't please everyone.

Songs:

Opening song: Blessed be the name of the Lord
I wanted a fast lively song. Something to get the people to focus on God.

At first I was going to choose Lord reign in me. But i went to this concert and they were singing Blessed be the name of the Lord. It reminded me about things that are happeing in our lives. its easy to say bless the lord when everything is ok. but when things go wrong can we really say "blessed be the name of the lord"? I was thinking about the students who are having their exams, the businessman with work problems, the guy who got a "No" answer, the people who lost their love ones... Got to focus on God. Forget about the problems. So what if you have that problem? That doesn't change who God is and his promises to you.

Second song this one I change to Why do I sing about Jesus. A hymnal. English and chinese. Maybe have a responsive reading here. Then tell them about the story of the guy who went to see the doctor, maybe in chinese. We encourage others by talking about Jesus

3rd song maybe make this a medley, Make me a blessing. Instead of focusing on our problem let us be a blessing to others.

4th song Not to us by Micheal W. Smith. This is an old song but its new. For the MWS fans they will be familiar with this. Its kind of a gamble. Teaching a new song. Might repeat this more. I might want to talk about the basketball team here and how we should not just seek winning but glorifying God. Maybe add a joke :) btw latest update record as of now is 0-4 lost by just 4 pts. Next week is the championship match with BSOP hehehe. gonna engourage people to watch this one.

5th song I choose to worship. This is english but am not sure if people are familiar with this. I recall singing this at church before but not recently. My point here is bad things might be happening around us but we choose to worship God.

Commuion: As bread that is broken. Ok i'm going to do another gamble commuion song I'm going to sing somethign new. I know this is an old song. So I hope the people recall this.

OK still subject to change. But this is my plan as of now.

Things to do this week:
1.) work on my spiritual life. I don't want to be a hypocrite. But I've been out of focus this week, I've been thinking about something all week and I couldn't get it of my head. its affecting my rel with my parents and my work. Set prayer time.

2.) Prepare for Bible study opening of Titus

3.) Fri Bible study group Evaluation. 6pm

4.) Work on my back and legs.

5.) Shine my shoe. Get a hair cut.

6.) Pratice Singpiration.

7.) follow-up groupmates

8.) Wed, holiday. Was planning something but... in ques?