CtYF NTM 7 - Gospel Night & Cantata

From the excitement and adrenaline rush of the Sports Day events, CtYFers now had to grapple with singing on stage in LAHU and for some, solo item.

After a quick bath and dinner, we gathered for a run-through and it was really bad.... as in the PA totally failed. The pre-recorded music accompaniment sounded so muzzled-up and we couldnt find the small wire that we used the other night for connection. Called in Billy & Popeye, our own PA personnel like Hwee & Ji Sheng.....tried to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. As BDC had only one amplifier, we borrowed for use during this practice and it has to be returned for use during Gospel programme. Time checked was 6.40pm. Programme was supposed to start at 8pm but Eld Chalo enquired if we could begin at 7pm! NO WAY!!! And so we compromised at 7.30pm. With barely 45mins, we started the practice. Good or Bad....one time run thro and had to perform before the crowd.

At 7.20pm, the host wondered if we could come back to start the programme (we were then practising at the main worship hall and the stage was at the volleyball court area infront of the kitchen and hostel buildings). Shing & Jamesy plus Isaac & JJ needed extra time to go thro, we had no choice but to delay a little longer. Asked the rest to move to stage with the microphone and amplifier set while we continued to practice playing music from James' laptop.

At 7.30pm, we had to go over and my nightmare just begun. Warunee's laptop was there and connected to projector. The powerpoint of our Cantata was in James laptop, together with the music. These two programme could run concurrently but the big obstacle was the amplifier was placed away from this table at the front of the stage. It was in fact situated at the side of the stage. BDC did not have wire that long enough to connect. It was my mistake for not anticipating this and so i copied the powerpoint file from James' lappy to Warunee's. Because it was in mac, she could not open the file. We had to convert it from Keyoffice format to Powerpoint format and then reload. Somehow it didnt work too and during the conversion, i asked Billy to try to bring the amplifier to the front of stage so we can all run from James' lappy. Hundreds of people were waiting for us to settle this and it was so stressful. Eld Boon asked me if we could start but i told him No. Thank God for the agility of Thai people....billy & popeye, aka paul, tasked some people to bring another table, pulled some wires, shifted our table forward and viola....we were connected!!!

A bird's eye view showing part of the area.... CtYFers seated with back facing us and the rest of the audience facing the stage proper.

Meanwhile, the powerpoint got converted (haha) and it was running on her lappy. And so the Gospel programme finally began. Eld Chalo led in the singing of the hymn and Warunee told me to play the keyboard....as if not enough surprises for the night. It was too late to tell any YFer to play too coz all of them didnt know what was going on.... in LAHU literally and I got the warning from Warunee last minute. Walked to the side of the stage to where the keyboard was and played the opening song. Thereafter, i spoke to Jolene if she could play the closing song, a christmas carol in the revival hymnal and she consented.

Eld Chalo in song-leading

Walking back to my seat, my stress didnt end there. There was a quiz planned at the end of the programme and Eld Boon came up with 10 questions for each group to answer (5 groups in total). Warunee prepared the powerpoint with the questions but she put all 10 of them in one slide. Eld Boon confirmed that he wanted one question per slide and so i had to start duplicating slides, cutting and pasting.... all these while the programme went on. It was not too bad coz there were many groups who came up to present but each second and minute was like a time bomb ticking away for me.

Soon it was CtYF's turn to present the Cantata.....Thank God the music was ok (pre-instructed Billy to adjust the loudness as he deemed necessary). Warunee handled the powerpoint for us and i conducted, from the bottom of the stage at a corner. The pre-recorded version of the BDC children were funny as Jolene, Hilda & Sheryl supposedly to lip-sync along as if they were the ones talking. FYI, the Cantata had simple dialogues between Grandpa and his 3 grandchildren who sat around him listening to the Christmas story being told. When uncle Chalo's voice sounded thro the PA, eld Boon set to work... he was the Grandpa, minus white hair and beard!!!

CtYFers sang beautifully and so did those individuals (i mentioned above) who did solo, including JH & Eld Boon. James made a mistake.... only known to me and not sure if he was aware. He sang wrong melody for one line but it wasnt out of tune.... hahaha..... Anyhow, at the end of 40mins we heaved a sigh of relief and secretly thank God for enabling.

Back to the 50 questions powerpoint....I had not finished and in my hurry, messed them all up. What did i do??? Sigh.. questions for Thai youths were the same from No 1 to No 10!!! Oh boy... what did i do? And i had only 40 questions... where did the 10 go? Panic!!!!

Tried to fix the problem as Eld Boon preached the gospel. He had told me before hand it would be a short one to wrap up cantata and right after the preaching would be the question time. I didnt think i could even make it. Had to open the original file in word, look thro one by one, see which group i missed out and also find the missing questions. This time, the bomb ticked even louder and nearer.......argh..... :(

I had never worked against time so badly and God was good. Just after Eld Boon's preaching, some groups wanted to perform and oh well... be my guest (i thot to myself happily)!! I did as fast as i could and when the second group's item was over, Eld Boon was called to go up....DING!!!! Powerpoint fixed! God's timing couldnt have been more perfect that this. All praise and glory to His Name!

Was there any hiccup to the powerpoint? Erh.....to say NO was a lie. Some of the questions were too long and they kind of went out of the screen. I had to physically hold up the projector to put those words in place. Oh man... i soon realised i couldnt be doing for all the 50 slides. Why didnt the projector and screen "talked" properly... and so during one rather long-awaited answer from the audience, i repositioned and raised up the equipment and tada!!!

Question time was also the much anticipated moment for all, especially CtYFers. Some were bent on answering the questions to get prizes like blanket, towel and other stuff that BDC had prepared. I know aaron gotten a red blanket which he brought to CtYF camp.... haha....looked good but like Masai man :) The questions were rather easy to answer except for some, but it was a good time to know more about God, His Word and Church history (little bit lah). What were the 5 groups?

1) CtYF
2) BDC children
3) Other youths
4) Leaders, pastors and workers in the ministry
5) Other adults (i hope i didnt remember the category wrongly)

The girls went crazy when everything was over. They took pictures after pictures with the trophy they won in the day and the camera went clicked clicked clicked. And guess what? The cameramen (Norm or Jamesy) clicked away happily but have no "fruits" to show the labour.... why? Coz in their hard disks to me, these photos are missing!!! The girls will be mad if they get to know. Anyhow, i asked Norm to check and hopefully he can locate and then i can post it up here.

Supper was a must but someone was too sick to eat....Someone who always love eating....Someone who is supposedly known to have a stronger stomach (as in eat all things type)....Someone with the name FRESH.......

SHINGY

He erh vomitted and had to rest in bed. I visited him and passed some medicine over. Heard he had diarrhoea too. What a lousy way to end the night and i thought with a good night rest, everything would be ok the next day. I was so wrong......