Week of Worship

Tim Baek

“In Jesus name, Amen!” After Mr. McClary ended the beginning prayer, the worship team announced the beginning of MEW with the drummer leading everyone into the worship songs on Tuesday night. Full of excitement, worship team members played their parts with all their heart.

For MEW, there were two worship teams: one being in charge of morning chapel and one the night sessions. For the morning team, they had to come to school at 7:00 am for practice, perform in both middle school and high school chapel, which were held at 8:25a and 11:30a respectively. John Cho (12) responded, “You can wake up early and praise the Lord” to the question “What is the advantage of being in morning session?”

On the same question, Nathan Chand (12) answered, “the advantage of the morning team is that we get to have breakfast because Mr. Ronzheimer gives us donuts and curry puffs. I also really enjoy everybody’s morning voices. It is very nice.”

On the other hand, for the night team, they had to come at 3:10p and practice until the MEW session started at 6:30p. Unlike the morning team, the night team had more songs to play but only played through one session. For the long rehearsal, Esther Ko (12) said, “the biggest challenge has to be being patient through the rehearsals when people are not focused and doing their own thing.”

This year, the worship team created a third team, which involved students who would continue to be part of the worship team in the future, unlike most of the other worship team members. They had their first worship performances during one of the MEW night session, which brought nervousness to all the members but amused everyone in the audience. Mycah Winsor (10), new worship team drummer, said, “I am most looking forward to being a part of such a wonderful environment that is worshipping God as a high school.”

Putting all the differences aside, there was one thing all the teams shared: tough practice. Despite the sessions they played during, all the worship teams had to practice. Every practice began by Mr. Franceschi checking everyone’s sound level, to make sure that no one stood out and the worship team stayed balanced. After the sound check, the worship team went through every song, repeating one if necessary. However, practicing wasn’t the favorite part of the worship team for some students. Albert Jeong (12) commented, “our performance is good during the practice, but it gets shaky during chapel.”

Although being part of the worship team was tiring and nerve-wracking, the students put their heart into the worship team to glorify God during the MEW.