#fireplace: pressing on in #worship (and two #giveaway s)

The weekends when I lead worship at church are often both stressful and satisfying. (Okay, it's only stressful for me and the musicians because I'm a muddle-minded person).
Today, for example, our drummer didn't turn up. We pressed on, with keys and guitar. Then our LCD projector blew a fuse in the middle of Lead me to the cross. And you know, that's a difficult song; it has so many words. We pressed on - even the littlest child can sing the chorus of In moments like these. Then the pastor's microphone didn't work. He swapped mikes and pressed on.
It felt like a recipe for disaster, but it wasn't.

And somewhere in the back of my mind was the question, 'why does this always happen to me?'
But that's an unfair question, because it doesn't always happen to me. And even when it does, you know that it only makes you rely on God all the more.

Sometimes I think that's why it happens to me. Because sometimes I think I can handle it when I know I can't. And though mostly I hope for a great worship session, I'm usually thankful that we got through the set with minimal disasters. After every worship session, I thank God for getting us through, and promise I'll be better prepared the next time, I'll dig deeper in His Word, but life gets in the way, and sometimes I do, but more often I don't. That's probably not a very good confession to be hearing from your worship leader, but sometimes it really is the truth! (And if you can't be truthful to your church, who can you be truthful with?)

I just bookmarked this verse during service this morning:

Luke 22:32 - But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

It kind of struck me... did you ever realise that Jesus said "And when you have turned back"? It presupposes we will fall but we will get up again. Okay, yes we know that Peter denied Jesus and later he turned back and led the church; we know that in hindsight. Imagine, for a moment, if you were Peter, and you knew with all your heart you would never fail Jesus... and then you did. That one word, "when" would have made a lot of difference for me.

So we press on, continually press on. 

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CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAYS!

I've blogged about my good friend Josh before - last year, I did an artist interview with him when he first launched his album, In That Day.

This year, I'm running a giveaway for his album (digital download), unless you live in Malaysia, in which case I can arrange an autographed copy for you. It's an easy entry giveaway! 

Also, I've been much blessed by the Next Level worship series by David Santistevan, and was also privileged to participate in the launch of his book, The Worship Songwriter, in October. So here's another easy entry giveaway!

Entries close on 23 December 2012!

(p/s I've moved the rafflecopter to a separate post here.)

in which the natzers tries to summarise many things in one post

So Project Dance is over, and for the benefit of Anne, I shall show her how my friend's drama run sheet, which is super cool, compares to MY run sheet, which is super confusing. Runsheet #fail.

Okay, so maybe they're not really comparable.


Well, I'm currently reading In Leah's Wake for the Social Media Whirlwind tour and should get the review up by this Friday. I think I can read that fast. Am enjoying it so far - take a peek at her interview yesterday and I would appreciate it plenty mucho if you would take the time to vote for my blog here. You can click on "click here to enter for the prizes" which may win you something, and then you can click on "click here to vote" which will put me in the running for a prize too. So it's a win-win, yes?
*makes super cute puss-in-boots eyes* - which reminds me I still haven't watched it yet, even though I've been saying for ages that I want to.

Also, check out Josh's interview here - and if you haven't already bought his CD or attended his album launch, this is a reminder that his next release performances are as follows:
Other album release performances:
17 Dec (Sat) 8pm @ Fettes Park Baptist Church (FPBC) (15 Jalan Meranti,11200 Tanjung Bungah, Penang)
18 Dec (Sun) 8pm @ FGA Centre Air Itam (10, Jalan Air Itam, Mukim 16 Air Itam, 11500 Penang)

Competitions: #REN3 and Commonwealth

If you haven't already visited the Renaissance blog... go now!
The shortlist of 6 has been up since Sunday, and you have two more days to vote for your favourite story. The poll will close at 11.59PM GMT on Friday 11th November, and the winner of the blogfest will be announced on Monday 14th November!
I'm kind of sad that I didn't make the list, but all the stories were so awesome that it doesn't really matter. :)

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So maybe I'm slow-ish, but I just found out that Commonwealth Writers is holding two competitions:

Commonwealth book prize
Awarded for best first book, this prize is open to writers who have had their first novel (full length work of fiction) published between 1 January and 31 December 2011. Publishers must enter the book on behalf of the author except in the case of self published authors from eligible regions who can make their own submission. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £10,000.
Entry forms must be submitted no later than Friday 9 December 2011 (5pm GMT). Books must be received by the Prize Administrator no later than Friday 16 December 2011 (5pm GMT).

Commonwealth short story prize
Awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000 – 5000 words). Submissions must be made by the author of the short story. Regional winners receive £1,000 and the overall winner receives £5,000.
Entry forms must be submitted no later than 30 November 2011 (5pm GMT). 

So head on over if you're eligible! 

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Nanowrimo progress since the last update: 0.
:(