Last night was a great night. Steve surprised me with tickets and backstage passes to a Daniel Bedingfield gig so we felt very rock and roll making our way to London on a Sunday night. As we emerged into the auditorium of the Hammersmith Apollo the first few chords of One Hundred Hours first song had just been struck and hundreds of people were staring with curiosity as the charismatic Tre began growling out songs of worship to Jesus...
I had to do a bit of a double take; had I inadvertently stumbled into a Christian Conference? No... this was a normal gig and everyone was loving it. I had goose bumps! I felt like stopping people and saying you do hear the word Jesus right, you know what he's singing? Tre was energetic and passionate (the same as always when he worships God) and it felt like it was the most natural thing in the world. Maybe it should be...
I think half the time we just assume that because music is about God people won't be interested, but good music is good music and the place was alive. I know God loved it, everything in me did. It set the tone of the whole evening... When Daniel came on his was a flurry of hyperactive energy and dramatic vocals the mood was light and (I know this is an odd word but..) wholesome.
His band rocked and the gig was good, about 5 or 6 songs stood out but on the whole Bedingfield's a great performer. He seems totally at home relating to a thousand people. A real highlight for me was when he started singing a song he'd written about Jesus, as he sang his name at the top of his lunges the room was cheering. It was awesome!
After wards we went back stage and I embarrassingly stared at a guy I thought I knew only to be informed later that I was staring at Lamar. Oh well, never mind. Apparently Jamie Cullum was also there but I missed him. The myth of stars shining in a crowd was crushed as I must have walked past Daniel and Jamie and didn't even notice. They seemed like really normal blokes,quite nice really.
After all the glam we decided to get back to our roots and go for a Kebab with far too much garlic sauce. The car smelt tasty all the way back to Chi!
This morning my alarm went off at 5.30am and I bounded out of bed threw on my clothes, brushed my teeth (and hopefully dispelled the remnants of garlic) before I made my way down to our 24-7 Prayer Room!
As I stepped into the room I'd been helping build this weekend it was amazing to see the life that had entered it through other people's prayers. Staring at me were the lovely Shangri La boys, bleary eyed but with smiles on their faces after an hour praying together. It was really amazing feeling to know that it was working, people from revs had been praying through the night and now it was my turn.
I had a really good hour as always it flew past, I really need to remember to book 2 hour slots. I've got some pictures of the room and my cell setting it up which I'll try and put up in the next couple of days. I'm really excited about what might happen this week. I'll keep you posted!