Now, on to round two of our marathon worship week!
After celebrating the 4th on Sea Island with family and friends, we packed and drove to Balsam Grove, NC, right outside of Brevard, to lead worship for the week at
Camp Living Waters. Being unable to bring our core band, and wanting to put "Hope Farm Music Ministries" into full effect, we used an ever growing team of High School and College-aged volunteers from the camp. We had up to 2 hour long rehearsals each day, and though we only planned to lead twice a day for about 30 minutes at a time, more often that not our times of praise would extend over an hour, quite beyond our control. It was an intense time, with much laughter, tears, praise and prayer. By Thursday morning I had sang so much and with so much passion that I had entirely lost my voice, opening up even further opportunity for us to work with volunteers, as Cyle & two High School aged camp counselors led vocally for the day, to give my vocal chords a break. God restored my voice bit by bit and by Saturday I was fully myself again.
One special aspect to this week for me was that I felt like I got a glimpse into the revival experience of one of my personal heroes, Jonathan Edwards: God moved in ways that I had never personally experienced before, and I was stretched immensely as a result. Time pick back up and finish reading Sam Storm's excellent reworking of Edwards,
SIGNS OF THE SPIRIT, I suppose!
Given how much we worshiped, and how many songs we sang, I'm not going to list the whole bunch, but will just mention a few highlights - the songs that seemed to carry the 'theme' of the week:
"
All in All (You're all I Need)" (SAINT LEWIS Original, from "
Songs from the Hope Farm")
The bridge of this song would simply rear its head ANYWHERE... I never knew when we were going to break into this, and every time the room was a roar! It's so encouraging to hear a song from your own heart connect with so many others.
"
Our God" - Chris Tomlin et al.
What a powerful proclamation of faith! This is probably one his best songs in years.
"
Dance" - Suzi Wills Yaraei
Cyle led this, and the song was sort of last minute, but WOW - I can't even describe what happened as a result. You had to be there!
"
Wandering Heart" (SAINT LEWIS Original, from "
Songs from the Hope Farm")
Like "All in All"'s bridge, the Coda to "Wandering Heart" just kept coming back up like a mantra - by mid-week it seemed as though we were just going to close every session with it, planned or spontaneous.
"
Joy in the Morning" (SAINT LEWIS Original, unrecorded)
Believe it or not, we didn't do that many originals - our overall set list probably included about 20 songs, but God just set this songs on the hearts of the youth there... there were times, when lingering in praise, that a pocket of kids would just begin singing this song spontaneously! I suppose we'll have to make sure this one makes it onto the next CD. Songs of hope and rejoicing never grow old for me.
Well, the week ended with tearful goodbyes and many hugs and hand-shakes. We were so blessed to be able to go, and look forward to returning next year to worship again with all of our new friends!
Then, we were off to Atlanta...