Tour Journal entry March 12th
Benjamin Robbins, SY '12
Buen Día and Centro Cultural
This morning was an early one for the Droplets. We were up at 5:30am to get ready and to the Channel 7 television station for our performance on Buen Día, the Costa Rican equivalent of The Morning Show. It was an intimidating gig to prepare for because most of us have never been on national television before. We thought carefully and prayed a lot about what it means to be representatives of Christ, desiring that as our only identity as we headed into an environment where perception can be skewed and actions can speak loudly to a lot of people. Our host, Edgar Silva, told us that while we were performing on the show (just one song, which you can watch at this link ) we were singing to probably over one million housewives of Costa Rica…which is likely the biggest audience that Living Water has ever had.
We performed I Understand, a gospel piece by Smokie Norful arranged by our own Kevin Ing (CC ’11), and then got a personal tour of the station by Edgar (who we are told is one of the most loved men in all of Costa Rica.) He showed us around his second home that is the studio and at the end we sang for him The Lord Bless You and Keep You, our traditional closing song. What surprised me personally, and the group concurred later, was how touched Edgar was by TLBY; he was visibly moved and expressed after we sang how touched he was. My initial response was to be surprised; I don’t really think of TLBY as out best song, and we sing it so often that I don’t really think about the words too much, but Edgar’s reaction made me stop and think. We do very much want to bless others as we tour and sing for the Lost, but I think sometimes we underestimate the power of some of the simplest gestures. Instead of the focus being on us, as a group, we were turning the attention on Edgar, seeking to serve and bless him with our music, and that caught him a little off guard. This is a man who is adored by all of Costa Rica, not just as a celebrity, but as an individual, and yet our blessing, our desire to serve him touched him deeply. Praise God for the way that he works in hearts. We don’t know where Edgar is spiritually, but we do know that our God moves in mighty ways.
The rest of that day we had some free time in the city and then headed to the Centro Cultural, a Central and North American Cultural center, for our evening’s performance. There were some hiccups in communication with the manager of the theater, Manuel, which tried everyone’s patience: the concert was advertised as starting at 8pm instead of 7:30, the newspapers didn’t put the advertisement in that was sent, things like that. The group was a little bit tired from our early morning and having just passed the halfway mark of our 12 day tour, so we were dealing with some exhaustion and low spirits. I’m not ashamed to talk about our hardships because I’ve learned that they are a part of ministry just like the good days. While our morning with Edgar Silva was great, by the time we had our pre-performance talk after supper, there was some tension among the group and a general sense of not being excited for the gig. Christian Young-Valdovinos, BR ’11 gave that talk, and it was very personal and very focused on the message that we bear. I think we were all a little shocked at his forwardness, but we needed a sort of radical reminder of the way that Jesus changes lives, and that we have been charged to tell the world about Him. The performance tonight was for a small audience, but because of that spiritual refocusing, it was the most worshipful one yet.