Vine Album recording weekend

It's now 10th May, and the recording took place last weekend - 5th to 7th May. Friday 5th and Saturday 6th may were the two days of live recording at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre.

On Friday I arrived at about 1230 to start my service managing duties. Well, to be honest there wasn't much for me to do. I ticked that the people who were supposed to be there were - easy. However, on the way to the venue, Anna Gardener had called me about a cold pack as Carmen had hurt her foot in a rehearsal that morning. So by the time I arrived, her foot was elevated and iced. The dancers were busy having their hair and makeup done in the dressing room.

To be honest, there really wasn't much for me to do. I went around trying to find little jobs for myself to keep me busy. I didn't really want to read my book as I just felt it would get me out of the mood of it being an exciting day of recording. So, I did little things like fill the water boiler for the singers (so they could have warm honey water), display the food and water, get more ice for Carmen etc. Part way through the afternoon I felt like it was really useless me being there - I was quite frustrated as I felt like my role was unnecessary. I was backstage thinking this and I felt God just prompt me and say' Is this about you? It isn't about you. What are you here to do?' The answer? To serve of course. After that, I felt like God used me to pray for Carmen who was rather upset about her injury and not being able to dance. I also had an opportunity to encourage and pray for another dancer - Elein. Things didn't go according to the rundown sheet, as the soundchecks (all 3 of them!) took longer than the scheduled time - but it was important considering the worship was being recorded after all. The dancers finally got to rehearse their dance on stage a couple of times. The different teams prayed separately that night due to time constraints.

At 7pm the doors opened and people entered. At about 7:30 Derek introduced the evening, got the crowd pumped up and shouting. The show opened with the cool dance with 12 dancers , then we had the first set of songs, John sorted out the offering and introduced Ned Davies, Ned spoke about our wonderful creator God, made an altar call (where several people became Christians) and then there was the second set. At the end of the evening we went to in and Out for some grub and a drink.

The following day (Saturday) I got up, had breakfast and got ready for the day. I rang Victor to see if he needed an 'errand person' as he'd expressed that the previous day they had needed someone to do a few things. So, I went there earlier than originally planned and saw Michelle repetitively thumping on the bass drum and Victor sorting out sound things (yes...I have absolutely no clue whatsoever!). I talked to Michelle and we got the lunch orders from people...I managed to get orders for Chinese food and Starbucks, and needed to get drinks from Park n Shop. Thankfully I had a mini brainwave and rang Anna (bless) and she got the Starbucks on her way. I managed to find a Dai Pai Dong to get the Chinese food and got the drinks from PnS.

Later on I had to go and get water for the worship team and dancers - we reckoned on 3 boxes. Adam went with me and had quite a hilarious time trying to carry these boxes back to the theatre a)without dropping them and b)in the fastest time possible. Well, we had a good laugh and you should see how toned our arms are!!

Due to having experienced one day of recording, the soundcheck and set up went well and we prayed together that evening. Ned was great talking to us and encouraging us that this was a new night, and it was not to be a repeat performance. We were also encouraged that this was a team effort to glorify God in whatever role we were playing and it wasn't just about the worship leader or worship team.

The evening started with Derek giving the intro. The Carmen, Nate and Adam performed their dance which was great - it had cheers in the right places! Then the second dance started. In the middle of the dance water started falling from above the stage, towards the front. At first I thought ' Wow that looks cool!' then it was 'That wasn't in the rundown...AAAAAARGHHHHH!!!!' I quickly ran backstage and saw the backstage lady communicating with someone else, so I reckoned they would be onto the problem. I ran back out to the corridor and thought, "What do I do??? Mops and buckets!!!" I ran through the theatre while the dancers continued and asked the people for mops (thankfully it is in my Cantonese vocabulary). The cleaning lady appeared and I repeated that we needed mops, she opened a backstage cupboard and got a few mops out and some buckets. The dancers had come off stage and the lady said to me,"We can't mop this - there's too much water!" at which point I grabbed a mop, gave it to Vinny, took the buckets and started mopping. All I knew was that we had to get the water off the stage. Soon, more help arrived - the Africans from Togo were great. Mops were placed to catch the water that was still falling. More people from the Vine helped clean up using mops, cloth and toilet paper. I remember turning to Aaron Rogers and saying,"If this doesn't show teamwork, I don't know what does!' While we were cleaning up the last bits, trying to work out how long it would take the electrics to be checked and the possibilities of recording the following day, Ned spoke to the audience and led them in worship.

We later found out that the guy came down, checked the electrics and decided it would be fine to continue once power was back on. Some of the worship team, started some acoustic worship and the rest of the team joined them on stage. After a little while, the power came back on midsong. A few things were checked and the announcement was made that we'd run through all ten songs which we then proceeded to do. It was sooooo cool - everyone was so up for it and worshipping their hearts out. Seriously - Satan tried to stop this, but God had bigger and better plans for the evening.