I Guess I Did Say I Wanted to be Stretched

 I attended my first Sunday worship service in India, and to my surprise, in spite of the different culture, singing and worship style, I still felt at home.  However, I'm not really appreciating God's sense of humor.  Part of my internship requires that I meet with my site supervisor on a weekly basis, so during our meeting, my site supervisor who is the Pastor of the church I am serving with tells me that he will be preaching this Sunday and that I will do a solo right before his sermon.

WAIT...WHAT!!!

 

TIMEOUT...FOUL...FLAG ON THE PLAY...you want me to do what?  The song before the preached word usually prepares not only the congregation for what is about to be shared, but the preacher as well.  Are you sure you want me to do that song???  I don't know why they are not hearing me when I say that I am a GROUP SINGER!!!  I have a little musical training and love singing, but that qualifies me as nothing more than...well...as having a little musical training and a love of singing.  I can make speeches and talk in front of a crowd all day, but tell me to sing...ahhhh!!!  The melody and tempo in my head just doesn't always come out the same way through my mouth.  So I laugh because I have come all the way to India and in addition to the teaching element, I am to lead and direct a gospel choir and sing solos in church, and I know God is chuckling.  Nonetheless, I sang "Because of Who You Are" (I think that's the title) and graciously, people applauded at the end.  Again, however, it could be the whole foreigner thing...lol.  Seriously, it wasn't that bad, but when I said I wanted to be stretched, I didn't necessarily say that to include my vocal chords.