January has been a month of newness and growth.
At the beginning of this year, we changed teams and left for countries with warmer climates for the rest of the Race. Our team worked with India Christian Ministries (“ICM”) in Hyderabad, India. More specifically, we partnered with Covenant Worship School, an organization that raises up worship leaders to lead in other areas of India Christian Ministries.
This is an amazing ministry month, as we as a team organized small groups, ministered in local slums, joined in with the worship band and spent time in prayer for India and ICM’s work across India.
Personally, this month has helped me grow in using my voice, not only in learning to pray boldly, but also in singing more confidently in worship in ministry and with the squad.
If you would have told me before the Race that I would be singing into a microphone in front of people, I may have laughed in disbelief.
Growing up, I always loved to sing, but by the time I was in middle school, I stopped singing in front of people. At that point, I believed I was no longer wanted nor good enough to be on the worship team. On top of that, I convinced myself that I was being selfish for wanting to sing on any stage in the first place.
So for about 10 years (from junior high until college) I kept my singing voice to myself, still believing it was only “my thing” and that no one would really want to hear me.
Fast forward to the World Race. I’m at Training Camp last July, and our brand new squad needed help leading worship that night. Secretly I had been hoping God would help me out of my shell, but I expected that to be a much more gradual process (over the course of my upcoming 11-month Race), not jumping in right out of the gate. Honestly, I’m still a bit surprised I volunteered in the first place.
I expected to receive feedback that I was just “too much” or singing off-key. Instead they encouraged me to keep going! I was struck by how much my new teammates, especially Carlos and Kirby, helped me re-build my confidence to sing during those first few months of the Race.
Slowly but surely, I am becoming more and more brave, pushing myself and returing to that passion to sing out loud no matter who is listening.
God has used this amazing worship school in the middle of Hyderabad, India to bring freedom to a very specific area of my life. I am so thankful that He has redeemed singing to where it might help other people connect with the presence of God. I am no longer ashamed or embarrassed to sing, and I know that is only because of His work in me that I can share with you today.
With that, I hope you enjoy this song I wrote on my first month on the Race. Our team was volunteering at a foster care home in China. Many of the children there were unwanted even by other orphanages, and this place took them in and cared for a variety of different medical needs. I was moved by God’s adopting love for us as His children, how He takes us in and calls us His own.
Special thanks to my friends Kirby and Mel for helping make this video happen!
