This One’s For The Band

As has been basically each day on the race thus far, today was a day during which so many random and unexpected things happened. So not being surprised at all, I would love to blog about it and also throw a bit of a dedication on this one. This blog is officially dedicated to everyone who has been under my leadership as a band member. There have been several, even if it was for just one Wednesday night, but this especially goes out to Ben, Kyle, Lyla, and Matt… all listed alphabetically (not by favorite). I love you guys and miss playing with you more than I can express.

Today, after prayer and breakfast, my team and I were assigned to clean the BJD room in preparation for service tonight. Sweeping and mopping floors before a service makes me think about Ryan, so this is your shout out man! After the place was spotless, we were asked to paint a mural, if you will, on one of the door awnings. Having no one really artistic on our team, this was not a problem. At one point Amber and I were drawing little flowers with our fingers, when we realized that Norah Jones was the music of choice during this monumental painting. So today I helped paint flowers on a wall while listening to a whole Norah Jones CD in Thailand… yes, this is my life.

So where is the band stuff right? Ok, after lunch I was asked if I wanted to be a part of the all girls worship band for that night – yes, of course I would. I arrived at practice, just me and a guitar. This practice was unlike any other I have had. Learning/going over ten songs resulted in a 4 hour practice from which I am still in pain even as I type this with the tips of my fingers. During this time, I learned a lot. First, I adored playing with a band, because I honestly miss that almost more than anything else… Playing (even for that long) completely filled my love tank.

Second, I was a band member today. Usually being the one in charge, it was good for me to see the whole thing from a member’s perspective. I saw myself today in the Thai worship leader, Nat. I remember what it feels like to run around and try and try to make everything perfect before tons of people come and see what we can play. Ultimately, I just want to say thank you to all of my lovely band members for honoring me for all of those years, you made my life easy.

Third and last, worship went really well. After the forever practice, we ate dinner (extremely spicy curry) and we were up. All I did was just play guitar (yes guys, I am playing guitar a lot lately), and the service went very well. I started one song and completely butchered the tempo because it was weird and I could not remember, but it did not really matter…