From the Mountain to the Valley

For the last several months, I’ve been rehearsing for a worship music recording that started on December 28. People from all over the country came to my hometown of Abilene, TX to participate in a Praise & Harmony recording. It happens in a different city each year, and when a friend of mine told me about it coming to Abilene, I was excited to join in.

We had to audition in quartets to ensure an equal number of singers on each part. This is my quartet. I had never met any of these three before, but now we are bonded for eternity.

My worship tradition focuses on a cappella singing, but this worship style is becoming a lost art. Keith Lancaster (the founder of the praise group Acappella that was big in the 80’s) uses his talents not only to preserve this worship style but to minister to people around the world, sharing the love of Jesus through song.

Since we have no instruments to keep us on tune and in time, we all wore ear buds and listened to a “click track” broadcast over an FM radio channel to stay in tune and on beat. The click track featured a metronome clicking the beat along with a quartet plus piano singing/playing the parts. We basically had to have the music memorized, though, because all dynamics and cut offs came from our director, so we had to watch him carefully. And since we couldn’t risk having paper rattling on the recording, we sang with slides projecting the music on the front walls. My 50 year-old eyes had a little trouble seeing that far since I was in the back of the room, but we made it work.

There were two sections for each part set up throughout the large auditorium for recording. This was my alto section. I am on the third row back in the middle in the green shirt. Met some great people on my pew!

Many of the pieces we recorded for this Overwhelming God album are a cappella arrangements of contemporary Christian songs you would hear on the radio. Others are new compositions or revitalized arrangements of long-forgotten hymns. About 250 people gathered for four days a recording, and I can’t express the joy in my spirit as my voice blended with so many other talented singers to get a small taste of what heaven must be like.

After the audio recording was complete, we gathered to make video recordings to be used with the audio tracks in the ministry. This was a gathering in the ACU Bible Building Rotunda as we recoded a video for the song, God So Loved the World. The acoustics in this rotunda are so live, that the sound reverberates for about 5 seconds after we stop singing. We had an impromptu devotional here after the video was captured, just to enjoy the sound and the fellowship.

I even met a reader and possibly found a few new ones along the way.

It was a lot of hard work. Learning and memorizing 25 songs. Getting up at 6:00 am every day and working until after dinner for the 3 1/2 days of recording, but it was a glorious time of worship, ministry, and music. Truly a mountain top experience.

But then came the valley. After our last group event on Friday, I began feeling a little under the weather. Then on Saturday, an email hit my inbox that mentioned someone in the group had tested positive for COVID. I had run fever Friday night and had some congestion, so I went in for a test Saturday afternoon. Sure enough, my results were positive. Happy New Year, right?

I had been vaccinated previously, so I’m supposed to be less contagious and hopefully will have a milder case of the sickness. Right now, I feel like I have the flu, so not great, but not horrible, either. On the bright side, God kept me well long enough to complete the recording, and so far none of my family is sick. I’m taking precautions. Sequestering in my room most of the day and wearing a mask whenever I emerge. I would appreciate prayers for a quick recovery and for protection for my family.

There would be no mountains without valleys, so I’ll hold tight to the Lord’s hand until he guides my path onto more even ground.

Do you enjoy singing?
What is your favorite style of music?