This is probably my leading mantra while I've been in Sabah. It's even drawn a couple of jokes from some people since they know it's how I'll react to most situations. But what can I say? If there's nothing you really can do and you don't know how things are going to go, why not decide to go with the flow and approach situations with the most open mind set possible? An example of this would be my crazy weekend. Saturdays for me are a non-stop sprint of English lessons, choir rehearsals, and any other work that's on my plate. So by the time I get to youth group on Saturday nights, I'm extremely tired. That week, the youth decided to have a sleepover at the Theodora house. Since all I wanted to do after youth was fall into bed, I wasn't up to hosting youth late into the night at the house. But one of the leaders would be there as well. So I told myself, just go with it. Turns out that night was actually really great and I ended up being able to talk with the other youth leader about his plans for seminary and he shared how he was feeling about heading off on the path to becoming a pastor.
I get up the next morning for Sunday worship and we have English afterwards. This is one of my less formal classes since it's based on having discussion. The youth come to class with questions about English phrases and what to say in different situations. In turn, I can ask them about how to say things in Malay. It's actually a great way to work together and learn purely based on everyone's interests. It's a discussion where everyone can have input and learn exactly what they want to know. It's also a way for me to find out more about what youth here are interested in and what's on their minds. Despite the fact that I was feeling a bit tired between church and English, I catch another bit of energy out of being able to spend time with the youth.
After English, some of us go to a kampung outside of Tenom for weekly church service with the people there. Again, I start to feel tired as the afternoon goes on and wonder if I'll be able to keep awake during church. But once we get to church, it's good to catch up with the people and see how they're doing. I'm a bit excited to find that some of the words that we talked about in class earlier turn up in church and I'm a bit more alert.
After church, the youth want to go and play futsal and invite me to come along. I'm really feeling tired, but they have invited me and I don't want to turn down the invitation. "Just go with it," I tell myself. "Don't think about being tired. This is futsal! You've missed futsal so much." Once we start playing, I forget about being tired and everyone gets totally wrapped up in the game. Afterwards we sit down together, cooling off and talking about the game. We're not quite ready to go our separate ways and we go back to the church together to practice some music we'll be singing on Friday. I find it hard to believe that it's already evening and despite the fact that I thought I would be exhausted, I've been carried through another day.
Just go with it. It's become my mantra when I'm starting to feel a bit negative or weary about a particular situation. It's become my mantra because things tend to turn out far better than expected and I am able to deepen my relationships with those around me in a ways that would not have been possible if I had just stopped at no. So it's not a "just go with it" that said in some sort of exasperated tone that says I'm fed up. It's a reminder to myself to stay open and see what God will do in the day. And I find that God gives so much for me to not only get through the day, but to thrive and find gifts in situations.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Making Melodies
I'm walking with my friends and one of them comments on the fact that it's such a beautiful day. Suddenly we start singing "Beautiful, beautiful..." and then sing the song complete with harmony. It brings back an inside joke from the first time we started this.
One of the youth leaders finishes praying at youth group and I start humming "Amin, Amin, Amin" to myself since that's what we sing in church after we pray and now it just seems natural to add that to the end of prayers nowadays. But I hear someone else humming it too and look up to see that one of the other youth was thinking the exact same thing. We laugh over the moment.
I'm with some of the choir members after practice and we still have the songs we've been rehearsing on our minds. This leads to a medley of pieces well after we've left church.
These are only a few of the musical moments in my day. It's probably fair to say that the whole day is filled with one song or another. My site supervisor is not only a pastor, but a piano teacher and choir director. Anytime I'm at her house during the day, there are students in and out practicing on one of the many pianos in her house. There's always music to arrange for choir or pieces to practice for church on Sunday. Her daughters are also very musically talented and if they aren't playing music themselves, there's always music playing. There's a common tie, a common understanding since we're all musicians. We've heard or performed many of the same pieces and we enjoy sharing pieces that are new to someone.
In choir, I found the rehearsal routine familiar and comforting when I was just getting acquainted with Tenom. Despite the fact that I was in a choir on the other side of the world or the fact that all the instructions are in Chinese, there was still something comforting that I understood. Even though I don't know Chinese (there are some wonderful people who translate and many of the choir members understand English) I can still share and join in with music. There's still ways to demonstrate and help with pieces that don't require knowing Chinese (although my friends think I should add that to learning Malay). There's also ways to join in with the choir and meet them in singing along with them and being with them during all the work it takes to perfect a song. It's in that hard work that we all become one choir. In the end, we end up mutually helping each other in the midst of working to be a better choir.
Even in everyday interaction with friends around church, I look back and realize that I most strongly connected with them first through music. Whether it was in becoming familiar with hymns at church, singing at youth group, or just bursting out in the latest pop song, there were many connections made. I think it's because in music, everyone can join in to some degree or another. Some people clap along, others hum to the melody (some get fancy and go for the harmony), eventually the "new kid" learns the words, and at some point they learn what those words mean to them. But there's something for everyone in that music because there's a way for everyone to join in praising God together. Those times were when I felt the strongest connection to the people around me. Eventually, those songs made a collection of memories and many times my friends and I can refer back to them just by humming a song. It's become a language of our own. So as I reflect on my time so far, I'm thankful for the music. It's been a way for me to share with others. I'm thankful for the music in my community. It's been something that I can grab a hold of and understand.
One of the youth leaders finishes praying at youth group and I start humming "Amin, Amin, Amin" to myself since that's what we sing in church after we pray and now it just seems natural to add that to the end of prayers nowadays. But I hear someone else humming it too and look up to see that one of the other youth was thinking the exact same thing. We laugh over the moment.
I'm with some of the choir members after practice and we still have the songs we've been rehearsing on our minds. This leads to a medley of pieces well after we've left church.
These are only a few of the musical moments in my day. It's probably fair to say that the whole day is filled with one song or another. My site supervisor is not only a pastor, but a piano teacher and choir director. Anytime I'm at her house during the day, there are students in and out practicing on one of the many pianos in her house. There's always music to arrange for choir or pieces to practice for church on Sunday. Her daughters are also very musically talented and if they aren't playing music themselves, there's always music playing. There's a common tie, a common understanding since we're all musicians. We've heard or performed many of the same pieces and we enjoy sharing pieces that are new to someone.
In choir, I found the rehearsal routine familiar and comforting when I was just getting acquainted with Tenom. Despite the fact that I was in a choir on the other side of the world or the fact that all the instructions are in Chinese, there was still something comforting that I understood. Even though I don't know Chinese (there are some wonderful people who translate and many of the choir members understand English) I can still share and join in with music. There's still ways to demonstrate and help with pieces that don't require knowing Chinese (although my friends think I should add that to learning Malay). There's also ways to join in with the choir and meet them in singing along with them and being with them during all the work it takes to perfect a song. It's in that hard work that we all become one choir. In the end, we end up mutually helping each other in the midst of working to be a better choir.
Even in everyday interaction with friends around church, I look back and realize that I most strongly connected with them first through music. Whether it was in becoming familiar with hymns at church, singing at youth group, or just bursting out in the latest pop song, there were many connections made. I think it's because in music, everyone can join in to some degree or another. Some people clap along, others hum to the melody (some get fancy and go for the harmony), eventually the "new kid" learns the words, and at some point they learn what those words mean to them. But there's something for everyone in that music because there's a way for everyone to join in praising God together. Those times were when I felt the strongest connection to the people around me. Eventually, those songs made a collection of memories and many times my friends and I can refer back to them just by humming a song. It's become a language of our own. So as I reflect on my time so far, I'm thankful for the music. It's been a way for me to share with others. I'm thankful for the music in my community. It's been something that I can grab a hold of and understand.
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