I headed back to base camp after lunch. It was Wednesday, which meant tonight I was not only sharing my testimony, but there would be a worship service during teen outreach, Mexicans and Americans combined. I walked into the main room and saw Paul, our worship leader, and Garrett.
"You will make me so happy if you let me sing with you guys," I said emphatically.
"You're doing it too! Sweet!" Paul gave me a high five. We followed him to the front of the room to start practicing.
"So we're going to be doing 12 songs. Nobody can sing that many all at once, so I'm going to do the 6 in Spanish while you guys to the 6 in English."
"Cool!" I said. We began picking songs. We went through an entire stack of worship music, experimenting with the tunes, and tossing out all the ones we didn't know super well out until we were left with 7: Hosanna, One Thing Remains, Satisfy, Forever, Jesus Paid it All, Good good Father, and Forever Reign.
"Hosanna is kind of hard to sing," I said.
"Yeah that's the one I'm least inclined to do," Paul said, nodding.
"Me too," Garrett concurred.
"Then we're done! We have 6!" I laid them all out on the floor.
Just as we started practicing, our friend Capri came and joined us singing. After the first song, Paul asked, "You wanna sing with us tonight too?"
"Well, I wasn't planning on it, but I guess now I am! Sure!" She replied.
We all sang together, our voices complimenting each other. Paul sang all the leads, and the rest of us sang different harmonies. Then Paul went to take a break, and we practiced on our own.
Melissa, my cabin leader, came over to us. "You guys sound great but you sound like you're yelling! Tone it down a bit." She said. "Do you guys want help? I have a minor in vocal performance."
"Sure!" I said.
"Alright, what are you guys working on?" Garrett sang the chorus of "Forever Reign."
"We're trying to figure out who is singing which harmony," I said.
"How about you sing the lower one," She said to Capri, and then demonstrated it, "and you sing the higher harmony!" She said to me. She sang the higher one with me until I got it down, and when we sang together it sounded even better than it did before.
"That was great!" Garrett said. We moved on to "Forever" by Kari Jobe.
"The moon and stars they wept, the morning sun was dead..." Capri sang until we got to the chorus.
"Nobody can sing that high," I said.
"Yeah you can!" Melissa said. I tried.
"Ahh I can't," I moaned.
"Watch. Keep your mouth more U-shaped. Never smile while singing, smile with your eyes," she explained. I tried again, awkwardly curving my mouth into a vertical oval. Capri and Melissa laughed.
"You don't have to do it like that," Capri said. "But hey, that already sounds so much better!"
And that was the first time anyone had ever taught me how to sing.
~
"Shall we pray before we start?" Paul asked us. Me, Capri, Garrett, Paul, our drummer, and Joel, our translator, got into a circle on the stage and we prayed.
"God, we love you and we pray our worship would bring everyone together and most of all honor you. Amen."
"Amen!" We all said. We took our places. Garrett took the middle, Capri took the left, and I was standing on Garrett's right. And we sang our hearts out. Paul sang one spanish song and then we sang one English one.
