Africa Let's Worship
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| Back Ground Vocalists |
A few months ago, I wrote about the wonderful activities
AFLEWO Nakuru Chapter was doing in the community specifically the participation
in the Agricultural show. Well, in today’s post I'll be giving a review of the major
event, that is, AFLEWO Night 2018 vis a vis the same in 2016. I have chosen the
two since I did not attend the one in 2017 due to some other commitments. Let’s
look at a few pointers:
AUDITIONS
In 2016, I attended the auditions late in May. This means we
had only three months to practice more than forty songs as well as carry out
community service and ministry in different churches. You have to realise that
practice only happens twice or at most thrice a month. That left us with less
than twenty 10 sessions of real rehearsal. For musicians reading this, you must
be aware of the 10,000 hour rule. What this tells you is that unless an
individual disciplined him/herself to work on the music in their closet, our
ministry would be nowhere close to excellence.
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| Chester (Left) With part of the Nakuru Leadership |
Good news! In 2018, I think the process began immediately
after the set down of the previous year’s major event. Word was already on
social media about AFLEWO auditions. By late March, a team had already been
formed and zealous young people were ready to voluntarily serve God and the
community. I must applaud the leadership under Mr. Philip Kirui and Mr. Chester
Omonde. There is a Swahili saying that goes thus, ‘Siku njema huonekana asubuhi,’ meaning that one can tell the
goodness of a day just by how the morning starts. When I attended the auditions,
I noticed a better plan. There were tables with panelists who sought to find
out how committed the aspiring ministers were. This time around, there was a
table auditioning those who wanted to join the band. This to me was a sign that
things had changed for the better.
THE BAND
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Pastor Josh of Mavuno Church
and his co-Mc welcoming the congregants.
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I have already indicated that there was a deliberate plan to
ensure that AFLEWO 2018 had instrumentalists who were committed to working with
the rest of the team up to the end. Truth be told, in most churches, band
members are usually left in their own class. Seldom do the choir/worship team
think about their whereabouts provided they are good at their job. When
discussing simple matters such as the uniforms, the band is normally left to do
it’s mix and match style- perhaps because most bands are male dominated, and
the notion normally is, aesthetics don’t really matter if your tune is good.
Did you attend this year’s AFLEWO Night? These pictures can tell you how maroon
colour beautified LCC Deliverance church on the night of 19th
October.
Unlike the case in 2016 where there was close to no clear band
practice plan, this time there was. The emphasis here was not to seclude the
band from the team but just to ensure a synchronous performance by the instrumentalists. As
a matter of fact, we were required to attend the rest of the sessions with the
other team members. This is where I give a pat on the shoulders of Music Team
Leaders- Ibrah and Rose for the wonderful facilitation. The end result was that
we had the same people who had been consistently attending practice ministering
in the AFLEWO Night. Again, this was a plus to the organisers. Back then, we
practiced only to realize on the night that there were ‘brethren-meant-for the-job’ while some of those who had labored especially the drums, keyboard and
bass guitar became spectators and part of the congregation. Being a mentor
myself, I admit that this broke my heart despite the fact that I was not among
the spectators. I remember raising this point to one of the officials a few
days after the event. Thankfully and to the glory of God, things were different
in 2018.
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| Baraka on Semi-Acoustic Guitar |
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| Bass Guitarist |
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| Jose on Lead Guitar |
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| Douglas on Violin |
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| Erick on Drums |
SOUND
Thursday, 8th 2016 was the day sound set up was
to be done. I am not perfect with time but I try keeping it especially when it
is something that needs my attention. This was going to be my first time in
Aflewo Night. I arrived at the venue at 5pm and saw no sign of sound set up. There
was a fellowship in the church on going and there after, a lady friend came
around where I was. She was also a member of the team. I realized there had
been a hitch in getting sound and that meant the set up would be done on
Friday. I had just bought a mic for my violin and really wished to find out how
good or bad it was. Come Friday, at
around 6pm, I heard a statement that I think I never wish to tell any
instrumentalist performing thus; “To all instrumentalists; you have to sort
yourself out. Make sure you have the right cables and test your instrument.”
Well, this was not a blatant statement especially in the way it was presented-
with a smile. I tried my mic through the DI Box (see the picture below) and
nothing was working.
Every one was busy with their stuff and seemingly there
was no particular reference personnel to address our frustrations to. That was
going to be a long night. I tried switching from violin to guitar and that is
when I realized the DI box was faulty. The only remedy was to play the violin
as it was and perhaps at the mercy of the vocalist mics to pick some of the
vibrations. That meant I would use effort than skill to play the violin. I
could not even hear myself.
The episode at that time made me realize that I had not also
prepared well. It is not just enough to practice the notes. As an instrumentalist,
you have to ensure that you have the right gear. When I went for the auditions
this year, I had a new mic and two cables (which are always in my bag wherever I
go), just in case one fails. I remember one official saying, “I think this is a
different person from the one I saw in 2016” after I presented my favorite
hymn, ‘At the Cross.’ I went with the
cables to the Aflewo night and as I was unwrapping, the Technician came and
gave me another saying, “use this.” The feeling was fantastic. The sound was on
point and I almost thought there was a fellow violinist at the mixer who gave
me just the right frequency and amplitude ( a post on these terms will be coming soon)
leave alone the correct reverb effect. A big thank you to the Tech team among whom is
a fellow church mate at Mavuno Nakuru, Mr. Patrick Omondi of RHEMA Production
Studio.
GUEST MINISTERS
Imagine attending a worship night, you are fully socked into
the event then all of a sudden somewhere around 11:30 everything stops. You see
chaps on the pulpit moving around with cables, someone changing the drumkit,
singers leaving the stage and others come and instead of continuing with the process,
you hear this, “Sound Check! One! Two! Three! Hallelujah!” The process takes whole of your forty five minutes and boom! You hear a different kind of sound
altogether. There were some squeaky sounds but now no more. The new team manages
to bring back the atmosphere and somehow, you get back and even beyond where
you were. Time flies and you realise it is already at 5 am. Time to go. How would
you describe the event? Won’t you have a tale of two nights in one whereby the
first one was a rehearsal?
Above is just a description I got from a friend of mine
attending AFLEWO 2016. There was an awesome team from Nairobi that came to
minister with us. Well, it was great having them. However, stopping everything
in the middle of the service was the undoing. Logically, even if they would
arrive late, it would have been prudent to send their system earlier with a
person in charge so we could have a seamless transition. The point is that
however much we had brethren who just worshiped regardless of who was leading,
we are psychological beings and at one point we draw conclusions from the behavior
of ministers on the pulpit. That tends to affect our focus on the prime goal.
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| Mr Kaberia, AFLEWO founder. |
There were guest ministers in AFLEWO Nakuru 2018 worship
Night. One was Mr. Kaberia, the founding leader of AFLEWO. During his ministry,
you could tell his passion for a Godly African continent. He related with the
youths and even led a song which they could dance freely as he reminded them
that Africa needs their energy. The other two guests sang with the team too and
a part from the different colors of their attire, you could not tell they were
visitors from Mombasa. They did not even stop to say it.
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| A section of youths in dance |
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| Part of the Aflewo patronage |
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| Godwill Babete with Guest ministers |
GOING FORWARD
We all start from somewhere. I can only say that there’s a
great change in the organisation’s operations and if you had stopped attending
due to some of the above challenges or even something else, I am optimistic
that 2019 will be even greater. Basing on the improvement, we may be required
to start looking for a bigger venue. Above all, whenever attending, remember
the focus, the God we worship. For those attending as ministers, do your
practice diligently; however, remember, it is not so much about the song, rather,
the heart of service.
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| LCC Deliverance Church, Nakuru |
The writer of this post
joined AFLEWO in 2016.
He serves as a
violinist and a guitarist and
is the founder of Dowe Music & Arts
