Ultimate challenge...

One big challenge for me this week was serving in the Hua Xia commissioning service today. (It is a service, in which some long-term missionaries are commissioned and sent off to China for service.)

Why was it a challenge?

Well, I was the pianist. Our dear worship leader, who is from China, doesn't speak a word of English. I, on the other hand, may look like I'm from China BUT I don't speak Mandarin the way they do. In other words, my vocabulary is very limited (I can only read very basic Mandarin words - and speak very basic Mandarin. I'm OK with Cantonese though - even while I may make laughable mistakes here and there) , so I couldn't understand him most of the time.

Additionally, the song-sheets he handed us during practice this week looked like this!!! Basically they took my breath away... haha.

Number one - there was not a word of English, so I couldn't make out what songs they were. Was in despair... However, I wouldn't have known the songs anyway! They were totally unfamiliar songs... I think they were originally written by the Chinese...in Chinese.

Number two - our worship leader gets rather confused if I just play the chords... so I had to play the exact melody (wholly or parts of it) with the chords...which leads to my third problem....

Number three - Having to play the melody, it meant that I had to read the tune on the song-sheets. BUT I am really not used to reading numbers...@_@' I mean, I know what they mean. But my brain needed alot of extra time to decipher them. Give me taugeh, Solfège syllables or chords anytime...

Another thing - I usually play-by-ear alot...i.e. listen to any particular new song and play it out without the notated scores or chord sheets... but I don't know why my ears, brain and fingers did not respond too well to the tunes this round, even after having played them a few times during the practice. I figured out that it's probably because of the foreign language inserted into the songs... (Don't you give me that funny, skeptical look!:P) kinda messed up the automated systems...

So last night, I finally decided to write out the notes in solfege syllables...since I was lazy to draw out the 'taugeh' (musical notation symbols) ... Just in case!

Number four - I learned the China commission anthem last minute. Totally unprepared. When it was time for me to play it this morning, I nearly started on the wrong note. *sweat*

Number five - as I don't understand most of what my worship leader says most of the time, I couldn't respond adequately to his signals during P + W. @_@ - I nearly went into the 3rd song, when he said that we were to repeat the 2nd song...Was already playing the transition chord to switch keys - from E major to G major.

Could feel the blood practically draining from my face, when the worship leader started singing the 2nd song again all the way from the top. YEAAAARRRRRRGHHHH! >_<

But thank God for an understanding worship leader...

...and my wonderful fellow musician, Kevin - who really provided the most needed guitar-support! (not to mention all the hard work he did coordinating all the instruments' transportation) I could have never done this by myself. Would have been so alone and blur. (Was already very blur) Not to mention I nearly passed out from embarrassment whenever I 'misunderstood' my worship leader's signals...and wished the ground could swallow me up. *Mortified* O.o ~ But yeah. Thanks, Kevin! :)

And most importantly, THANK GOD for all the help He gave us, and giving me, especially, the much-needed patience.... hehe.

After serving... (yeah, pardon the geek look... Contact lenses went dysfunctional, and I had a bout of allergic conjunctivitis lately.)