aftermath of anniversary

whoah! i slept the whole night so i didnt blog! ok here's what my thoughts are after hope's 15 anniversary, a super mega event at expo. u know it's a super large production. so many ppl are involved, so many props, so many MM, so many activities!

the feeling is great, knowing that you're called to play for this mega 3000ppl event at expo leh! dont play play! haha. ya the practises were tiring, time consuming, strict, fierce, but it was worth it at the end! although it wasnt 100% perfect due to technical stuff, stage fright, etc, i still think it was fun and the people still had a great time!

here's what happened the past 2 days:

15th september, 2006
I didnt go school as i was feeling sick. my flu was back, i had some kind of red eyes thing.
i reached expo at 3.30, a whooping 1 hour earlier, so i studied econs! speaking of study, 9 days to promos and i'm so dead! i need a miracle! hahaha!
and i chatted and got to know geoffrey (bassist) better. he's a really humble guy and can see how he still clings on to serving God in the ministry after sooo many years haha. and i talked to some other people i didnt talk much to before.
then whole run through ended pretty late at 11.30. fortunately, we were going to stay at Gwen's house. thank you Gwen for opening ur house up to the 3 of us! appreciate it a lot!
but we only left the place at 1am. before that, about 20+ guys were transporting the huge deco "HISTORY MAKER" to the stage. it was a beautiful sight, seeing the teamwork and effort and love in getting the job done. the pictures will show you why! can use for the next men's service! hehe. anyway, i've never felt such teamwork for God in my whole life. i just saw so many ppl like ants carrying a piece of food, and there were a few leaders who gave instructions. they weren't appointed to do so, they just did. so this made me feel this particular situation reminded me of the church. the deco is the church, and the people are supporting it. and without the people, the church would not exist. and without leaders, the people would not know what to do!
funny thing is, as they transported the thing, more people came to help, such as...ME! hehe. so yup can see this as more ppl joining the church too. HAHA.
great insight.

16th September, 2006
today was the big day. i was already feeling very nervous during the rehearsals. ok maybe not that nervous, but the smoke machine was killing me! it kept on spurting out tonnes and tonnes of carbon monoxide that smells so horrible! argh! i had carboxyhaemoglobin instead of oxyhaemoglobin! decreased oxygen in bloodstream! no wonder i felt faint! ;)
and the lights were super hot! wearing the 2 layers already made me sweat, in fact, wearing one already made me sweat. hahaha...
right on to the actual event. i saw most of the seats filled except for one column at the extreme left of the stage. other than that, i think the attendance was great! the atmosphere was there.
so we had the dance, then the music, then highest, then praise.
dance was great! jovin looks so cool with his hair! haha! i like the music and coordination and the steps! very nice.
for our music presentation, i think it was really good! from what i could hear, there were like no obvious mistakes! maybe there wasnt mistakes! hehe.
so the choir entered, and we sang highest. i think it was pretty good too. but the crowd werent spiced up yet. pastor jeff had to get them to lift up hands. :(
and now it was praise and worship. oh man, i was sooo nervous because i had to start 2 songs. and my fingers are so painful after playing time has come over and over again! hahaha. i think i screwed up some of the bending parts. crap. and the tempo was wrong because the choir and crowd were rushing the tempo and i tried to listen to the metronome. i think davin didnt hear the metronome too.
then the horror came. you are good. i think i forgot to switch off my distortion. then i combined it with acoustic channel. imagine how horrible it sounds like. i think the crowd was quite taken aback. i was shocked too. but fortunately i solved the problem after the first phrase. and to make things worse, the singers' voices became distorted and me and davin were shocked too. i think he went out of time because he was distracted by that. but the crowd still were getting excited.
fastforward until altar call. i think altar call was great! what pastor ben said was sooo true! if not for a vision and trust, i wouldnt be here at all, doing what i do. i would be some sianed out guy in my parent's church, week after week, longing to go home, not looking forward to the "God thing". and i would be playing those dumb death metal songs jamming away in clarke quay. indeed God has a plan for everyone, and that day when leon brought me, i'm sure he said, "i'm going to use Simon for a great purpose for the good of my kingdom". wow man, come to thing of it.
so i challenge every christian to have a goal or a vision for himself/herself. only with a vision we can remain here, and only with a vision we are able to stretch ourself to serve the kingdom and grow. join a ministry man! robert, ryan, LEON. join ushering or smth lah! :P it's good to serve in pastoral, but it's good to be in a ministry too!

and my vision for myself is to be an influencial musician who is able to minister and prophecy to the people, who is able to train a next generation of strong musicians, and to write beautiful and ministering PnW songs.

Amen. expo, 3000+ ppl, wow! getting there, but wat's next?