Saturday, January 31, 2009

Making a joyful noise

You've never experienced the joy of singing a cappella until you've sung a cappella with the ladies here in San Juan. Last Monday we didn't have our beloved Gloria to accompany us (Gloria is our electronic hymnal that plays most of the songs in our hymnal Celebremos su gloria), so, what to do? Sing a cappella of course! "Ok," says Mary, "on three we'll start. One, two, three." And everyone (except me!) starts singing - in 12 different keys of course (there were 13 of us there!). When we finally kind of find a common key, I join in! But some of the ladies keep singing in their own personal key, or "unkey" as the case may be. Several ladies sing monotone.

Honest, I'm not trying to make fun. This is EXACTLY how it happened! But, there is one thing you won't find in many churches in the U.S. - JOYOUS SINGING! These ladies know they can't sing, but do they care? Of course not! They're singing to the Lord, not to the rest of us, so they belt it out. People on the street can hear us singing joyfully. Out of tune, but joyfully and from the heart! And that's what counts, isn't it?

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