A funny thing happened yesterday. My amazingly talented husband was asked to join a worship band that's playing the Casper Mountain Christian Music Festival,and maybe a couple other places this summer. They're called Temple Praise. Peter's friend Eric plays with them, a couple places a year, so they needed a guitarist, and Eric reccomended Peter for it. Eric's wife Cary sings with them, so I was going along to practice yesterday to watch and simply due to a severe lack of good worship in this town, and having heard them play before, knowing I could get some there. Seriously, the only songs I can remember hearing at chuch (when we go) is "Jesus on the mainline - Tell him what you want!" and "...He sees the babies crying, the old folks dying, and He gives us all his love." (this last song must be sung to a cow-poke-y guitar by a man who looks alarmingly like John Denver). Worship at our church, as I've experienced it, sounds like camp songs when you're in fifth grade.
Now, I realize that I am admittedly, and almost proudly, a snobby ywamer. I'm used to worship three times a week by people who have CD's out, whose songs you've likely sung in church before, not mine, but maybe yours. Campfire worship is a struggle for me, and a huge part of why we don't usually get up for church at 7am on Sunday.
So I get my grape milkshake from Dairy Queen and we get there, meet the other people who are practicing, and the main worship leader, Robin, starts handing me music sheets, and talking about getting me linked with a mic. I lean into Cary and whisper "am I supposed to sing here?!" she laughs and says it looks like it, so I am inadvertantly pulled into the band when they inevitably sang a bunch of my favorite worship songs, that of course I hadn't heard in forever and was just so happy to hear again.
Now, I can sing. I'm not tone deaf by any stretch of the imagination, and have been on worship teams before in ywam (no CD for me though). I sing with Peter all the time. I love singing harmony, and I can hold my own. Peter says I'm really good, but would be better if I believed I was really good and sang good and loud. I can't do that. At least I thought I couldn't.
So we start singing these songs and I'm so happy to hear them and the musicians are so loud I figure I'm good, especially since the mics cannot be found. And we have two guitars, a keyboard and a drumset all amped up in a tiny little room. I belted it out. It felt really good to just worship again. I love to sing, I love their style, the worship, the simplicity of it, and that it wasn't so much a band practice but a bunch of people just getting together and worshipping. The worship leader, a lovely woman, heard me, and set me and Cary next to her so she could hear us better. By then I figured I'd started, I may as well finish. She said the harmony was really pretty, and by the end of the night I'm officially signed up for four or five more practices, and am singing with them at this festival. It was all very funny to me, and to Peter who tells Robin that I sing really pretty harmony, because he's always trying to get me to sing more, and to believe that I can. So there you have it. I'm in, for now at least. For the Casper Mountain Festival and maybe something in Buffalo later on. And maybe one here in the park. Weird. I'm excited, I love the music, and I love the idea that five times over the next two weeks I get my worship fix filled, I've missed it a lot.
Check out the link, and the pictures. The tattooed guitarist is an old friend of Peter's (the one who can't make it this year). They used to play in a band together called Your December and there is some very funny video of a couple of their "gigs" - Peter was 20 or so. The drummer is our good friend Eric. Apparently the audience is pretty much a bunch of sweet Christian hippies and bikers, but there's some good bands there (Lamb, if you're old enough to remember them) this year, and a speaker from India, who I'm going to love hearing. I'm excited about it all, no matter how I stubled into it....
Now, I realize that I am admittedly, and almost proudly, a snobby ywamer. I'm used to worship three times a week by people who have CD's out, whose songs you've likely sung in church before, not mine, but maybe yours. Campfire worship is a struggle for me, and a huge part of why we don't usually get up for church at 7am on Sunday.
So I get my grape milkshake from Dairy Queen and we get there, meet the other people who are practicing, and the main worship leader, Robin, starts handing me music sheets, and talking about getting me linked with a mic. I lean into Cary and whisper "am I supposed to sing here?!" she laughs and says it looks like it, so I am inadvertantly pulled into the band when they inevitably sang a bunch of my favorite worship songs, that of course I hadn't heard in forever and was just so happy to hear again.
Now, I can sing. I'm not tone deaf by any stretch of the imagination, and have been on worship teams before in ywam (no CD for me though). I sing with Peter all the time. I love singing harmony, and I can hold my own. Peter says I'm really good, but would be better if I believed I was really good and sang good and loud. I can't do that. At least I thought I couldn't.
So we start singing these songs and I'm so happy to hear them and the musicians are so loud I figure I'm good, especially since the mics cannot be found. And we have two guitars, a keyboard and a drumset all amped up in a tiny little room. I belted it out. It felt really good to just worship again. I love to sing, I love their style, the worship, the simplicity of it, and that it wasn't so much a band practice but a bunch of people just getting together and worshipping. The worship leader, a lovely woman, heard me, and set me and Cary next to her so she could hear us better. By then I figured I'd started, I may as well finish. She said the harmony was really pretty, and by the end of the night I'm officially signed up for four or five more practices, and am singing with them at this festival. It was all very funny to me, and to Peter who tells Robin that I sing really pretty harmony, because he's always trying to get me to sing more, and to believe that I can. So there you have it. I'm in, for now at least. For the Casper Mountain Festival and maybe something in Buffalo later on. And maybe one here in the park. Weird. I'm excited, I love the music, and I love the idea that five times over the next two weeks I get my worship fix filled, I've missed it a lot.
Check out the link, and the pictures. The tattooed guitarist is an old friend of Peter's (the one who can't make it this year). They used to play in a band together called Your December and there is some very funny video of a couple of their "gigs" - Peter was 20 or so. The drummer is our good friend Eric. Apparently the audience is pretty much a bunch of sweet Christian hippies and bikers, but there's some good bands there (Lamb, if you're old enough to remember them) this year, and a speaker from India, who I'm going to love hearing. I'm excited about it all, no matter how I stubled into it....
3:40 PM
Congrats.
Sometimes that is what you need to happen to get you into doing what you likely are great at.
Way to Go. I hope you enjoy it, and I am sure that your voice is just fine....why else would Peter tell you that? Hmm?????
4:08 PM
Congrats Mel & Peter
from what I remember of when you were little you could sing very well and even sang harmony back then, so go for it and enjoy. I'm sure you will bless many with your beautiful voice.
I wish I could be there to hear it. maybe you can tape some of it.
Love you lots
Auntie Sue
9:11 PM
I have lovely aunties. I really do. Maybe that's why I'm such a great one. Great examples.
7:23 AM
I'm glad you got pulled out of your comfort zone. Sometimes God has plans for us that come together by, what some call coincidence, or accident. God calls it carefull planning. :) Sing like you did when you were a child, with abandon and confidence. Oh, and I agree with Auntie Sue. Record it so we all can hear. God bless you, Mel and Peter.
1:17 PM
12:13 PM
Wow!! That's awesome! That would be so much fun, isn't it funny how things happen that you didn't plan, but they end up being awesome?!
I know that you have a great voice, and I don't think Peter would say so unless he really thought you could sing, and sing well. I remember back in Alberta, listening to you sing to the radio, and sometimes at church, I always thought that you were so good... Kyle always tells me how much he loves to hear me sing, and is trying to convince me to go and sing some karaoke at Jaden's recording studio... I think it'd be good if you could get some songs recorded so we could hear, that would be great!