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Roma Waterman

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Published September 7, 2009 / The Christian Post

Getai Singers Perform to the Holy Ghost

A getai held Saturday saw singers lifting their voices to entertain not hungry ghosts, but the Holy Ghost.

Coming from a wide range of backgrounds and age groups, performers sang a mix of secular and Christian songs in Hokkien, Mandarin and English.

The skilful and creative line up also turned a well-loved Theresa Teng oldie into a praise song, and sang some of their own compositions.

A crowd of many heart-landers heard from an ‘auntie’ with a love and gift for singing and dancing; a dating expert and author, the first Singaporean performer in New York and one of the well-known 'SK Sisters', and a church band.

There was even a Singaporean pastor leading an Indian church in Thailand who just wanted to praise God on stage.

The aptly named ‘Holy Ghost Getai’ held at Love The World café had its fair share of testimonies of what the Lord had done for the individual performers.

Started last December, the cafe is located on the second floor of the Singapore Flyer complex.

A group from Woodlands creatively changed the theme of a love song by Theresa Teng into a song sung by God to people, with the chorus running: “Jesus shows My heart” rather than “the moon shows my heart”.

Singer and author ‘Dazzling Diva’ posed the audience a question about the Holy Spirit and gave away a free copy of her latest book, a dating guide with good values. ‘Diva’ is from New Creation Church.

All this, while a television screen flashed inspiring sound-bites, snippets of church and Christian life with a humourous twist, cartoons, jokes and joke questions all concerning the Bible and the Church.

A getai is an annual event held by Chinese folk religionists throughout the seventh lunar month to distract hungry ghosts that are let out of hell at that time according to their belief.

Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com

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Published March 16, 2009 / The Christian Post

Musicians Discover God's Call in Christian Bar

Taking the name Chapter One, Love the World’s resident band comprises three men at the helm: Melvin at the keyboards and vocal, Bernard the lead guitarist and Kelvin the lead vocal. There is also Sharon playing the bass guitar.

In line with the pub’s ministry to promote and popularise gospel music such as in the genre of Catholic hymns with a modern flavour, the band provides inspirational music with a whole new twist, according to Love the World’s website.

Although the bar is a new concept, the musicians are either professionals or veterans coming from different places. And yet they have one thing in common: the call of God to serve both Christians and pre-believers at Love the World and perhaps show the way through music to God’s love and the heart that truly sings – a reference to the bar’s logo and symbolism as explained by its designer.

For instance, Melvin has been a professional musician for more than twelve years. The resident pianist/singer in many well-known hotels and clubs like Royal Plaza on Scotts, The Hilton Hotel, Holiday Inn Atrium and NUSS Suntec Guild House, he has performed for various events and functions in places like One Fullerton, Shangri-la Hotel, Sentosa and The Esplanade and also contributed extensively to various projects in the Catholic Church including composing and arranging the music for a musical The First Disciple in 2000 which was staged in Singapore Expo.

The former primary school music teacher joined Love the World to fulfill his calling from the Lord and contribute the various lessons learnt in his life so far to the management and setting up of the bar as a unique Christian and pre-believer venue. As Melvin put it, it is his declaration of dependence. To him, the journey has only just begun and hence the name Chapter One.

Bernard is no less well-travelled. He has served for nearly 15 years as a guitarist, band leader and worship leader and helps out at Amplify Ministry, a ministry that reaches out to youths to help them know who God is through praise and worship sessions and ‘bite size’ talks. After a conversion experience in 1992 during a church camp he dedicated his life to playing music for God and continued working closely with youth and has been involved with many Christian events and gigs around Singapore.

Believing very strongly in being relevant and radical when it comes to bringing God to anyone and everyone, Bernard got his big break when he was approached by Melvin to play music for Love the World. To him, it was an answered prayer and he believes that the journey will open up many avenues for him to bring fame to God’s name and make it known to all. He says: “Music has been and always will be part of my life. To me, Love the World is more than a career in music, it’s a lifeforce and that source is from no one but GOD and GOD alone.”

Serving as lead vocalist of Chapter One is Kelvin’s first encounter and experience as a professional musician. He has been actively involved in various church ministries as a cantor, tenor (choir), worship leader in the Catholic Church’s Archdiocese Youth Rally held at the Singapore Expo and a solo vocalist at weddings. An avid singer and acoustic guitar enthusiast he has contributed one of his compositions You Are The God in Faith Community Baptist Church’s Youth CD project, Signs of His Faithfulness.

Along with the rest, he sees his service at Love the World as the starting point of his ministry in fulfilling the Great Commission through God’s gift to him in music for His people.

Founded by Samuel SeongKoon with his sister SeongKoon Wah Sun, Love the World is a bar located in the Singapore Flyer complex for people to hang out and to just “feel good”, said Samuel in a Straits Times report. Both Christians, the siblings want to spread the word on gospel music which they say is “growing popular”.

This means that in this bar at least the music is vetted to ensure that no headbanging, expletive-spouting or sexy songs are played.

Love the World organised a free New Year concert at the beginning of the year to bring hope into the lives of people.

http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/culture/1268/section/1.htm.