AfterShock Weekend...

What a weekend... I feel like I was in a whirl-wind all weekend... I barely caught my breath and I was on to the next thing. It was all youth related activities, and it was AWESOME! Our newly formed youth worship team got the chance to both perform at our sister youth group's talent show Saturday night and lead our church in worship Sunday morning...

I didn't take any photos at church Sunday (cause that seemed just wrong) but I was able to get pictures from the other youth group of them performing Saturday night. There was also video taken but not by me... If we are facebook friends be sure to check them out on my timeline.

Saturday was our "dress rehearsal" since we got our first real snow storm of the year Thursday (the day of our scheduled dress rehearsal)... Of course... 

Our church has a full worship band so we have all the a/v equipment we thought we need...

Amps, a keyboard, full drum set, mics for all the vocalists...

The church we were performing at Saturday is more conservative in it's worship style and does not have all the equipment we are used to... The stuff we thought we needed...

Rehearsal on Friday was kinda dicey... The kids were unprepared for two mics (They later found a third) having to bring our own amps, and an old, out of tune piano that were available in their basement... (Where the talent show was.)

This worship team is approximately seven weeks old... They haven't had time to learn to "roll with the punches" to make do, and worship anyhow...  

 To not let such little obstacles stand in the way of their worship...

 

They have now... By Saturday when they had to perform and they were down two musicians and a vocalist they were like seasoned pros... Even though it was their first time in front of an audience they went for it...

Nobody could see how freaked out they were...

They lifted their voices and music in praise and everyone was blown away.

They did an amazing job in this little church basement...

And they brought it Sunday too... When they got to I Wonder by Leeland there were tears flowing all over the church... Our pastor had them do that one again... By Sunday they were no longer worried about how many mics they had, or how big the amps were, they were lifting their voices to the Lord and all who heard them could feel it... It was AWESOME!

 Paul and I also got a time to share what we are doing with the student ministry as a whole... It was our first time standing in front of our church and sharing... Everything was received incredibly well, but it paled in comparison to watching this young man (below) who sings lead on I Wonder step back from his mic and raise his hands in worship as the congregation did the final chorus...

This was not rehearsed, and when he looked up with a tear in his eye every bit of everything it took to get there... (Eating at 4 PM two days a week so we could get to the church for our tiny window of pratice time, driving all over mid-coast Maine to pick-up and drop off the kids who didn't have rides, Having them over nearly everyday for a week leading up to this weekend since they couldn't use the church enough... Feeding them...) WORTH IT!

(If we are Facebook friends pop over and listen to the poor quality, low-res video one of the mom's took... Listen to them all, or look for the one with the kid above leading... and let me know what you think!)

Thanks for listening,