Gateway of Hope

Happy New Year!

For those who may not celebrate the church year, this is the first Sunday in Advent, which is the start of the church year. Christmas is getting closer all the time!

I've changed the time on this posting so it still fits Dec 2. My nights have been getting later and later as I try to get everything done before heading home this week. I've finally chosen my photos, and tonight, Gerald and I confirmed the song order. I'm continuing to book new gigs for Toronto, as well as working out details of the gigs we have.

The songs go in to be mastered tomorrow. We'll receive a disc on Monday or Tuesday and, hopefully, it will be perfect and we can submit it and have it ready-to-go on Wednesday.

We have gigs booked for this weekend, so we really need to drive Thursday. Oh, and I am working this week too. Crazy!

And in the midst of all that, we decided to do a concert tonight. My friend, Janelle, from the Christian Women of Entertainment group, asked if we would sing at her church for a Christmas concert tonight. Each year, they do a concert to support single mothers and widows within their community. How could we resist that?

Gateway of Hope is a small, friendly, contemporary church in Lebanon, TN. (Pronounced LEH-beh-nin, with a drawl.) The concert was well laid out, with a mix of performers. Each person did one or 2 songs, and they were interspersed with very short verses from the Biblical Christmas stories.

We had chosen my song, "Welcome to Bethlehem" and Gerald's song, "My Heart is the Manger".

Well, literally 5 minutes before we're supposed to go on stage, Gerald turns to me and says, "I can't remember the lyrics to my song. We have to do something else." I just about fell off my chair. Oh, and we weren't in a green room somewhere. We were in the middle of the audience, while Janelle was singing "O, Holy Night".

He said, "I think I can do 'Hallelujah, I Remember'." Um, you mean that song I've never sung? I just looked at him and begged him to remember the lyrics. I don't quite know how I thought that would work, but I was in a panic. Finally, I said, "Let's just get through my song, and then see what happens."

So we get up and do "Welcome to Bethlehem", and it's awesome! I sang and we both played guitar. We sounded great, people clapped along, and the response was wonderful. I looked at Gerald, praying that he'd remembered the song.

Nope. He starts explaining to the audience that he's having a forgetful moment, that he would like to do a different song. Ironically called, "Hallelujah, I Remember". They had a great laugh over that one.

Now, I've heard this song a few times, and when Monika was here, they started working out harmonies, but I haven't actually ever sung the song myself. Talk about trial by fire! He started the song, and I grabbed the mic and started groovin' along. I figured even if no notes came out, at least I'd look involved.

When the chorus came, I started singing, and somehow it all started to come out okay. I improvised a bit throughout the song, and got all the tight chorus harmonies. And we ended together, which is always the most important part.

We got back to our seats and I was shaking! I whispered to Gerald, "That was great, but let's never do it again!".

I'm so glad God is in control so I don't have to be!