The Dennis Life

Day 1 continued…

We leave our things in the Green Room where someone will stand guard the entire time we’re there. Oh yes, the room is air conditioned and the hall too, thank God! It’s hot and little humid outside, but not too bad. But yes, the AC feels so, so good. Our lovely hosts have water on ice, coffee brewing all the time, Starbucks!! Yep, that’s what I’m talking about. There are always nice snacks on the table and healthy ones too, so glad. We throw our things down and out onto the platform. We take our places, everything is ready and the sound checks begin. Matt has to spend quite a lot of time setting all the mikes, monitors, ear mikes, reverbs, etc., etc., etc. That takes about an hour and then we run through (and what I mean by that is, mostly just starting and finishing the song) the song list for that night. Somehow I manage to remember parts of the songs. I haven’t done any of them before, but it don’t matta, I’m just happy to be up there part of the worship team!!! OK, I’m a sop and I’m already crying and choked up and it’s just practice time. (Reminder, bring your little travel pack of tissue on stage with you for tonight.)

At this point, we are joined by Shannon, a local Hindi worship leader on vocals and rhythm guitar, Samuel, a drummer from another local church (they are all part of the New Life Fellowship church hub), and by Benny Prasad. I’ll tell you more about Benny later. He is an extraordinarily gifted lead guitarist. I could write an entire blog on him, but I’ll save that for later. Suffice to say that he travels all over the world doing what he does and is in high demand. He hits about 134 countries a year. That should say it all.

The plan for tonight is to open with the U.S. worship team (with our Hindi brothers) and then for the last worship song, the Hindi team will lead. Their team is made up of Shannon, leading, Samuel on drums, Buddy will stay with them and play bass, Benny will stay with them and play lead guitar, and they have a male and female vocalist that will join Shannon.The conference attendees were a mix of English speaking Hindus and those who only spoke their language. In fact, the mix was about 30% English speaking to 70% Hindu, so we had interpreters at all times.

We worshipped with songs mostly from the Worship Institute and Sion’s material, and of course included some American worship songs that we were told the Indian churches sang and loved, so we blended some of those in as well. They were attentive and caught on as we went along and sang out more when the familiar songs were done. And whether they knew the songs or not, they were on their feet, clapping and smiling, and jumping and the house started to rock. Unbelievable! Totally uninhibited. And it wasn’t because the songs were cool and the rhythms rocked, it was because they love God and lifted up their voices and danced before the heavenlies!!!

But let me tell you, that was nothing. We ended each worship session with just the Hindi worship team who led songs in their native language and songs they knew well. We all stood in the wings and watched. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen. The music began, the people jumped to their feet and were bouncing up and down and waving their hands in the air and singing at the top of their lungs. They were joyful and happy and completely and totally uninhibited. I alternated between shock, awe, tears and laughter. These God-celebrators put us to shame…

So after a couple of incredible teaching sessions on the true meaning of worshipping God in Spirit and in truth and in being in oneness and relationship with Jesus, we ended the evening with a couple of worship songs and the momentum began to build.

Packed up our bags and headed back to the hotel. I didn’t see anything on my way home because I was so full of wonder and awe at the happening I’d just experienced…