Concert Day Diary - Rebekah Young, Voice Stockport

Saturday 15th January 2011

Today was The Day - the day of the concert.

I slept until half past 9, in preparation for a long and busy day. We had to be at Bramhall Baptist Church for rehearsals by 3 in the afternoon, which meant I had enough time to do some homework beforehand...

The butterflies in my stomach meant I didn’t want to eat much, so after a quick lunch at half past one I got myself ready to go. I’d been told the dress code was brightly coloured and smart (a contradiction in terms?) but I eventually managed to find something suitable. Finding just about enough time to throw together my packed tea for after rehearsals, I made it out the door by twenty to three, leaving enough lee-way to make sure I got there on time.

Despite the fact the pesky wind seemed determined to mess up my hair, I entered the church relatively calm, ready to practice our pieces. Once everyone had arrived, we took our places and began to rehearse the songs. This was the first time we’d met together as a whole group for quite a while, and the extra practise time was very much appreciated! It took quite a long time to run through all the pieces (and the chairs weren’t exceptionally comfortable), but I actually really enjoyed the rehearsal. We finished the practise by around 6, incredibly satisfied with our progress and excited about what was fast approaching...

Piling into the upstairs rooms, we relaxed and ate our packed tea- rehearsing really takes it out of you, you know! But anticipation, excitement and anxiety built up as time went on, and soon we were all raring to go. After a few finishing touches to hair, make-up and outfits, we all gathered together upstairs one last time before the big moment, because Simon had a few words to say. He reminded us of the purpose of Voice (to bring glory to God not to ourselves) and asked us to consider what we wanted to get out of the night. We each wrote down a prayer (or just what we wanted to happen) and stuck it on the wall, as a sign of giving it over to God. I was very grateful that Simon got us to focus on God for the last few minutes before the concert, because that is what makes us different from ‘just any old music group’. God is the centre of Voice, and the reason we do what we do. Concluding with a final prayer, Simon led us downstairs to take our places, reminding us to enjoy ourselves.

And enjoy ourselves we did! Quite a lot of people filled the room, and it was nice to see some familiar faces in the audience. My mum had come to watch of course, and I was thrilled to see that she’d brought along my two friends that I had invited. I really hoped they would enjoy themselves and I said a quick silent prayer.

Once the concert actually started, it all went by quite fast. We performed four different sets of songs- each one focusing on a different aspect of God: Glory, Love, God with Us and Joy. These sets were punctuated by a few short video clips and (at one point) a few words from Simon. When our last song ended and we took our final bow, Simon sprung an impromptu encore on us, and we did the last chorus of the final song a few more times. Some of us didn’t quite know when to stop, but the audience were just laughing along with us and it was lots of fun. The concert went great!

I talked to my two friends afterwards and both of them really enjoyed it and were so glad they came, even my non-Christian friend from school.

So I would call the concert a huge success. Today has been amazing!