The first time we walked down Walking Street, we passed by one of the bars with a band playing. Maybe I was
just thinking about the band Bluetree (song: God of this City) having the
opportunity to play in one of these same bars, but I was quickly drawn to the idea that my team of awesome women has
pretty much started our own band the past month…and how awesome it would be if we could play
in one of the bars one evening. Perhaps that is exactly what God has been preparing us for?
I thought that idea was so huge that I thought it wouldn’t
work out so why bother trying to make it work. Maybe we could play in the streets? Maybe we could even just sing really loudly
as we walked through the streets? I passed on the idea to Amy about playing in a bar, and then I quickly closed my mouth about it.
Until God brought it back up again.
My wonderful teammate, Amy Heiser, stayed home from a prayer walk our team did one day. While she was all alone, God poured down a beautiful song to her about this city…the women trapped in prostitution here and the men that come to visit. Within that hour that we were gone on the prayer walk, Amy had the lyrics and the melody all worked out. I’m sure you can read about it on her blog. :] God told her that He had a plan to use this song here and she knew that God wanted her to play it for a big group of people.
So last Wednesday night, we set out to ask some bars
if they would let us play one day. We walked down Walking Street praying to see if there was a specific bar
that we felt called to. But what is our team all about?
Go BIG or Go Home!!! Saying that, we trudged down the street that is full of so much darkness, walking into EVERY bar that had a band, and asked them if they would let our “band” play. Many turned us down saying only their house band could play.
On the upside though, we did come out with a few phone numbers as well as.. an audition on Friday night at 10pm at the Utopia Rock House!!!!
YES!!! Wouldn’t you think that an audition would be more like 10 AM on a Monday morning instead? Yeah, well a typical audition might be that time, but with our God, He makes His plans happen! 10pm would be the time when the bars are really picking up customers so we knew that we had to “go big or go home”. So even though this would be an
“audition”, we decided that we are going to BRING IT and give it our all
and play a worship set as the “audition”.
Even if they refuse us to play another night, who cares because we just
worshiped in the bar anyways!
Hahaha, God is so crazy!
Friday night came pretty fast. We had our first practice after we finished our ministry that day only a few hours before “the big show”, then went home and put on our cutest attire that we brought on the race with us, and set out on our mission down Walking Street with final our destination… Utopia Rock House, right in the middle of one of the darkest areas of the world.
When we arrived at the bar, we took a seat and just hoped that they had remembered that they would let us play. The house band was playing some pretty hardcore rock music. All we could do was laugh, knowing that what we were about to sing was the complete opposite of what everyone in the bar was currently enjoying. But as we started to lose hope… “Are you ladies ready to play?” came one of the guitarists on stage.
This was it. We were going to play in a bar right in the middle of the red light district!
My lovely squad leader, Tiffany Berkowitz, shared in the moment with us and put together a video for you to join in this victory with us!
Oh yeah…and what about all of those people who we thought would bail out on us once we started playing since it wasn’t the hardcore rock music the house band was playing? Well, let me just say that they all stayed around AND even MORE people flooded into the bar to watch us play! As well as many bystanders who stopped on the street stunned to see a group of American girls singing!
These people might not have understood us and what we were singing, but little do they know that they worshiped the King with us!!!
This is most certainly one of the most incredible moments of my life so far!!!
GOD’S GLORY WAS SHINING RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DARKNESS!
