ARISE this year, for the first time in history, connected with every time zone to fulfill the vision of continual praise and worship across the globe. I know a friend whose 3 children were also involved in ARISE in another Asian country. It was exciting to know that we are praising God together although we are in different places. For Singapore, ARISE happened on 14 April in 2012 at 3pm at Paya Lebar Methodist Church.
This is the second time that the girls joined the ARISE choir. The first time they participated, they had a great time. God was faithful and He continued to show Himself trustworthy. Read more in my posts ARISE! and Give Thanks! and ARISE! to the Perfect Love. I am grateful for those who came to join us in praising the Lord. I’m also thankful for many who prayed for the Lord’s name to be lifted up. It was most gratifying to see the girls fully engaged for all the practices – we tried not to miss any, and on the actual day. John and daddy would capture the memorable moments whenever they could.
14 April was a long and busy day for all of us – the girls were in the choir, John and CM were the photographers while I helped with the ushering. Both girls lasted the practice session, breaks and the actual worship concert from 10am till 6pm. After that, we adjourned for dinner with the family as my niece came back from overseas. And LA didn’t sleep till about 10pm that night!! She took a couple of days to recover but I was really amazed at her stamina. God showed me that those LONG hours of standing, shaking and singing were excellent therapy for her gross muscles!! Her muscles were given a sweaty workout and I had good reports from all her teachers the week right after the worship concert.
Immediately after the concert, at my brother-in-law’s place, she asked my mother-in-law in Mandarin,”婆婆，你为什么没有来？“(Why didn’t you come?) My in-laws responded that they did and told her they saw her dancing and singing. Having been presented with the evidence, she was convinced that they were there although she didn’t see them. That was a very encouraging conversation as she spoke in a complete sentence in her second language to my in-laws whom she didn’t see very often! Her Sunday school teacher said LA repeated the date after her. Her Mandarin tutor was happy that she was more spontaneous during her lesson. The music teacher was excited when LA, along with Rebecca and John, tried to teach her the actions of one of the ARISE songs. LA’s swimming coach reported that she has shown improvement as well.
With us, she seemed to have another ‘growth spurt’ of sorts and broke out into ‘verbal diarrhoea’, showing greater dexterity and maturity in her cognitive processes. I’ve also noticed that all the actions and signing has helped LA remember other songs with the same words better. She is then more inclined to sing those songs.
She LOVES the ARISE songs and will listen to them often, doing all the actions and teaching them to her imaginery friends. Even a month after the concert, she remembers where the worship concert was – and she says ‘Paya Lebar Methodist Church’ in one breath, and asks when we are going for ARISE again. She sounded disappointed when I told her ‘next year’. Regardless, I’m thrilled at her motivation!! I pray that as she goes before the Lord and sing to Him, she will want to know who God is and will express her desire to accept Jesus as her personal Lord and Saviour.
Would you pray along with me?
Thank you 🙂
I Can Do It! 