B A M B O O S O N G

The reason I live is to Worship Jesus.

It all started when…(cue harp music as picture fades to soft colors with a cheerful glow)

I have been singing my whole life. I remember singing in church as a 4-year-old.

Worshiping God became a passion of mine in high school, when we lived in Australia. No, we didn’t attend Hillsong, however, like vineyard and hosanna music and integrity and all those worship names in America, Hillsong was and is a big thing in Australia. We sang a lot of Hillsong music in my church. I sang on the worship team, and I loved everything about it. I was involved heavily in our church from music, to youth group, to serving at ladies luncheons to child care. I loved worship rehearsals as we came together to fellowship, pray together and make music. Going to camp, and on my first mission trip were significant times in my spiritual life, times when I was hearing God’s voice, and excited about the words that were jumping out at me from His word.

After numerous admissions applications, writing my personal goals and autobiographies, realizing that I wasn’t cut out for an undergraduate degree in Drama(I’m not really sure why I considered it in the first place); I decided to pursue music. I have considered many times the various options that music provided: performance, teaching, ministry. I had and still have little interest in being a performance artist, for me singing was always about ministry, not about entertainment. (Although I’m sure I had my share of entertaining days as a little girl.) As I began to learn more about Hillsong and read about and listen to their music, I became fascinated by this female worship leader by the name of Darlene Zschech (pronounced: check). I began collecting cd’s from hillsong including this one from United and songbooks and in my first year at APU I found a book written by Darlene Zschech called Extravagant Worship. Her humble, gentle spirit and passion for worshiping God has inspired me so much so that I call her my role model. The fall of my junior year I found out that she would be speaking at a leadership conference at the King’s College Autumn Leadership Conference in Van Nuys, CA and I inquired about attending just for the day as I was a student and was blessed to be able to attend for free. (It never hurts to ask!)

As I struggled through Music Theory and wrestled with whether or not I was in the right Major and so on, I looked forward to choir and singing and worshiping. The fall semester of my senior year was a busy one preparing for my Senior Voice Recital and doing my church music internship. My recital was very fun to do because unlike the vocal performance majors, mine was optional. The main reason I had chosen to do it was because the chair of the voice department recommended that I do one. It was a lot of work, but I had a great time. My recital consisted of sacred music and several Christmas pieces by composers from Vivaldi, Handel, Mark Hayes, George Beverly Shea, Ralph Vaughn Williams and Adolf Adam (O Holy Night). I sang in several different languages from Latin, French, German, Indonesian, to English. I sang hymn arrangements, gospel, and typical soprano music. Many of my pieces were lullabies. French was the most challenging of all languages.

My internship at my parent’s little country church had two basic parts. I wanted to create a monthly Youth Service and I led and formed a small band from other apu students. We had electric guitar, bass, djembe, and I led with vocals. We had two services with a great response. The second part which I was more reluctant to do was to form and direct a choir, per my internship professor. Being such a small church we had a handful of adults and a handful of younger voices. We practiced for a little over a month and worked on one song, In Christ Alone, by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. It was challenging to direct in 3/4 time, that stupid right angle triangle, and I didn’t exactly have very good voices to direct, but I was able to get them to make a joyful noise and be expressive and enunciate and emphasize the certain parts of the song, like the line that goes, “Then bursting forth in glorious Day, Up from the grave he rose again!” I made sure they were “bursting” and stood on their toes for “Up” Silly, I know, but it was fun, and nobody complained =)

Well, I graduated in December 2005, and some (many) days I wonder if I’m not doing enough to pursue the music ministry/worship path that I trained for and long for. Since I’ve graduated I’ve been singing on a couple worship teams. I was singing at Solid Ground Brethren in Christ Church, and also with Sandals Church College Small Group affectionately known as SCU (Sandals College United) a few times.

Early this year I was asked to lead worship for Solid Ground’s Women’s Retreat. I began looking for a keyboardist/pianist to play with, but all of the women I asked were not attending the retreat for some reason or another. I reluctantly decided to lead from the keyboard for the first time in public. I had no hesitations to lead, but the keyboard part was a challenge, so after praying, I practiced for many weeks and many hours before the retreat, and we ended up with my sister playing electric guitar (also her first public debut) and my cousin singing harmonies and a friend on her djembe. What I learned from that experience was that while I had the abilities to plan worship songs, select the keys and basic arrangements, and form a group and rehearse, the key was to trust and rely on God, and allow him to use me in my weakness. I don’t claim to be a keyboardist or pianist, although it is one of my favorite instruments, and I call it doodling. I never had the discipline for classical study, but in my final semester at college I began playing more and more with chords and figuring out my own rhythms from chord charts. (Thanks Dr. Shackleton!)  During the summer of 2006 I had also been playing and practicing more, I even sat down with a friend at camp who played piano and she gave me some tips and encouraged me as well as praying over me and so it has been awesome.

At the beginning of June 2007 our church had a Sandals Worldwide service that was about missions and I realized for the first time that I was open to God using me overseas or in missions. As I prayed about it the first week, God showed me Psalm 105.

1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
Let the whole world know what he has done.
2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.
3 Exult in his holy name;
rejoice, you who worship the Lord.
4 Search for the Lord and for his strength;
continually seek him.

I was encouraged by this passage, because I believe that God was telling me that I don’t have to worry about having to choose between missions and music. He had to bring me to a place where I gave it all to him. I continue to seek and worship the Lord and I want to sing his praises and let the whole world know what he has done!! I wait patiently (well I try) for the Lord. I know His timing is perfect. I have nothing to fear. He holds my life in His hands and I wait for Him. Lord Jesus, I trust You. I receive your grace and love with open arms.