Worship time, KNU style

Phuong, our Vietnam friend, joined the "Joy Worshipers."  Wednesday evening we went to hear the group of 30 in a worship program.  I took my camera and thought it would be about 30 minutes of singing and then a sermon (you know, American style).  Boy, was I wrong!  They worshiped in song and dance for over 2 hours!   I know they are young but I was amazed how long they sang and danced at such a high energy level.
 
What I am so impressed with at KNU is the spiritual intensity of so many.  True, some students have no Christian experience or testimony, but many do and what a deep committment it is.  I have already blogged earlier about the many chapels the students attend each week.   Students like the Joy Worshipers attend every service they can find, including Saturday and Sunday worship in their local churches.

I know many of my generation look with some skepticism upon such high energy worship, but when you get around these students, one is easily convinced of their genuine spirit and heart.  Most of these students want to be missionaries working in the poorest parts of the world they can find.  They want to do what they believe Jesus did, spend time with the poor and outcast.   Very few of this group want to get rich and have fame and security and all the rest that many of us take for granted.  Many of them will not have vacations like we think.  They will head for foreign countries like Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Mongolia and such places to minister any way they can to people and demonstrate the love of God to them.  You can't help but be impressed by their love for Jesus and for others.  Oh to be young again so I could join them in their endeavors but they would wear me out very quickly!  I do pray God will help me to support them in any way I can, including prayer and council, and even money when I get it!  Most of them have to raise their own money to go into all the world.  It is not easy.
 
Yes, the music was loud at times during the service--3 keyboards all playing at once, drums, guitars, and mikes cranked up to full volume. You could hear the music across campus, but it was all good.  God was being praised and celebrated.  No one worried about the time.  Those attending joined in most of the singing and the dancing.  Some students stood the whole time and waved their hands and swayed with the rhythm.   By the way, no one preached, it was all song and dance praise.  Did I fail to mention there were many periods of prayer when all joined in and the prayers were as loud and as long as the songs?  These young students have much to teach this old preacher about worship, I am still learning!

  When the songs had ended the lights went down and another spontaneous prayer time broke out.  I sneaked out after several minutes of this, sorry, but this old preacher needed to go get his sleep.