Last weekend I got the opportunity to go and work with Psalm Drummers and Movement in Worship at the Big Church Day Out. After travelling down through pouring rain I arrived at the BCDO site that was already rather muddy but at least the rain seemed to be holding off, for the time being! I met the rest of the team and we proceeded to set up for the first demonstration and after moving picnic benches, unfurling flags and taking drums out of bin bags we were ready to go.
I love using drumming to worship God as it can be both so powerful and gentle. As soon as we started playing you could feel the difference in the spiritual atmosphere! As the first session drew to a close I knew I was in for a special weekend. Luckily it was not long till the next session which flew by , the 15mins feeling more like 5mins. As we were packing up the heavens opened only this time it was rain, as well as the presence of God, and boy did it rain!
5mins before our next session we were discussing calling it off as it was still raining, but then a bright shiny thing appeared in the sky and we were able to get worshiping God again! Our final mission of the day was to lead a workshop for around 100 but this time on request I changed sides and danced instead of drumming! There was only a small group of movers but it was great to teach alongside the MIW team!
On the second day there was a complete change in the weather. The sun had got his hat on hip hip hip hooray . For the first session I was asked to move and we started off using chimes for the percussion. I still managed to make some noise though as I used a wah-wah tube while dancing and then was given the floor to pray and move using a staff.
Throughout the rest of the day I did a mixture of dance and drumming it was great to experience both sides! For the last session I got an opportunity to do some freestyle hip hop to the drumming which was AMAZING! To finish off we had one more workshop and at this I was drumming. My hands were sore and most of us were exhausted but there was just time for one last party in the name of Jesus. With everyone there playing “We are Drumming on the Drums of Hope”