The picture above is our worship choir at our Bucharest church, Calvary Chapel. The gentleman in the white shirt and black sleeves is Mihai, our worship leader (as far as we can tell). He seems to be extremely different from Ryland, our worship leader in the states. He has his eyebrow pierced and wears a fairly large chain on his hip. In fact you wouldn't think Mihai and Ryland had anything in common until they begin to lead in worship. When they stand before their church to lead, the church disappears and they stand before an audience of One! Their entire attitude is one of self-less worship of the only One worthy of our praise. The Lord Jesus Christ!
While the melodies here are familiar, popular praise songs, the lyrics have been translated into Romanian. Most of the time the English is also on the screen. Some songs we can muddle through, some we can even sing freely and actually worship, some I stand in awe at the worship around me and thank my Lord that He has allowed me to experience something that most Christians won't get to be included in until Jesus comes to take us home.
Our choir and music consists of usually six vocalists, two or three guitars (maybe acoustic since they plug into the sound system?), and a drum. I love to watch the drummer, Tekla. She is just sitting in the front row adding her rhythm to the music unless one or both of her hands are raised in love and worship to her Lord! This is her picture below. She was very embarrassed to have her picture taken. We took these before the service started while they were warming up and checking the sound system.
I must say that the time frame of their worship isn't regulated. We spent over 30 minutes this morning in musical worship, some of the songs weren't even on the screen just spontaneous. I would say the entire service lasted at least 90 minutes but even then people hung around afterward to visit and continue to worship.
I hope all of you have a good week!
Dana
