I don’t always perform in front of 2,000 people, but when I do it’s always…
Last minute
In a foreign country
With 4 minutes of rehearsal before
Wearing sandals in 40 degree weather
Singing a song I don’t have memorized
A week ago our teams were asked to prepare a song to perform for some people. And with that we literally didn’t know any more details.
What kind of song? How many people? When? Were we going to talk about Jesus too?
A few days later we found out that apparently this performance is a big deal. So we needed to dress up. Practice. Take this seriously. And send in a recording of what we’re doing to be “approved”.
What? Uhh… okay. *cue coffee shop recording of us singing*
Going into today all we knew was that tonight we were going to be singing a song for some people, somewhere, and we better be good.
After an afternoon of ministry, we hung out with some university students at their “English Corner”. As things were winding down we were informed that tonight, in about 2 hours, we’d be singing on a stage in front of 2,000+ people at the university.
No Big Deal.
Suddenly, we were rushing with 15 minutes on the clock to eat our noodle and rice dinner while simultaneously scribbling out the lyrics on a piece of paper for everyone to take a picture of on their phones so we’d know the words. We ran through the song once in the cafeteria with Jacob on the guitar and then we were off to the stage.
Thousands of spectators and performers filled the stadium.
Lights, fashion, organization, and obvious hours of practice displayed themselves as our foreign team of 12 stood to the side literally laughing our heads off going, “Is this real life!? What the heck is happening! What are we doing!? YOLO!”
Next thing you know, we’re on stage with bright lights shining in our eyes, acting like a fool in our missionary clothes singing Katy Perry’s, “Firework”.
The crowd goes wild.
They love us.
We’re instant Chinese Superstars….. and we didn’t even do anything.
While waiting for our ride to pick us up immediately after stepping off stage, we had dozens of Chinese students come asking to have pictures with us saying they loved the performance.
Being international superstars isn’t just a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can't say this will never happen again because for a World Racer, it’s a possible once in an 11-month opportunity.
