In this journey of life.....

How I wish to have

His passion my passion,
His victory my victory,
His vision my vision,
His wisdom my wisdom.
His thoughts my thoughts,
His words my words,
His heart my heart.

Technicalities

Sometimes, we dream dreams, get into the thick of living them, and then like a cartoon moment in a movie, screech to a halt because the engine doesn't run/reality bites.

I can't imagine how hard it is to find a soundman. Are all soundmen in Singapore not free next Tuesday night??? This is an SOS!

Just like in Japan - I had 2 students staring at me with 2 hours on their hands, ready to learn that afternoon.... and I had no translator. There were 4 groups and only 3 translators. What a regret.

Missions is a team effort, and if God's given you a part to play, be available! You may not know how important your role is to a team in need.

Gig at Screme, SMU

Hello world! There'll be a gig for our young musicians to showcase their songs this February. Get ready for some surprises too! The good folk at Screme serve hotdogs, pizzas, pasta, so come early for dinner and then stick around for the gig! The Ethnos band will be having some fun on that day too, hope to see you there! We may sing any Chinese New Year song, if we get enough requests on this blog =)

THE JUST-FOR-FUN GIG
Date: 10 Feb Tuesday
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: Screme Cafe (Singapore Management University)
B1-62, 70 Stamford Road (Basement of School of Information Systems)
* From the Mr Tea outlet at the ground level, take the escalator down. Screme is beside the florist.
* ADMISSION IS FREE!

Giving Us Courage

Hi guys,

Since it's the new year, thought of putting up a little passage from a fellow blogger to give you strength and vision for the big stuff ahead in your life. May the holy spirit warm your heart and give you courage.

His eyes look to and fro the
face of the earth
in search of a person whose heart
is committed,

There are ones who never fail to
catch his attention.

Ever since he placed eternity in their hearts,
they live a different destiny.

They perservere
even when it's convenient to give up.

They love
even when they feel unappreciated.

They give
even when they're in lack.

They encourage
even in times of discouragement.

They believe in others
even in the midst of doubting themselves.

They sing
even when life seems bleak.

Everytime they fall,
they stir themselves up and stand again
even when they feel like staying down.

It may have been a weather beaten year
but in their brokenness,
they refuse to succumb to the strongest storms

they humble themselves and
draw strength from above.

They run on
and conquer every season.

And he says,
because they've set their hearts on him, their foot will never be caught. They are set on high grounds. They will call on him and he will hear and answer them. They will be with them in trouble. He will honour them. He will be forever theirs as they are forever his.

We're back....

While the trip report is churning itself out, I'll share a joke/warning/ghastly news... My keyboard weighed 17KG at check-in - a shocker since the actual weight is only 8kg - may be the pedal, adaptor and flight case. Anyway, the boys helped me lug it to Tokyo over escalators, trains and stairs, apart from carrying their own luggage and gear. Quite a nightmare. The best part: when we tried to use it, it didn't work. Turns out the voltage in Japan is way below Singapore's, so a converter won't work. You'd need a transformer for that, and it costs in Japan.

And so, I brought 17kg over those thousands of miles FOR NOTHING.

Somebody punch me.

Reg

Countdown to Tokyo

The Japan team leaves next Friday morning til 31 Dec. We'll countdown to New Year's Day on the plane, let's hope there's free champagne flowing, as part of the airline perks!

For your prayer notes, here's our schedule:

19th Arrive & settle into winter climate
20th Performance/Worship at youth group - a secular band will be performing alongside this Christmas party
21st Church service & rehearsals
22nd Rehearsals with Dan (local guy doing vocals for us)
23rd Christmas musical
24-25th Rehearsals/busking/hanging out
26th Performance/Worship at Kings Kids Christmas party
Performance at cafe - opening for a local bossanova artiste
27th Music Clinic at a church youth group - teaching worship dynamics and instrument playing
28-31st anything we're game for... hit the freezing streets to meet people! prayer walk!

Yup yup, we wanna feel God's heart and know what He's doing, pray that we'll pick that up!
Also, team unity and patience with one another.....
Understanding of Japanese culture, what the people need, sensitivity and a non-judgemental spirit......
Protection from the spiritual strongholds: distraction, frenzy, lust, discouragement
We need to be spiritually attuned!

Thank God also, our funds have all come in! PHEW! *clap clap! to Daddy!* The yen has gone up but we're covered still....

Thank you for your support!

Time Flies

In the turn of an eye (old Chinese expression).....

Even before I could chart the chronicles of the last trip, I am swarmed with prep for The Next Big Trip.

I haven't been tired like this for awhile. Maybe I'm getting old... or maybe letting something grow organically - like human chemistry - is a process that can't be compromised. It takes effort - time-wise, physically, emotionally - to work together, understand personalities and figure out where everyone is coming from.

It's the beauty of building a team. And something that I value very much.

People matter. And processes are important. Good night.

我会讲华语

各位，

我已经从中国回来了！ 我的华语说地不错，应为一个月多的时间已经训练我的言语本事。。。 虽然我的词语不太广， 但我能跟你分享许多不平凡的词， 比如：

调 (diao) - key
大调 (da diao) - major
小调 (xiao diao) - minor
节拍 (jie pai) - rhythm
节奏 (jie zhou) - timing
音符 (yin fu) - note
和玄 (he xuan) - chord
副歌 (fu ge) - chorus
开头 (kai tou) - intro
手势 (shou shi) - hang signals
玄卤 (xuan lu) - melody

Ok folks, that typing in Chinese is taking its toll on me.... anyway, what I said above was: I can speak Chinese! I'm back from China. My spoken Chinese is not bad due to the month-long immersion that boosted my linguistic ability. Although my vocabulary isn't too impressive, I can tell you some impressive terms, like..... (above list).

On top of that, I learnt how to counsel in broken Chinese (how do you say 'soul tie' in Chinese? We're still searching!) and pray fluently in an inspired moment.

This language thing really takes you places with people. I'll share more soon, and i'm not too glad to be back coz I wish I was still there! Booohooo!!

Newsflash

Brazil CEIFA team at the Esplanade. Making friends in the background


Practising with Dan who flew in from Japan

The team learning J-pop songs for December's Tokyo trip (l-r: Brian, Justin, Dan, Regina, Clarence, Jachin; and Ben is missing)

Praying together, different cultures united for the glory of God


I will be away for a month in the mountains, and in the meantime Justin will hold the fort. Please direct all queries, complaints and rantings to him, thanks! Be good!

Regina

Japanese Jamboree

Wow. Truly, God never fails us.

This week, from Tuesday til tonight, a group of us has been practicing for the performances in Japan this Christmas. It was the first time we all played together. Some were new to each other, but God's fingerprints were all over this.

No.1:
God put a perfect team together. A month ago, Jachin and I were joking that if the trip is just the two of us, we'd be happy to do drums and piano set. Then through a KFC Zinger burger (ok I won't say ;P), we met Clarence, an old friend of Jachin's. Acoustic guitarist - check. Ben came along and said he'd go. Nice, a bassist. Justin's prayers were answered and ta-dah: electric guitar. Then Brian the Japanese scholar decided to come on board. Complete! A translator makes all the difference!

Now, it came along so effortlessly, and as I look back on the short month, it's clear that God hand-picked this team. This week, we all played together for the first time, and it was amazing. I'm amazed at the character and humility in all these guys. Something that Clarence prayed at tonight's closing was that we're all not perfect, but God would and could use us (something along those lines). And I amen that.... God's put a great team together, by His grace.

No.2:
The icing on the cake came in the form of Dan, a young man from Tokyo. I met Dan in his Tokyo church in August, and asked him if he'd like to sing for a ministry like ours. He was keen and we arranged to email songs and arrangements in prep for December. Never did I expect him to appear in Singapore this week, with the intention to check out YWAM, DTS and worship in Singapore.

We learnt J-pop songs, and honestly, I'm already brain-dead from deciphering those ever-modulating keys, extremely-sharped chords, and playing in B (Dan's favourite key). Yet, it was a rare learning experience. And when Dan belted out "Above All" in Japanese, it made sense why God chose him as our singer. The presence of God just brought us all together, united in worship. For me, my heart was stirring. This was a glimpse of the dream God's put in my heart to see the nations worship Him.

I'm in awe. And so thankful to God for His hand upon us. I thank God for this team and every individual's journey, destiny and purpose. There's much more practice to come, much more brain-numbing chord work to be done, finances to be raised, intercession to be made, but it's gonna be an interesting 3 months. Stay tuned!

Reg

Bao Ge Liao

bao ge liao (singlish/chinese); meaning: everything also covered/the whole package

Wah, my China trip is really baogeliao-ed.

Few weeks ago, I started to look for a vocal teacher. Yah, I know my voice needs serious help. As a musician, I feel for the poor people in the congregation when I lead worship. So I asked God to help me improve and thought about asking people to help me. Didn't work out though... but today, my fellow tripper, who happens to be a producer/musician/singer-songwriter, summoned me for a meeting and drove us to PS to look at keyboards and discuss our teaching plans.

OK, I don't know if he could tell my voice really needs help (boohoo!!) or if it was just diverging off our conversation about cultural worship, but he started off on a whole overview of what it takes to SING.

Wah, I couldn't believe I was getting these tips for FREE... It was a vocal technique 101 lecture with the expert! He covered topics like singing forward instead of backward; breathing in from top to bottom and back to front and transferring your breath everywhere possible in your body in different directions (how?!?); facial structure and cavities; speech level singing; posture; different types of voices; physical and vocal warm-ups; musicianship; blending; harmony; diction, attacking the notes and a lot of other things I can't exactly remember. Oh my, it was a good deal man.

Yay, we're gonna be in China for 2 weeks together! More coaching, heh heh heh. God knows. =)

Reg

Today's Treasure

Here's a shot of the boys doing the unglam work - take the trolley and transport the amp kinda stuff. Yepp, there's a lot of unglam work behind the scenes for us, especially wrt gear. Only today, if you look carefully, you'll see a keyboard on the trolley. Guess what? We found an abandoned Korg synthesizer near the base at Lorong 9! Xiao!! I mean, God MUST have left it there for us! In Geylang leh, who uses a Korg in Geylang????

So we carted away our happy find. OK Justin, credits to you for seeing it, happy? =)