Sing, Sing, Sing

The human ear is cued to hear the human voice in a way it does not register other sounds. Working on weekdays at the Centre, we commonly hear opera music piped from somewhere across the street (I think it’s Wagner on repeat, plus a selection of vocalises), and we know, among all the other sounds, the warmth and richness of the human voice, even in a recording. Something about the voice, even if it is canned and distorted, is distinct from everything else.

On Friday I was sitting on the bus, mostly by myself in the back, when I heard some sounds above the engine and street noise and just knew someone was singing. I looked around, and a girl was sitting in the very back of the bus, singing to herself without an iPod. I thought, That girl is a Christian. I don’t know of other people who sing without an iPod while on transit. So I went back and sat next to her and asked what she was singing. She was surprised; she thought no one could hear her over the bus noise—but she was singing “Amazing Grace.” She was a Christian from South Korea who had been to school in Chicago and had come to Vancouver to teach English.

When I am at home, I often think of my dad as “happy singing man,” because he walks around singing and happy a lot. I think this can be a mark of Christians—people who have songs in their hearts, who sing to God. We don’t know a lot of stuff about Jesus and His disciples’ daily life, but I suspect that it included singing. Matthew and Mark both state that Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn and went out after the Lord’s Supper. I doubt that night was the first time they had sung together. We know that God sings (Zeph. 3:17), we know that Jesus sang, we know that Paul and the early church definitely sang, and we know that heaven rings loud with singing. Let’s sing too. We have no idea who it might encourage.

Praises
• God always reserves people for Himself (I Kings 19:18). He is at work in lots of places, through lots of people, even today.
• I’ve gotten to make a couple of new contacts over the past couple of weeks.
• God is opening some neat doors in my Iranian friends’ Bible study, through a possible new venue for it, and through some people who have started coming to it.
• I have had a couple of possible outreach ideas.
• My BC Health came through; now I am just waiting to hear about my work permit.

Prayer requests
• This is definitely a time of growth and stretching for me. I am dealing with culture shock and self-shock and definitely need wisdom from God. Pray that God would help me to be sensitive to those around me and really to love them, in word, attitude, and deed.
• Pray for wisdom in developing my outreach ideas and wisdom in choosing who to partner with for them.
• Pray for partners in ministry for me and my team—that God would raise up likeminded souls and open doors for us to minister outside of our particular suburb.
• Pray for divine appointments and boldness in sharing the gospel.
Thank you guys for praying for me! Please update me on how you are doing!
-Jennifer