A New Year.

I spent my countdown to Chinese New Year at a watch night service. I had no prior intentions of attending it so it was a surprise when I found myself attending the service. And even though they sang Chinese songs which I had to struggle to make out the meaning of (and gloss over those unfamiliar words), it was a humbling experience.

It quite a shock initially when my dad and I were suddenly plagued with requests for microphones and why the sound isn't coming out and the projectors not working or the drum monitors not receiving any input. I really need to learn how to at least set up the system soon so that future incidents will not be so haphazard.

So there I was struggling to make sense of the mixer and trying to figure out why the projector wasn't working when the speaker said don't worry about it, we will make do with what is available. And so the service started.

The amazing thing I think, was that things worked. It was not perfect, and I had no idea what I was doing. But sound was coming from the worship team and it sounded good. In fact, it sounded great. It was an amazing worship experience, and incredibly humbling.

Incredibly humbling because the worship leader was clicking to go to the next slide even whilst singing. Humbling because the team were all so unassuming yet so gifted at their individual instruments. It was humbling that "making do with what is available" simply worked. It didn't even matter that they couldn't hear each other (or themselves), I think the only thing that mattered to them was worshiping God, and it showed.

And the people around me were (probably) all older than me and looked on the outside to be like typical conservative uncles and aunties, but when it came to worship they had so much unabashed energy and enthusiasm that made me feel stoic by comparison.

So that was my celebration of Chinese New Year. Singing songs that I didn't know in a language that was unfamiliar at times, but blessed to have spent it with strangers united in our faith in God. So yes, good was to start the new year.