Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Praise in Our Hearts...Choir Tour 2013

For ten days, I had the opportunity to join the Tenom/Keningau Children's Choir as we went on tour in Taiwan.  In resting up after a very FULL schedule, I've had some time to reflect on the time there, the people we met, the relationships that were formed and the ways we as a choir not only shared our faith through music, but also the ways we grew and learned from those around us. 

The aim of our tour was not for sightseeing or shopping (though there was quite a bit of that.) It wasn't just so that people could hear our music.  Sharing music was just a means for something more.  As my site supervisor put it, God gives us these gifts and talents to use.  We can use them to give praise to him.  In giving praise, we can share with others.  We put in the hard work and the preparation and we go and give our best, but it's really God who takes all that and does something with it.  So in a sense, every concert, every performance could be a time of worship and we were inviting people far and wide to be a part of it.  

And many people were a part of that worship.  We went to churches and were welcomed with smiles and meals.  We went to schools where we also connected with children and enjoyed their presentations as well.  There was the industrial science center where we gave a concert for scientists who were mostly non-Christian, but many of whom shared how touched they were by the music.  But at the end of it all we didn't take credit, it was always a God thing.  As much as we saw how others got something out of the music, there was still something for us to learn and experience as well.

During tour we talked about how God could take what we had to offer with the right intentions and turn it into something great.  We were a part of that process as we blended our voices together and offered our best.  I think this experience is something that we could look at as a source of strength in our faith.  We witnessed how God can work through a choir and we can start to ask ourselves, "Where else is God working?"  I honestly can't say how much our tour meant to the people we met.  It's one of those things that leaves an impression long after we're gone.  But, we can leave it up to God what kind of impact is left.  But these lessons can stretch outside choir and music into anything that we do in our lives.  We can always ask ourselves, how can we serve others today?  How can the things we do give praise to God?  We don't always know what the things we do will mean to those around us, but we can leave that part to God.  Perhaps if we see the way we live our lives as a form of worship it can cause us to see things differently and it can open us up to experiencing how God works in amazing ways.