Gaia Mania: goof-ups and blessings from God too, though we do have our fair share of Satan's attacks in this event.
Went to school at 1.30pm. Nobody was there, and I was waiting outside the Guitar Room when Yannis and Claire came along the corridor, wondering why I was there in the first place. "Guitar Room is locked."
"Oh, no wonder. I was like, 'Eh why you standing there?'" came the reply.
SMSed Wai Ping to tell her to come. Clara opened the door. We got in and prepared ourselves. And good Lord, why hasn't Jacob and Daniel come into the Guitar Room yet, it's already two in the afternoon already, and we're about to leave at 3.30pm!
Rang Daniel up. "I at Jacob's house, waiting for him to finish bathing(shower)." he murmurred.
"Alamak, hurry up, it's already two o'clock already!"
"What, only two nia... Later then go there." He hung up. Finally they showed up half an hour later.
After all that mumbo-jumbo about the footstools, stuff, uniform and neckties, we got in the bus, and there wasn't enough seats! Luckily for the boys, they could squeeze in and sit on the floor of the bus. Gawrsh, that sure must hurt, given the bumpy ride to the NTUC Conference Hall in Shenton Way. Worst of all is that Hailong forgot to take his scorebook out of the Guitar Room!! I overheard Mrs Koh saying to Mr Shi, our instructor and conductor, "Dunno what's wrong with this batch of students ah, haiya... Things like that, also can forget."
Reached the NTUC Conference Hall, the big venue. And by meaning big , it really is big but the stage was even "bigger" in that there wasn't enough space for seats for everyone. So in the end, during the performance history repeated itself - not enough space for seats for everyone, and Micah ended up sharing 2 chairs with 2 others during the performance. 3 people sharing 2 seats... Not very pleasant, was it? Reminds me of myself encountering the same experience during the 50th Anglican High Founders' Day concert, "En Suelo Mas Alto".
Really, the holding room should have been used as the stage. I mean, look! The place is completely different from the stage: big space for everyone and better air-con in there. The stage is nothing compared to the holding room - we could talk, play the guitar as much as we wanted, and even eat in it while listening to Jacob's intepretations of the Bible. Hey, though he may be my junior, but he does speak much sense from whatever is in there.
Greedy Jacob took another packet of bento dinner. "Eh hello, we're here to perform, not to eat!" exclaimed Mrs Koh, as she reluctantly gave in to me taking the bento and passing it to him.
Then halfway during practice in there, Jacob's guitar string broke! I reckon Satan's not feeling too good about him preaching about Him being Lord of all and speaking the truth that has the potential to bust up his sinful lies, that's why he made the 5th guitar string break. And thank God, the string was fixed by Hailong, by tying up the broken ends. It still sounded funny, though, lots of buzzing going on with the knot vibrating against the fretboard. However, it is at this time that God's grace is shining bright on our predicament - there was another spare guitar for use, though Mr Shi said it was supposed to be only for the 1st Guitar, in case their strings broke.
So, we've got the replacement guitar, the footstools ready, and the guitars tuned. Bird whistle was still with fresh water. Everything went well, for the Lord was faithful in hearing my prayer in the holding room. Really, I was very nervous when the performance was about to start when these verses gave me the courage to do my best on that place:
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
-John 14:27
And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
-Deuteronomy 31:8
And after the performance, we were gathered around Jacob, Benedict and Jonathan. Honestly, I didn't know that they could complement each other so well! Jacob did rapping while the rest did beatboxing. Of course, Jacob was the butt of the joke - though he did rap well, his actions while holding the guitar bag was as though he was doing pole-dancing!
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