We gathered for prayer half an hour before our prime time worship: 8-10 PM, but had some trouble finding a place to pray in peace. The church’s prayer rooms had been taken over by nursing mothers with their babies and small children. They needed a quiet corner, too. I understand. So we went to the sanctuary to look for a quiet place there. But being prime time, there were people all over the place, in every little corner, even in the coat room.
Then Giuseppe suggested the music storage room. It’s small and crowded with instruments, but it’s just big enough and quiet enough to do the trick. So we crammed in there and prayed together that our worship would truly glorify God, and that we ourselves would stay humble and submitted to Him. Amen. And we got briefly drunk in the Holy Spirit, laughing like idiots.
Then Giuseppe looked around. There’s a problem. Where is the bass guitar? It wasn’t there! Then we discovered that the electric guitar was also missing. We did eventually manage to find a bass guitar, and just did without the electric guitar.
Giuseppe, as musical director, had Daniele take the acoustic guitar, and Felicity concentrate on singing. Her voice is very sweet, but sometimes it’s a bit tentative and often hard to hear. Perhaps it was because she didn’t have a guitar in her hands that her voice was stronger, and being stronger, it was lovely and lost none of its sweetness.
As worship leader, Felicity made no song list this time, deciding just to wing it and see what songs the Holy Spirit leads us to do. This led to long pauses between songs, and songs that repeated and repeated and repeated. I don’t know how the musicians felt, but it was sort of driving me crazy. It had the same effect on Bethany, who tried suggesting songs when we seemed to be stuck for a direction. But when a direction was found, it was wonderful.
During one of the livelier songs, I pulled out a couple of whistles and handed one to a boy that was dancing near us, while I blew the other. He was hesitant at first, but then blew the whistle with great gusto. A big fellow seated in the front, right in front of me, got up during a lively song and started to dance just like Dancing Bear on Captain Kangaroo (for those old enough to remember). Then he grabbed a tambourine and started keeping time with the music. Several young girls picked up flags and started dancing and waving flags. I love it when we share a moment like that. It was such fun!
There was a definite anointing, which everybody felt. That made the two hours fly by before we even knew it. When the next group came in and started to set up, I felt such deep disappointment at having to stop that I didn’t even want to go back to the hotel to sleep. The big fellow hugged me and thanked me for the worship session. All thanks and glory and praise goes to God! God is good!
Walking By Faith in Europe 