Hello Love

I attended the Hello Love Concert featuring Chris Tomlin and Israel Houghton last night.

Woooooo!!! now that was some really fine stuff in there.

Israel Houghton got us off to a real good start, he pulled out "I am a friend of God", "I am not forgotten","Lord you are good" then sprinkled a few new songs here and there. I was dancing and singing like my life depended on it. But the crowd was not coming up to par, they were just not getting into the groove. Perfect surround sound, great music, musicians all in sync, I could literally feel the vibes under my feet, you know?!

Somewhere along the way Israel figured they probably didn't know him, so - rewind, start again, my name is Israel ...

I couldn't believe it. Here I was working up a sweat and people were still standing?, were we listening to the same music?.

Anyway I decided not to look around, thank God the place was dark so I was able to really get jiggy with it and not have people looking at me like I had gone crazy. My neighbors did give me space though.

But I still don't have an excuse for the crowds reaction.

Second half, Chris Tomlin came on stage and people cheered, whistled, clapped, shouted, I thought "hmmm, they were actually waiting for Chris huh?". When he did his first song "we will sing sing sing" they went back to just standing and a few people at the front had raised hands. That's when I thought "these guys have got to be kidding me", I was almost hitting the roof at this point and screaming my lungs out. The music was awesome, the songs were familiar, the lyrics where up on the screen, what?, people what?

My conclusion?, worship artists should invest in travelling and doing all their concerts in Africa, Uganda in particular. At least back home we know how to express ourselves, dance, dance, dance - ok if you can't dance, jump, I know a lot of people who get away with it.

Again I decided to chill the people and do my thing, forget about my surroundings, concentrate on Him and worship Him, that's what I paid for ain't it?

I loved that Chris would start the songs and let the crowd carry on, it felt like a worship session, that blessed my heart.

We sang, "God of this city", "Indescribable", "How Great is our God", "Let God arise", "Jesus Messiah", "Your grace is enough", "Amazing Grace" and many more

After a while we sat down and Chris shared what he'd been up to and what God had placed on his heart. He talked about travelling the world on the Passion tour and was more than glad that he didn't forget to mention Uganda.

Then he talked about a song he recorded with the Watoto. Yeow!! that's when I begun swelling in my chair. I almost screamed at that point but "diggi" was killing me. He went on to say he'd called Mercy the choir director, and showed a video clip of the kids, at this point I was half the size of the auditorium (at least in my head and heart I was). He talked about having a chat with Louie Giglio, who said he had just come back from a conference at which he met the founders of Watoto - Gary and Marilyn Skinner. Now I was bursting, I wanted to scream, "that's my pastor your talking about".

Chris mentioned a fundraising tour called "One million can do something now" and how they want to come and build sustainable villages for Ugandan refugees and homes for former child soldiers in Gulu, I was thrilled.

It's wonderful to see what God is doing through the Watoto, never dreamed it would get this big, looks like it's getting even bigger and that's awesome for the orphans, the displaced kids of Gulu, for KPC, for Kampala, for Uganda, for Africa, for the world.

Just when I thought I couldn't take any more, Israel and Chris came back on stage to sing their last song, then waved good bye as they went off the stage.

Two seconds later they were back and we had a good 5 minutes jam session before they run off for good.
I heaved a sweet sigh of satisfaction, picked up my bag and headed home.