In the morning I am greeted by the sound of music drifting up the three flights of stairs that separate the “female” floor from the “worship room” floor. At 9am we head down the stairs to join worship with the staff and students of Covenant Worship Center. With a boy-girl ratio of 40:6 it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of Godly men in the room, but we slip slyly into the back. It’s a good morning because we have the whole band out- John Babu on keyboard and vocals (he’s the leader), Edward on guitar, John on bass, and Balu on drums. Even in Telugu, I can feel the passion and love each man sings and sways with as we worship our Creator together to start the day. During the day, we go our separate ways as the men on staff execute lessons for their new students geared to strengthen them musically and spiritually. We ladies retreat upstairs and spend the day in prayer, worship, team time, cleaning, painting, collecting testimonies and anything that comes up.
It’s when the sun sets that my favorite part of the day commences. When the sisters (that’s what they call us) pile into the ministry’s Jeep and our trusty brothers fill up the front row, we can feel the anticipation building as we roll out of the gate and onto the main road. Most nights we go to communities that they have established and built relationships with. Our brothers are greeted as the favorite boy band that’s come to visit, and we are their honored guests (We tried to see if they would let us join their band, but for some reason they just weren’t as excited about it as we were). It is incredible to see people come from all over the neighborhood to experience God’s presence and love through my brothers’ music and speech, even when they’re not even sure who He is.
On one particular night, we were told that we were going to a new place to have a meeting, out in the more intensively impoverished slums. Awesome! We are always down for an adventure. So we piled into the Jeep and headed out. As we rolled up, I was a little confused because there was no one there to greet us, or even open the gate for us. As the time came closer for the meeting to begin, we headed out into the community to meet people, invite them to join us and pray for them. At 7pm it was time for our meeting to start and we had 4 kids in attendance. But our band of brothers did not let this discourage them. We started worshipping and praying for God to draw more people in. After a time, a few mothers and men slipped into the back. As a collective effort we shared testimonies, taught them worship songs and shared the Word of God. At the end of the night, we had the opportunity to pray for people and eventually left.
Even though in the eyes of the world our night was not “successful”, I absolutely loved it. I was so honored to take part in the first worship song to fill the community possibly ever, the first prayer of the body to be directed to the people living there. And it gave me a whole new appreciation for the places we go to that have believers and “fans” already established and yearning to hear about God, because I know they started out just like this one- with a few kids and a mom from across the street. Acknowledging this speaks to how powerful God is in creating change in people’s hearts and how faithful this band of brothers is in returning again and again to communities, fighting for their hearts and souls.
I know that one day there will be hundreds of people there, and it will all be for the glory of our Father.
“Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.”
Psalm 40:5
For sure though, these men are definitely a boy band worth fan-girling over.
