On Singing...


I love to sing. Having said that, I think most of my friends would agree with me. I sing when the Spirit says sing. Although I must say I have cut back a bit. Sometimes I get strange looks when I think I'm alone and I'm singing and someone walks in on me, for example in the kitchen. Well not always strange looks but sometimes they walk away with a funny little smile. I don't care tho, I love to sing, this is me, take it or leave it. 


I love the songs we sing at church, to me, the 10 minutes are never long enough, and it is here where even the little children add their voices, some of them even closing their eyes and moving their head to the rhythm, opening their mouths as wide as they can, especially when it is a familiar song to them. When I go over to my brother's houses Saturday evenings, and they are in the middle of singing, all the children have a songbook, regardless if they can read or not, even my little 2 1/2 year old nephew has a songbook, joining in. One of my nieces is only just starting to read German, but she has a unique way of singing along with a song she doesn't know yet, if a word has 2 syllables or more, she can guess how it will end, and usually ends up being right! I thought that was pretty awesome. 


When we sing at church, the minister recites the first line of the verse and everybody sings that line, then he does the next and so on. It always amazes me how the tune can be kept up, most ministers can actually recite the line in a singsong tune that resembles the tune of the song. And as slow going as this may be, I like it. There are colonies that have enough songbooks for everybody, so the minister doesn't bother reciting the lines of the verses, and as much as I enjoy that too, I prefer the way we do it. 


(Interesting fact I learnt about singing in church, When our forefathers were being persecuted they met in the forest and other hideaways to hear a sermon. So when they were waiting for everybody to gather, they started to sing, and this has continued to this day. Also there were not enough songbooks for everyone, so the minister recited the lines.)


The way we sing varies from colony to colony, I think we sing fast, but I have been to other colonies where they sing a lot faster than we do, and I have been to colonies that sing a lot slower than we do, quite a lot slower. Seems to me the more conservative the colony, the slower they sing. Not sure if this is a fact, but it does seem to be that way.


Almost every colony has their young people that can sing. And here it varies from colony to colony again, some just have a gift. When they sing the goosebumps run up and down my back. At my colony we used to have a choir, which kinda fell apart a few years ago, our best tenors and bass singers, married and the newer guys just weren't interested in singing. Then our girls started marrying away, and now, well when we do something we sing as a group, where our ladies sing along too, but the choir practise stopped a couple of years ago. 


Some of our boys are awesome guitar players, and this is something that is kind of iffy, musical instruments. They were unheard of, 15 years ago, but now, even tho they are still not "officially allowed, they are unofficially tolerated in the basement of our homes. I have tried to teach myself to play the guitar, but I guess it's just not in me. So I just make sure I'm around when those guys play so I can sing along. 


When we get up early to pick vegetables or go somewhere's in our bus, there is always someone or two who can pull out a little black songbook, to get us started on a morning song, Since these are songs that most of us learned to recite a long time ago when we were in german song, we don't all need a booklet, although sometimes we forget the order of the verses. :-) The first song to be suggested it usually "Auf auf my geist zu loben" and then "Mein Gott nun ist es vieder Morgen" followed by "Ermuntre dich Oh Seele mein"


Saturday evenings are times where every family sings in their homes. I love sitting outside after we are done singing and listening to the ones that are still singing. The air resounds with the strong male voices and the higher notes of the women and children. There is just a feeling of peace that surrounds me at that moment and I think this is what a glimpse of heaven would be like.


To conclude, I love to sing...