Maleko’s Hale

Metamorphosis: n, 1. a change in form, structure, or function; specif., the physical change undergone by some animals, as of the tadpole to the frog  2. any marked change, as in character, appearance, or condition
 

Last night - Friday 12/29/06 - our Central Leeward Oahu Baptist Association combined youth ministries held its first annual Metamorphosis Youth Rally at Gospel Lighthouse Church in Ewa Beach.  Being a rather “old fart” at 48, I must say that I was impressed with the rally and just a little envious because I never got to enjoy such great fun at a church sponsored event when I was at that age!  Fellowship, food, games, and MUSIC were the highlights of the evening’s festivities.  I got to play an active role because the Good Lord blessed our church’s Worship Team in providing some of the music performed at the rally.  I enjoyed much of the other fun vicariously through my daughter, lol!
 

Our Worship Team played a set of contemporary Praise and Worship music consisting of the following tunes:
 

You, You Are God
Forever
I Am Free
King
Hear Our Praises
I Exalt Thee
Gifted Response
 

It was such an honor to witness and be apart of this where hearts were touched by Jesus!  The other Worship Team made up of young people from the various Central Leeward Oahu churches was AWESOME!  Led by Brian on keyboards and vocals, these young musicians played and sang their hearts out for Jesus and had the kids in the pews shouting, jumping, singing, praising, and at times, worshiping with eyes closed in heart-felt emotion - the Holy Spirit was indeed in our midst!  Amen!
 

Oh yeah, the food served up (chili dogs, veggies, and chips) was ono!!!  And the prizes!  CDs and gift cards (Jamba Juice and Starbucks) were given away as well as an iPod Shuffle, and (drum roll please) a Sony SPS with a $30 gift card for games.  Not too bad for going to church on a Friday night yeah?  Big Mahalos to Gospel Lighthouse, Pastor Travis, Uncle Steve, Uncle Duke, Sean and all the kids who actually put this together and made this happen!  Whoa, Uncle Maleko getting misty eyed now. ;)  I can’t wait for the next one even though I can’t enter the raffles for the prizes, lol!

Last Saturday our Worship Team helped out our drummer Casey by accompanying him at the annual Rita Thompson Benefit Concert.  We performed “Lifesong” by Casting Crowns and Casey was the only drummer among 4 young pianists.  Casey is only in the ninth grade and has been playing drums for about 3-4 years now.  Although he doesn’t have a huge repetoire of fills, he is very grounded in the fundamentals and has an excellent sense of timing.  I’ve played with drummers who had been playing for years that still had problems with maintaining an even tempo.

Anyway, my wife generously volunteered to play keyboards on this piece and I had to write out the keyboards arrangement for her.  Here is a pdf download of the keyboard arrangement if you’re interested:

Lifesong for Keyboards

It was a little intimidating playing a praise tune among pianists playing “serious” classical repetoire but I think our performance was welcomed and appropriate as the recital was held at Kilohana United Methodist Church.  After the recital, Iggy Jang, violinist and Concertmaster with the Honolulu Symphony, and pianist Thomas Rosenkrantz treated us all to a performance of a few Spanish dances, a Chopin piece, and a Debussey piece.  It was a great musical evening and God blessed us by allowing us to lift up our young brother in Christ.

P.S:  Casey’s Dad Alan just had surgery last night to remove a growth from his colon.  He’s in a lot of pain right now and will probably be in the hospital for 10-14 days.  So, if you please, kindly pray for Alan’s complete healing and recovery.  Thanks!