So it has now been over 7 months since I last wrote a blog post. Wow! Where did the time go? I guess things got hectic with university and my social life to the point where this blog somehow got neglected. However, as I have just began my second year of university, I feel that I should give this worship blog another go because even though I have only been back in Liverpool for 4 weeks, God has already done so many amazing things for me!
First I thought I would give you an update on everything that has occurred in my life surrounding worship, and briefly what I am up to now.
So way back in March, I attended a guitar basics lesson with my friend Poppy, led by our worship pastor Debs. She was so supportive and understanding, and made sure that we learned some valuable and transferable skills for the guitar. I then headed straight to the Christian Union afterwards to lead worship, and it seemed to be a success. I then continued to organise the team for the rest of the year, which was only until Easter, so I had a very long break over summer.
After Easter, around April time, I was given a really detailed and wonderful testimony by my friend Andrew, and it made me realise that I should really type out my full testimony from start to finish. I got going on the project, and realised that my closest connections and encounters to God were always when I was doing something music-related. One fact about me that not many people know is that when I decided to become a Christian, I sang out loud to God, with a song that was not well-known at all, and recently, I have figured out the chords to it myself to hopefully perform one day. My testimony also seemed to be full of coincidences across my whole life to the point where I realised that everything that happened so perfectly in my life was not a coincidence at all, but it was because of God intervening in my life. It made me so thankful for all that he had done for me, and made me want to only focus on him looking into the future.
At my church in Liverpool, Debs wrote two albums of all age worship songs, which was really quite incredible. One of the songs was called "Whale Of A Time" and is about Jonah in the Bible, who ran away from the plans that God had for him. It suddenly dawned on me that I was very much like Jonah because I seem to always shy away and avoid the amazing things that God has planned in store for me. Therefore, at this moment, I made the decision to not be like Jonah, but to always listen to God, and do what he has commanded me to do to serve him.
During the month of May, as well as finishing my first year of university, and being able to enjoy my very long summer, as a church we also had to sadly say goodbye to Debs, our worship pastor who has served the church for many years. It was very emotional, especially because I was always very grateful for the bond that I had made with Debs, and the fact that I was really growing in confidence because of her counsel. As I said goodbye to her for the last time in what will surely be a while, I thanked her for all that she had done for me, and she told me that I will always be growing in confidence before God. She was really humble about everything when we are in the presence of God, and she told me that she had 11 years of experience on me and that she was just like me when she began with worship. Mainly because of the fact that she could hardly look at the audience, and was quite hesitant. It was really encouraging to hear this from her, and to know that I can achieve a lot of things over time. I will truly cherish these kind words of hers.
Emily Toole, myself and Debs Davies at church, all in matching outfits, shortly before she would be leaving St James in the City.
In more exciting news, I bought a new guitar in July! I spend a few months trying to find an electro-acoustic guitar that was within my price range to use exam success money from my Grandparents over the years. My reason for choosing to pay more for an electro-acoustic guitar was that Debs had told me that I should go for it, because if I ever ended up playing on the church worship team, I would need to be connected to the sound system. Even though I thought that the idea was completely preposterous, I went along with it anyway. I saw a beginner guitar pack at a shop in Liverpool, which consisted of an Epiphone PR-4E guitar, an amp, a gig bag, a guitar strap, loads of picks, a tuner and some chord charts. I have never looked back since I took the next step to buy myself a guitar, apart from the fact that I had to carry a huge guitar box through the centre of Liverpool, and I was exhausted by the end of the day.
The day that I bought my guitar and had to carry the whole kit through Liverpool city centre with my best friend Sam.
During the month of July, despite being back at home for the summer, I still kept in contact with my church in Liverpool, to hear lots of exciting information about the new worship pastor, Matt Courtney, who would be taking over Debs. As soon as a I heard it was him, I recalled back to March, when him and his wife came to a St James in the City service, and I shook his hand at the end of the service. I sent him a Facebook request, and I really prayed that I would be able to get along with him, and that he would bring out the best in me during my time in Liverpool. I later received a message from him asking if we could meet up in August because he had heard lots about me from Debs, due to me taking over the worship at my Christian Union.
My meeting with him was a success. We went to a coffee shop in Liverpool, and he was just here to get to know me better. Right from the start, I kept reminding him that I was a complete beginner and that I really didn't have the skills to get involved in church yet. However, he kept reminding me that God will accept us as we are, and that we can only give him our best. He also told me that his last job was more music technology-based, and he just seemed really humble, especially when he was talking about presenting himself in front of God. He then told me that there was absolutely no pressure to join the worship team, he wasn't forcing me to do anything that I didn't want to, but he would love to have me in the team anyway! Somehow, I could really hear God telling me that I should just say yes, that I should go for it and not look back. Deep down, I also knew that this was something that I really wanted to do now, and also when I was younger, but just never had the confidence, or the opportunity to do so. I told him that I would happily be involved from time-to-time, just to test the waters, but only when he was leading the worship, so that I could follow his lead and guidance.
Then by this point, September rolled in, and I was moving back into Liverpool for another year of university. This year, I brought all of my instruments to Liverpool; guitar, keyboard, flute and ukulele, in the hope of really using my time wisely to become more confident in music this next year!
My second year of university has started full of hope and optimism, and I really can't wait to see what God has in store for me while I am here!!
Thank you for taking the time to read through an account of my last few months, and I promise that I will be posting regularly over the next year about everything that occurs in regards to my spiritual life.
Lois
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