Monday, 11 February 2008

Kingdom Come

With a day off from school, I'm allowed to reflect on Kingdom Come.

I definitely needed to go. Five continuous weeks at Hope, part of the time spent on yet another education class and also about 1/2 of the time out student teaching... I just needed to get away for a little while. Even for one night.

The track Nik, Rachel, Ross, and I were involved with definitely didn't give us much time to rest. That sort of annoyed me, but since I wanted to be involved with the track on leading music in the church, I guess I couldn't blame anyone but myself. Talking to Nik last night, he and I definitely agreed it was good. It offered some good perspective and food for thought on myriad things. What is worship? What it means to be purposeful on choosing music. Leading people into a place/mindset of focusing on God and then "ducking" as Paul said, allowing God to work Himself and just staying out of the way. Staying humble and not fooling ourselves as a person on a stage; a worship leader is merely a person, certainly not God.

I'll admit, much as I am ashamed to write this, that I was frustrated at times. It did seem unfair how Paul put together the larger worship sets. I spent two Saturday afternoons practicing music I barely knew and ended up singing only Friday evening. Some people sang or played both Friday and Saturday. Nik didn't even get a pickup for his guitar and had to use a mic. Somehow one appeared the next day for the guitarist from WMU who took his place. My microphone almost died before the first song set. He and I were thrown into the sound booth on Saturday, neither of us having any prior experience with running one. And while I'm out listening in the house for the blend, someone else kept coming back and messing with the system.

I know, I shouldn't rant like I did. Nik should have probably given me a black eye like Gabe had, but he didn't, thankfully. I had it coming.

But it wasn't all bad, not by any stretch. Amidst that rough experience, Nik and I learned the basic idea of how to run a sound board. That'll definitely be useful to me for student teaching and when I'm out there on my own. We met some really sweet people from InterVarsity chapters from GVSU, WMU, & MSU and got to work with some talented musicians. Gull Lake Ministries is a beautiful (and extremely icy) place in the winter time. Nik, Ross, Bridger, & Curt were all great roommates (and Nik has a great waking up story-ask him). And like I wrote, man we learned a lot. Maybe almost too much in such a short amount of time. It came awfully fast.

And we had quite a ride going home: a blizzard all the way from Hickory Corners/Richland to Holland and Nik constantly having to stop the van and clear the wiper blades of ice... along the freeway. Luckily we kept him entertained and also had Someone Else above looking out for us.

And the funny award goes to... the nicknames. So the story behind it goes like this: Ross and I came down from breakfast, me having just finished a shower with no washcloth and drying off with no towel (completely serious). We encountered Jessica down there. Ross said "What up, Jessica?" but I apparently misheard what he said. Knowing Ross' personality, I thought he said to her, "What up, Biscuit?" I told this to Jessica, who looked at me with a mixture of bewilderment and "are you nuts," but then looked at Ross and believed me when I said I figured he might actually say that. One thing led to another, and now just about everyone from Hope's InterVarsity chapter has earned a nickname.

• Tyler = Me. I am Me.
• Jessica = Biscuit. I thought Ross called her Biscuit.
• Ross = Mah Face! He always says that.
• Nik = FLASH! He wouldn't wake up, so my camera flash helped.
• Katie = Library. She fiercely defended the virtues of libraries against Curt's sales pitch of the book table.
• Rachel = Jenga. Every statement she made was seismic, toppling ideas we had put together in discussion like a Jenga tower.
• Joy = Frosted Flakes. After trying to unlock the cabin door with a van key, Jessica told her, "You're G-R-R-REAT!"
• Bridger = Confused. This nickname business truly confused this fellow.

A sampling of pictures below.