Update

I know there hasn't been an update here for very long. But I did promise one so here it is.

Here's the official songlist and artists from the concert night. You can go google for them. Some of them (except our own compositions) are on Youtube I think, if you'd like a listen.

1. Shout Your Fame - Hillsongs
2. Beautiful One - By The Tree
3. No One Like You - David Crowder Band
4. Break Free - Hillsong United
5. Join The Song - Vicky Beeching
6. You - Britt Nicole
7. Forever - Planet Shakers
8. All I Need - Bethany Dillon
9. Unspoken - Jaci Velasquez
10. This Man - Jeremy Camp
11. Cry Out to Jesus - Third Day
12. Just a Prayer Away - Adam (homemade song)
13. Word of God Speak - MercyMe (own arrangement)
14. Take You Back - Jeremy Camp
15. Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble - Delirious?
16. Jesus Fan Club (JFC) - KJ (homemade song)
17. Stand - Planet Shakers

And as an added bonus, I'm posting up lyrics of the 2 home grown songs for you to sing along (if those of you who were present for the Concert can remember how they went)

Just a Prayer Away
Away from his light, away from his sight I'm lost again
My life takes a turn to a point of no return
My world crumbles down just like the grains of sand
Without my Jesus, there's nothing left

But I've found that in my weakness
if I just reached out
If I knelt on my knees
and closed my eyes

Chorus:
He is just a prayer away
He loves you more than I can say
He is just a prayer away
Just call and He'll be by your side
Just a prayer away

Now with Him in my life with Him as my guide it's not the same
I'm filled with His awesome grace that fills my heart with praise
No longer bound to sin but free to worship Him
My Jesus, my saviour, my everything

Now I know, that in my weakness
if I just reached out
If I knelt on my knees
and closed my eyes

*Repeat Chorus*

Bridge:
If only people prayed
If only we had faith
We would know
That only when we pray
we move the hands of God
when we pray

*Repeat Chorus*

____

Jesus Fan Club
We are in one body
we share a thing here
that you might know

We are in one body
What keeps us together
I'll let you know

**
It's a man who died and gave me freedom
He opens up the doors to his kingdom
His love for us reaches to the Heavens
His name is, His name is

Chorus:
(Jesus!) The very name makes me lift my hands up
(Jesus!) It's never too late to join the fan club
(Jesus!) I ain't keeping Him as a secret
(Jesus!) His name is (Jesus!) His name is
(Jesus!)

We are in one body
the love we share here
overflows

We are in one body
the Jesus Fan Club
is free to enroll

**Repeat


___

Cheers.

1 more update to come. Stay tuned for it.

Revive Concert - How it came to be (PART3)

PART 3 – A concert? Why?

The concert idea was actually an evolution of the 2006 New Year’s Eve concert on the rooftop. I’ve always known that an evangelistic concert would work. Maybe it didn’t have the large scale results that I was wishfully hoping for, but I know it works. The Australians have proved it thousands of times. People come to Christ through music. It just works. Christian music has that power. Which is why I do believe in buying Christian CDs. You can lend them to a friend and you never know what will happen.

2006’s concert was no evangelistic concert. It was just a concert for fun. To celebrate the new building. To have fun. To just experience playing under the clouds for once. The idea of an evangelistic concert spawned from there when I mentioned it to Uncle Chris. Since we just opened, maybe the idea wasn’t for 2006 but for the near future. And so it slowly started to materialize in 2007.

I didn’t want to do it the moment I came back from church camp. I was debating if I should go on with the plan all the way until November. Questions kept coming in my head – what would I achieve out of it? Who would come? Would it work? Who would we minister to? At the end of it all, would we truly learn anything? Would we truly bring people to Christ? Would this really help the ministry of the future college in any way at all? I just kept asking myself over and over again. I also kept asking ‘How the heck am I supposed to do something like this?’ but that became a much more regular question later on.

I decided on the evangelistic concert in the end. Some of the questions were answered. The main thing that bothered me was the purpose and to what ends we would achieve. But I had my answers. Even if we only brought 1 soul to Christ, that would’ve been enough. AND even if we didn’t do that, this would’ve been an experience so great that we would learn from it so that we could do it again and again in the future. That was the purpose. That purpose would further expand later on, but that is a story for 2008.

So there you have it. That’s how the concert materialized. I know it’s not as majestic as you might have thought. There was no divine blue print faxed from heaven. There was no booming voice that spoke in my dreams. It was just me and God having a one to one chat. Or a debate rather which ended up in one thing – me knowing that I’ve done my very best for Him. It’s the first time I’ve really left everything in His hands and at the end of it all, given Him full credit.

So there you go. This website will be immortalized in webspace for all time, so that whoever stumbles upon it shall know that God is truly alive and will see how He has worked in this small little concert group of 2007. Cheers.

___

That's the end of my story. Now, there are still more updates to come - Concert Songlist and lyrics of the 2 original compositions. And perhaps some snippets from the other concert crew.

Revive Concert - How it came to be (PART2)

PART 2 – So now what?

So what was I going to do next? I knew that I had a job to do while I was still around, and I knew that somehow or other God had planted the idea of Taylor’s in my head from the very beginning. The thing that I had to work out was what I could do in my time now that would somehow contribute to the future college ministry with the idea that I might not be around when it opens.

I figured that it was time to start moving. I’ve always said this in my heart – I believe young people are the feet in the body of Christ. Not because we stink more than others, or that we collect dirt more often, but because the feet always have to move first before anything gets done. If you have to go to get some cold water from the fridge you would first need to open the fridge. But even before that, you’d need to WALK to the fridge. Interesting concept eh? So I had to start moving. I had to do something. I didn’t know if anyone was doing anything, I didn’t know what preparations were being done for this great harvest. All I knew is that I had to do something to contribute to it. And I knew it had to involve the ‘feet’ of the Body.

The young people are the link to the other young people. Who knows? Maybe some of our own CBC youths will be attending that very college? We would have insiders, ready to minister to all those young people there. I estimated maybe 6000 students there. Maybe less. I don’t know, but even 10% of that is 600 people! Think of the numbers! 600 young people ready to just barge into our church just like that. And who’s going to minister to them? And in what ways are we going to minister to them?

I had to hatch a plan. I had to help in as many ways as I could to train and teach our insiders. I don’t claim to be an expert on the matter of evangelism. Trust me, I barely know anything about it. I don’t claim to have the expertise to teach anyone anything. I just knew that someone had to start. Maybe we’d get others to help in but I had to start something. So I turned then to the only thing I was sure about – music.

Final part is on it's way. Stay tuned.

Revive Concert - How it came to be (PART1)

PART 1 – In the beginning…

So where did the idea spring up from you ask? Where on earth did KJ come to conceive such a gigantic plan? Where on earth did KJ get the drive and the sudden urge to do something that has never been done before in CBC history?

Well, I’d love to point the finger at the Boss up there in heaven and say it was all his idea. It actually is, but how he came to let me know the idea wasn’t that simple at all.

Where should I start? Well, it starts, if you can believe it, from the day that I heard about the Taylor’s University College (my brother refuses to call it a University) building landing right smack in front of our church. I don’t even remember when that was or who told it to me or how I found out about it if no one told me. I can’t even remember storing the information in my head. Normally information that doesn’t seem important at that immediate time gets thrown into my recycle bin in my brain. But this one stuck there for some reason and I can only blame God for that. He’s let that thought brew in my head for as long as it has and the concert is first and foremost a result of that singular thought.

The next phase of God’s great instruction to do the concert really drove home on the night of this year’s church camp. It was the second night I think. And there was just something amazing that happened during that night. I remember having to move a large stone and placing it at the foot of a cross to signify leaving my burdens at the foot of the cross. Which I did and that’s when God decided to really pull a big one on me. The way I see it, the less God strikes your mind, the harder it hits when it does. I’ve been idling quite a bit in early Christian life and I guess now is the time the Boss really wants me to do something. So He gave me quite a bash on the head that day. At that time, I had not yet truly known if I would be leaving for the U.S next year. That was the original plan (which I think didn’t go well with my heavenly Boss. Not what he wanted I suppose) and I thought I had a couple of months left in 2007 in Malaysia. I was already thinking ahead of the many things I’d do for him WHEN I got there. I was thinking of the 1001 ways I could serve him in the States. I was looking into Churches in Boston, about to contact a friend of mine to get some info out of him (anyone know Ps Rodney Duncan?). I was all prepared for the great things He was going to do for me and through me WHEN I went overseas. But that didn’t happen. But firstly he drilled home a very big point. It went something like this –

“KJ, you’ve got 5 months here to go. And do you think I’m not going to do anything with you these 5 months? (Which turned out to be longer than that because my plan to leave has been postponed. But that’s a story for another day)”

So it really hit me. Sure I was prepared to leave, but that didn’t mean I could take a break just yet. I wasn’t on a 5 month spiritual holiday break and could just wait for time to pass until I was in another country. God told me very plainly and it’s one of the clearest things I’ve ever heard from him – You’re still here, so you STILL SERVE!

And that was it. I decided one thing which would then grow into a larger and larger decision – I was going to serve in the church up until the day He would let me leave. And that was Genesis really. That was the beginning of the great plan. I think.

Stay tuned for part 2.

THE AFTERMATH

Well, it's a lovely monday afternoon now the 31st of December. The very last day of the year. Usually we like to take this day to reflect on what God has done for us all year and boy do I have a lot to reflect on.

Starting with this very website's content. The Revive Concert 2007.

It has been quite a rollercoaster ride really. There have been tremendous ups and tremendous downs. Some of which I will not go into detail. Firstly the overall picture. I believe it went well. I believe success doesn't have to be defined by how many people turned up. I believe success doesn't have to depend on how many people turned to Jesus that day. Sure it was an evangelical event but I think God is smiling on our efforts. I did mention to some of the crew before - if all fails and everything is rubbish at least we learn from it. Which is exactly what I've gained from this experience. I've learned so much about myself and so much about depending on God to do the miracles. I remember what Pastor Timothy said in his prayer with us before the concert and also what Mark Hall of Casting Crowns said - God doesn't need us to do these things. He's going to do all these great things and He just wants us to come along.

Quite alot went wrong on the concert day. Firstly, the warm up practice started a little rough. Then Adam's string broke right before the song that needed him for the intro. The microphone sounds in the front were too blaring and the sounds at the back were to muffled. Not many people heard what Nigel had to share. I caught most of it. You can ask him to enlighten you if you didn't catch it. Nobody responded to the call for prayers but Pastor Tim prayed for everyone nonetheless. We had an encore that none of us prepared for. I was entirely out of breath and my stomach was hurting nearing the end. I don't know how tired the other singers were but I was entirely out of breath. And my throat was incredibly dry.

Still, despite all these things, I have to say - a job well done. As you will see in my testimony later on - which I promise will come - there were several aims in this concert. One was of course to evangelise to the public. But there was another - to learn how to conduct something of this magnitude in order to do it again in the future for the benefit of the College ministry that will happen in the future. Now is the time to start. Though those who are in the current group may not be here when the Taylor's College opens (me included) we will use this experience to teach those that will be here when it opens. It has been a great learning experience. It has been an amazing challenge for me, putting this thing together. Countless times I was completely clueless about how to go about doing things but the Lord has provided endlessly. The Lord took charge of Saturday's concert.

Above all, there was one more achievement. The bonds of friendship between everyone in the concert team has been strengthened by an incredible bound. I rest easy knowing I have brought such wonderful individuals together. It has been a blessing working with them, jamming with them and praying with them.

That's it for the live updates this time around. For those of you who've enjoyed the concert, drop a comment. And don't tune out yet. There are some more updates coming your way. My personal account of how the concert came to be - I'm sure you're all waiting for that. So stay tuned.

-Kj out.

I haven't been updating for a bit.

We've finally got ourselves an LCD operator. That problem has finally been settled. Praise the Lord.

There are however some other hitches. We've had some more practice sessions after Christmas. Friday's another one coming in a few hours from now. The major problem I have now is that the sound is crappy. We don't have a proper sound techie at the moment and Uncle Chris is perhaps the only one who can save us now. We've got 1 more day to sound check and see if everything works properly. Other than that we're getting along nicely with the songs and arrangements. Adam was the next one to fall sick. I myself haven't completely healed yet. My nasal cavity is still clogged with the biggest amount of goop you can imagine.

There are some leftover fliers and I have no idea what I want to do with them. I expected some response from the other churches but I guess we're on our own this time around. No posters and fliers circulated anywhere else. I'll just paste the rest of the posters around the place and distribute the fliers to perhaps a last housing area or something.

I do hope we can sort out the sound system in this final practice session. It's only a day away. My nerves are starting to get to me in a way that I've never felt before. I'm just shrugging off every question I've got. I don't know who's coming. I don't know if it's going to work. I don't know if they'll like the music. I don't know anything. I just know we've got to do this.

Come to think of it, I'll be writing 'aftermath' posts soon enough. And my personal testimony isn't up yet. So wait for that. I'm sorry for the extreme delay. It'll be up soon. I promise.

-KJ out

Well, I haven't written anything about the past two days' practice sessions. I've been sick as I think you already read previously, but it is slowly escalating to something worse. My throat is incredibly infected, my nose is blocked to oblivion and I'm developing a cough. And the doctor said my tonsils are swollen. Sounds like I'm dieing doesn't it?

Anyway, I have faith that somehow or other, God is going to heal me and get my singing voice ready for the 29th. But that doesn't mean I'll recklessly eat all my curries and scream my lungs out everyday. No, I have to take care of myself too but I have faith that my recovery will be in time for the 29th. It's a terrible time to get sick and some of the other crew members are sick as well. I think Nigel is ill too, and Adrian is just recovering. I pray no one else falls sick in between this time.

We've started going through the entire concert on Thursday. I tell you, the stamina that some of these guys have is incredible. Particularly Isaac. After 2 rounds of playing the ENTIRE concert program he's still got energy to muck about and do nonsense. Sure we've all had a good laugh, but I never thought I'd meet a real life energizer bunny. The practices are going well. Some of the songs are still a bit rough. For the most part, it's moving relatively smoothly. We've covered the entire program 4 times already I think. It's all coming together slowly. We've got a couple more practice sessions coming up. The only thing remains is for the rest of the crew (including me as well) to memorize everything. Chords, lyrics, rhythms, intros, outtros, when to come in, when to stop etc etc. Once we get that, we're ready to rock and roll.

Flyers will be distributed to PJS today. We've just started printing the copies - 1500 of them. The leftovers will be used to distribute at tonights caroling and also if we have the time and extra flyers we're going to venture into the shopping malls. Isaac is adamant we should try the shopping complexes and I think it cannot go extremely terribly. In the event that we'll get chased out, at least we'll get some good exercise running from Security.

We still need people for the Sound/Light and LCD. The LCD operator is becoming more and more important as I view the priorities of recruitment. If we don't have someone for LCD, we're pretty much lyricless for everyone in the crowd. Still a hitch there. But I think that can be solved tomorrow.

I realise that the entire concert now is only exactly a week away. At this time next week we will be all nervous and preparing to get things done and preparing to go on stage. At this time next week everything will have finally worked out and the concert would be in full gear. There's no pulling back now. And I still have no idea what I'm doing. I guess when all this is over, my testimony about how God works would've just grown 10 times over.

That's it for this update. Merry Christmas in advance and see you on Boxing day.

-KJ out

Today's another day and another practice session. I wouldn't say it was a bad day, just a slightly rougher one. I believe the devil has started his offensive. Typical of him to be a procrastinating bozo but last minute attacks are still attacks.

The first form of offensive has taken the form of a slightly rough practice song. There's just one particular song that started getting on nerves today. We will get it right, eventually, but it's so frustrating to hear something and not be able to come close to what it really is when you play it. I think it really is all in our heads. Sure it has to sound good. But that doesn't mean it has to sound perfectly like the original. I have to think up some ways to make the song our own.

Which is going to be really difficult considering the second attack the devil has given. I'm falling sick. I'm not sick yet. It's just that feeling you get when you know you're going to fall sick. Your throat starts acting up and your head feels a little light. I can't afford to fall sick now. Not so near the 29th. But thinking on the bright side, if I recover before the 29th, I won't be ill ON the 29th. But that's just very very positive thinking. I'm going to take some rest, drink a billion liters of water and sweat myself healthy. And pray that God get rid of this pathetic attempt to slow me down. I shall not be moved. Practice continues tomorrow and I will be fit as a fiddle. That's not a particularly good comparison by the way. A fiddle is a big chunk of dead wood with some metal strings all over it covered in varnish. I don't want to be some dead wood. I'm going to be as fit as a ... fit thing.

Pray for me that this sickness doesn't affect me for the 29th. Pray that I might get well immediately and pray that no one else in the crew catches an illness.

-KJ out.

This is the flyer.





And this is the poster. Super credit goes to Adrian for such awesome work.

Yet another practice session.

These practices are really tiring. Anyone in the concert group will testify to that. It's taking a particularly large toll on my voice. And my back. For some reason, my back is aching. Nigel's as well. Funny... I always thought back pain was the sign of old age. But then again, white hair used to be the sign of old age but just today I realised what a lot of it Ivan's got.

Well, seamless it isn't but the flow of the songs was there today. They seemed to blend well. I would consider it pretty damn good already. Boy are all of us in for a night of really good music. And I'm not just saying that because I know this band. They are really good. Better than my own group back in 2006's New Year's Eve concert.

Had a minor setback today. The girls couldn't make it and we were planning to do 2 songs from Mabel's selection. Sadly something has come up and they had plans. We went ahead anyway with the first 5 songs. Nothing too major yet. Just pray that this doesn't happen all that often.

Speaking of other plans, we've got a big practice stint coming up real soon. It's a daily practice from Monday to Friday. I really hope that we get some real commitment so that we can get some things done. It's going to be particularly stressful for all the vocalists. Me included. I was so out of breath after going through the first few songs I think 4-5 times. Let's hope my stamina holds up.

We are still looking for volunteers to help in the select few areas that require lots of aid. Particularly now (and I've realised how urgently we need this) the sound and light and LCD operators. Pray that God will put it on someone's heart to serve as a volunteer in this area. And also the other areas - Traffic Control, Crowd Control, Manual Labour and Clean Up.

The final stint of the concert advertising is about to begin. With the posters up, we'll have them around the area soon enough. Let's hope we've made them attractive enough to really draw people in.

So, still alot to do in this short time. I suddenly realised that the concert is only 2 weeks away. Yikes. We're really treading in deep water now. If the Lord hadn't gone before us, we'd be seriously lost. Funny story though is how sometimes I get asked how we're supposed to do certain things and the only answer I can give is 'I don't know'. The best example of this was when we were giving out flyers the first time around. Edward and Nigel mentioned 'We should plan first how we're going to do this' and I'd just go and say 'Let's just go and do it!' and they'd ask 'how?' to which I'd give my famous shrug and 'I have no idea'.
In truth I really have no idea how this works. I have never done anything like it and have no idea how it will all come together. But trust in the Lord that it will. It is his plan after all. I think.

So pray that the small details will be ironed out soon enough. Before we really come to crisis.

-KJ out.

I'll post up some pictures in the next post for you to enjoy. Pictures of the flyers and posters.

POSTERS!

The Posters are finally DonE! I will be posting up some images of these things too on the website. Maybe I'll even use it as the background. But anyway, big big big big big humongous round of appreciation for our very own Adrian who has toiled endless nights to bring satisfaction to my standards. I did warn him that I'd be particular about how it looks. But I guess 80% is good enough. I'm really really pleased with the end product.

Let me just tell you guys about the process of making the flyers and posters right here.

I first approached Adrian to do the flyers because he's done stuff like this before. I'm not one for design. I only know how to tell you how it's supposed to look like and not really how to do it. I can draw on paper what I want, but putting it into actual digital imaging? I can't do that to save my life and anybody else's. Anyway, we both met up (with Edward tagging along and alot of subsequent ridiculous joking that invovled fido dido. You don't want to know about that) and I drew him a quick sketch of what I wanted it to look like. And when I say quick sketch, I really mean quick sketch. For him to turn my sketches into reality is just amazing.

To understand how much work was truly invovled, you can ask him. You can also ask him how much sleep he's lost. I presume it's alot since he does have a day job (sometimes night shift) as well and I take almost all the rest of his time to do these things. He does what I tell him to do and sends me a sample. I tell him what I want corrected and he goes back to work. And again and again and again. Each one takes maybe a couple of minutes? But the entire conception of the ideas takes days and days and days. In my computer folder of test subjects, I am happy to report that we made a grand total of 13 samples for the flyers and 3 actual ones, 21 poster samples and 1 actual one, and 5 miscellaneous tests. Anyone who knows about photoshop can perhaps understand how much work Adrian has put in to this. that's a total of more than 40 photoshop creations.

That is alot of work. And I am really happy we've finally got it done.

BIG BIG BIG BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR ADRIAN!

If you'd like to drop a comment, now is the time to do so and really give this guy a pat on the back. He's entering the hall of fame.. of something.

Cheers.

-KJ out

P.S. I'm writing my short testimonial record of how this concert came to be. It'll probably be up tomorrow.