When I first arrived in Tahiti and went to the Orovini church, I happened to notice in the bulletin that there would be a Christmas program the evening of December 13. My first thought was how cool it would be to be there to catch that. My second thought was, "Dummy, you'll still be in town!" I've never stayed in Tahiti for nearly 2 months before so it took some getting used to. This time we were able to make some more far-reaching plans.
One of those plans was that I was invited by Teremu and Toimata to work with the Youth Group to sing "Car Dieu Est Si Grand". ("How Great Is Our God") We sped it up a little bit, added a chorus of "Joy To The World", and then sang it for the end of the Christmas program at Orovini. The Youth fell in love with "Joy To The World". In fact, when they started singing it that night, we went acappella for a bit and the congregation loved it too.
The program was filled with a terrific variety of things -including the Children's Choir, a Pastor's ensemble, skits, beautiful Polynesian-flavored dances, Teremu's group, Kades, (which is a Greek word meaning "consecrate") and the Youth Group. At one point the youth group dressed completely in black and wore white gloves. They turned out the lights and lit up a black light on the platform. Then, along with a song about the cross, they formed shapes and words by putting their hands together. It was incredible. Toimata choreographed and danced a beautiful dance to "O Holy Night" with several girls.
Christian, the host of the program, asked me to close the night in prayer. I felt honored to be able to do this and, in fact, gave the call of salvation with Toimata by my side to translate. Several hands went up and we all prayed together. Often, at Christmas, you can get more folks in the door than at any other time of year. It's a great time to hold out hope to everyone who comes. I also heard stories about others who rededicated their lives to God that night. Is there any greater gift one could receive than inviting Jesus into their heart? Jesus has come to bring joy to the world. There was a lot of joy in Tahiti that night.
No comments:
Post a Comment