Praise God!
Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to serve with two gentlemen on the missions committee at our church and go to the jail for their weekly Wednesday night service. They usually have a woman lead worship, but she had somewhere else to be so they asked me to fill in. They asked me about it a few weeks ago so I had plenty of notice and I was pretty pumped up by Tuesday night after I picked out the songs to go along with Steve's message. It was pretty cool how three of my favorite songs to play and sing worked in so well with what he planned to speak on. So I ran through them once Tuesday night and three times Wednesday morning just having a great time singing out and praising God. Then last night when I went to play I didn't really feel nervous at all, which is weird because I'm usually nervous when I sing in front of people, but that may also be because I've been playing on front of people a lot more lately. Anyway, the way it works at the jail is they bring in one or two cell blocks for a 30 minute session each, then switch them out with the next block. We ended up doing 4 services back to back, with me starting with praise time and Steve finishing with his message, and I have to say that I have never felt so pumped up as I was last night by the time it was over. Their singing was loud and sincere and most of them thanked me afterward for doing such a good job. And it wasn't the kind of thanks you would get on a Sunday morning from the old lady who always says you did a good job and you're not sure if she's just trying to be nice or if she really enjoyed it; it was a sincere, look-you-in-the-eye-with-a-glad-smile-on-your-face kind of thank you. It really made me feel good and like God was able to speak through the songs. Obviously I hope he always speaks through me while I'm leading worship, but I've never gotten such great feedback before as I did last night. The last group was the best because they were really singing out and it just put an even bigger smile on my face while I was playing, because thats what its all about is SHARING with each other and lifting our voices to God, not for one person or a small group to "perform" for people in an "audience".
It kind of cracked me up though, after the first session which was the women's block, Kevin came up to me and said, "I was sitting in the back and after you started playing a couple of women turned to each other and were like, 'Man! This guys' good!' "
It was fun.
It kind of cracked me up though, after the first session which was the women's block, Kevin came up to me and said, "I was sitting in the back and after you started playing a couple of women turned to each other and were like, 'Man! This guys' good!' "
It was fun.