My very first attempt in.....

My very first attempt in......
Worship leading.
Yeah, that's right. ;) You haven't read it wrong.
It all started when I was in my bedroom, having just arrived back in my condo after the one week break. As you can imagine, I wasn't in my best mood then. I was 'mourning' over the end of the holidays. How I wish we had at least ONE more day of this precious break. But of course I just had to begrudgingly accept the fact that there is little I could do about it, except prepare myself for a fresh new start for the next phase of semester 1 in IMU.
I was noncholantly unpacking my luggage when Enrique Igleasieas's 'Hero' filled the airspace of my bedroom. I reached out for the culprit- my brand new Nokia 6680.
It was Joanne, the Christian Fellowship cell group leader for us Semester 1 students. (She's a semester 5 student)
'Ailing, do you know who in the cell group knows how to play the guitar? I've lost the list of people who are able to play the instrument, being the absent-minded person that I am'.
'Uhhh...I don't know' came the honest reply.
'Do you know how to play the guitar?'
'No- but I might be able to lead worship...'
'Yeah, I remember I saw from the list that a whole lot of you are willing to do worship leading'
Then suddenly she asked ' Do you want to lead worship for the Cell Group in 2 week's time? Next week Pei Shern would be leading but you can do the week after next.'
'But I do not know how to play the guitar'
'Never mind, I'll get someone to play the guitar.'
Hmmm......is this what you call 'God's calling?'
I didn't take long to contemplate, accepting the offer almost immediately. Being in control of the choice of songs that we would be singing in the next cell group meeting doesn't seem like such a bad idea at all.
During the following cell group, Joanne borrowed me her entire book of worship songs. Needless to say, I was spoilt for choice! I could recognize many songs, and I found myself uttering ' Oh, I love this song' 'Oh I love this song too' numerous times.
Finally, after some deliberation, I managed to narrow down the song choices to 3 songs 'I Could Sing of Your Love Forever' 'God Will Make A Way' and 'Above All'
I didn't even get to practice with Eunice, who was supposed to play the guitar, because she didn't have one.
^ ^ ^
Finally, the moment arrived. The Seminar Room which Joanne booked for the first time, ever since we finally acknowledged that the group was too large to be accommodated in a small PBL room, was already filled with people.
Horror of all horrors. There was NO guitar after all. We were going to be singing without any accompanying music. It's all going to be based on our voices alone. Any flaws in our singing would be exaggerated.
Silence. It was time to begin. After the opening prayer, I suddenly found all eyes focused on me I shuffled my feet and wringed my hands, unaccustomed to this type of attention on myself.
I introduced the first song ' I could sing of your love' as a very significant song for me, because it was the theme song for the very first Easter Conference I had ever attended, where I accepted Christ.
My groupmates all knew the song, much to my delight. Soon, our voices were singing in harmony to the song. It was just pure singing to the Lord, without any backgroud music whatsforever. It was the same for the second song ' God Will Make A Way'.
As I was introducing the third song ' Above All', Sarah suddenly had something to say.
'Guys, I know that it's a bit weird without any guitar accompaniment, but let's just sing our hearts out to the Lord. Because he looks into our hearts.' she pointed out.
And so the harmonious melody of 'Above All' began filling the room. Never before had I heard the song being sung so beautifully.
At the end of the day, I know that it's not how well we sang the songs, but whether our hearts and souls are really into the worship that counts. Because God looks into our hearts.