Esmond Wee
Five guys (from left: Daren, Jack, Esmond, Nicky & Navin) from the CNL Music Ministry went to Melaka from June 8 – 10 to share their music and to help Awakening Productions (Singapore) start up their branch in Melaka.
Our task in Melaka was to share our music, sow seeds, make friends and just interact with the people. We were there to help out Raymond who is the head of Awakening Productions (Melaka) with gig planning and set up.
Awakening Melaka is being supported by Salvation Army Melaka.
We took a four hour bus ride up to Melaka and arrived at noon. We then proceeded to Salvation Army where we practised for our performance later that evening.
We rested till 4pm, woke up to practice and then helped transport the equipment from Salvation Army to the Portuguese settlement where we were going to play that night. Most of the people in the area are staunch Roman Catholics. Thankfully, it didn’t turn out to be as hostile as we had expected.
A small crowd was already waiting in the hot and stuffy hall for the concert to start. This wasn’t a Christian event. The first band was called “Slick Sticks” and they were teenage drug addicts. The second band was Praise Army, the Salvation Army’s band, and they played a nice set of covers. It was a pleasant surprise to see them do Navin’s song, “Change Something”.
We were slotted as the third band to do half our number of songs. Interestingly enough, the crowd got bigger as we played. We did a ittle sharing on stage and performed our songs. After us, was the resident band whose members were all from the Portuguese settlement. And after their set was over, we came on again, and ended off with the original version of “Change Something”. We managed to chat to quite a few people during the concert, especially to some new Christians.
The next day we slept in and then went shopping at the nearby shopping center. We were scheduled to perform an acoustic set at a café but unfortunately, it was cancelled.
On Sunday, we led worship for the Salvation Army church before packing up and headed back to Singapore.
Some reflections on this trip:
In Singapore we are blessed with good technical equipment. In Melaka, where we perfomed, they barely had anything to work with. Life there is so much simpler than ours, and people work just to make ends meet with the odd luxury here and there. It’s such a change from the Singapore paper chase and pursuit of financial success.
I thank God for letting us go on this trip, allowing us to experience a different pace of life, and witnessing how well the gospel is spreading through music.
