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Saturday, July 13, 2002 Posting Again--Finally!! It seems like such a long time. Where do I even begin? After a 7-hour car ride from Wildwood Christian Camp in upstate New York (where I played with the Touch the World Ministries worship band--more on that later) and a 26-hour flight (including around 2 hours spent switching planes in Tokyo and Detroit) I finally arrived in Singapore at 1:30am this morning. Luckily, jet lag doesn't seem to be an issue (it never really has been, actually--I wonder if it'll stay that way all my life) even though Singapore has a 13-hour time difference from Michigan. My mom sort-of surpised me at the Detroit airport (she was supposed to fly to Singapore before me, but my brother told me she planned to be on the same flight--I just couldn't tell if he was making it up or telling the truth), which was nice because it allowed me to spend some time with her (heh--a lot of time, actually). A small army of cousins, aunts, uncles, and my grandmother (all from my mom's side--she's the 7th out of 10 kids) greeted us when we arrived. I haven't done much yet today, but I've already managed to grab some amazing food that I can't find back home. I'll finally have steady internet access, so if anyone wants to drop me an email... (hint, hint). Back to the music thing... working with the worship team was awesome! We had a great setup (electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drum set, djembes, flute, lots of vocals, keys) with a total of 8 musicians. I'm guessing we played and rehearsed for around 50 hours in the week or so we worked together--needless to say, voices were tired and fingers were cramped, but we had a great time. For a week we lead worship for high school kids who were at training camp (preparation for going out all over the world to work with various groups) and every session was recorded, so I'm hoping to get a cd from one of the guys sometime soon. A lot of people said that it was the best that worship had ever been there. For those of you that know what I'm like in the morning, you'll be shocked to learn that I was up at 6:30am every day (which isn't bad compared to the kids--they had to get up at 5:45am)! Highlights: the filming of a worship team/techie version of Survivor, many many many trips to Wal-Mart (there's nothing to do in Cincinnatus), Applebees, and crazy stories from Scottish Steve about survival training, curing foot-and-mouth diease, and exploding animals. Nehemiah One of the thoughts I'll take away from this week--Jeff Boucher's talk on God-sized dreams and Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes when the Jews who survived exile (in Babylon, I think) were trying to return to Jerusalem. However, the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and after 92 years still hadn't been rebuilt--in that time period, walls were best means of defense for a city. Without walls, the city was deserted because people didn't feel safe and the Jewish nation was scattered. Nehemiah longed to restore the city and his people and prayed that God would use him to make it happen. At that time, the law said that everyone had to act happy in the king's presence or face the punishment of death. After all, who would want to be troubled with the petty problems of his subjects? Nehemiah knew the law--he was a trusted official. (The easiest way to kill a king? Poison his food. Enter the cupbearer, who eats portions of everything. Everyone waits for a half hour or so to see if the cupbearer is still alive, and if he is, the party can begin.) However, he needed to get the king's attention: "I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, 'Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.' I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, 'May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?' The king said to me, 'What is it you want?'" Not only did he live, but Nehemiah was allowed to go to Jerusalem with a contingent of officers and calvary--and took a long "leave of absence" from his job. He kept praying and seeking God, and even though he was not a builder, he managed to gather the support of the Jewish people and rebuilt the wall in 52 days amongst military threats from other nations. Application? Some dreams seem impossible because they are--for us. But with God anything is possible. If a project costs $90,000 and you only have $60,000, if the project really belongs to God then it's his problem that the money isn't there and he'll resolve it. That's not to say that we can sit back and do nothing--Nehemiah risked his life and poured his own time out--but God's dreams are bigger than ours and even though they can seem crazy, he is fully capable of making them reality. As long as we're faithful in our part, the burden of making things happen is not on us. ^ Top | 4:26 AM | | | 
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