The Grand Musician

A very necessary part of our fortnightly (bi-weekly) routine are ministry days. On such days we are given access to a venue to rehearse various components that are required towards ministry. It’s a cordial affair where we can hone our talents to evangelize youth to the best of our ability. It was on such a day that I was preparing a rehearsal for a new drama we were going to use in prayer ministry. I went to plug in my iPod into the team computer so as to familiarise myself with the song to be used. 

A few months ago, I remember the great joy I had in filling my iPod with thousands of songs the night before leaving for NET. According to my “piety” at the time, I justified my music as the entitlement that I didn’t have to sacrifice this year, since after all I was giving up a lot from my life back at home. I planned to escape to sweet tunes with fresh beats when feeling emotionally low whilst on the road. 

However when I plugged in my device now, my jaw dropped, the iPod had auto-synced with the computer and deleted every song within. A few seconds were enough to change my mood internally. There was just enough time to roll my eyes and grunt my disapproval loudly, when I was prompted to head off to rehearsal. In the middle of the haphazard drama practice I sent up a silent prayer of frustration, “God, why did you allow for my music to vanish? Far out! I was doing ministry work after all!?!”

Some hours passed and it was time for team prayer.  Amongst my lack of enthusiasm something incredible occurred. Suddenly, the songs sung during team prayer sounded beautiful, more beautiful than I perceived previously. The same songs that we had been singing for weeks appeared to come to life. The lyrics became a focussed prayer and touched my heart. I could praise the Lord regardless of what I had experienced throughout the day. Indeed, it was of no consequence what was on my mind at that moment, but rather I felt the joy of simply basking in His Love.

It seems that the Lord stripped away the music that I was clasping to so as to bring me closer to His heart through praise and worship. No longer could I run for the temporary relief of the music, that my emotions could just float on to feel numb for a while. I was able to enter deep into prayer with nothing competing against the healing satisfaction that the Lord has to offer.

Our music leader, Kristy, shared a beautiful reflection during team prayer about Encounter 1.

“Consider this guitar. It’s well used, and day after day the strings dance. They dance and sing and after a while, they tire. They get dusty, dirty and broken. A string gets replaced. It doesn’t match. One is gold instead of grey. Some are wound tight, some are smooth. Some are harder to play and some cut already calloused fingers. At first glance this guitar is worthless. Yet when a grand musician starts to play, a beautiful, joyful noise is heard. If even one string broke, the sound would be half as lovely. Every string is necessary.

In the same way, every person on our team is necessary. We all have strengths and weaknesses…sometimes we get dusty, dirty and broken. But the Grand Musician plays us skilfully and lovingly creates beautiful music through us.”

~ Kristy Hagerman

As the days flow by our team is growing closer together than we could ever foresee. The shear amount of experiences, prayer and willingness of others to be honest with us each day has accelerated the bonding process.

Francis Nowak ~ Encounter Team 1

Current Mission Progress: 20 encounter days 

                1 weekend retreat

                                                3 evening events