Contributed by Tan Chi Ying
City Harvest Dialect Church held their largest-scale concert of the year on 2 August 2009 at 1, Jurong West St 91, Main Auditorium. The event, known as “The Golden Concert (风华再现)”, was staged to bring back the classics of yesteryear.
For one whole solid hour, the Dialect Church members comprising of mostly elderly folk, were brought back in time with singer Victor Lim kicking start the opening song, ‘Wang Chun Feng (望春风)’. The singers for “The Golden Concert” were made up of the Dialect Church song leaders and back-up vocalists. There was also a special guest singer from City Harvest Chinese Church, Angela Xu, who performed the Chinese songs ‘Ai Shen (爱神)’ and ‘Ai Xiang Yi Fu Hua (爱像一幅画)’, much to the delight of the congregation who were enjoying themselves thoroughly.
The entire atmosphere at the concert was energizing, with top notch lightings, elaborate costumes and an excellent selection of the songs. Diligent planning and preparation resulted in wide smiles on the faces of the elderly as they clapped their hands along with the songs and waved their light sticks to the rhythm of the music.
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| PHOTOS: Tan Song Kow & Ester Tan |
One of the highlights of the concert was the performance by Joyce Tan, who sang ‘Jia Hou (家后)’, a Hokkien song that speaks of the views of a wife. At this point, Tan dedicated the song to her own mother who was seated among the crowd. As she sang, pictures of her parents on their wedding day and snippets of their lives flashed on the LED screen. A bouquet of flowers was also presented to Tan’s mother by a fellow performer, on behalf of Tan. This was followed by a long hug exchanged between Tan and her mother. Without a doubt, this touching moment resulted in the hall being filled with an atmosphere of love, where many had tears in their eyes.
“It was a very touching moment for me. Besides the fact that I got to express my love for my mother, I was also very touched by the love gestures of my team mates, who took the time to go and fetch my mom all the way from Tampines to Jurong, prepared the PowerPoint and even helped me to buy the flowers,” said Tan, after the event, when the crowd had dispersed.
Putting together “The Golden Concert” took the team nearly two months of preparation, which included a tedious process of song selection and the making of costumes for the singers. Above and beyond these were also the time, effort and energy put in to practice and rehearse, in order to ensure excellence in every item and in the flow of the program. For Tan, it included flipping though many old albums, selecting and scanning the pictures without drawing attention of her mother.
Ending the concert on a high note, Lim once again took to the stage and performed the Cantonese number “Hong Re (红日)”.
Taking place right after the concert was the sharing of God’s Word, preached simultaneously in Hokkien and Cantonese. The message was about the flaw of humanity and the need for Jesus; the love of the heavenly father and the call to every Christian to honor their parents. After the preaching, a birthday cake was wheeled in to celebrate City Harvest Church’s 20th Anniversary. As the people gathered to sing the birthday song and “whoof” out the candles, everyone sang to the tune of ‘Peng You (朋友)’; and the event ended with party poppers going off.
The success of “The Golden Concert” is a milestone for the Dialect Church, which drew in a crowd of close to 800. For many of the main workers, volunteers and performers, it was a good opportunity for them to invite their parents to come and enjoy the concert performance.
Maria Tok, a zone supervisor of the Dialect Church observed, “The people were captivated by the whole concept of a family oriented concert. The warmness and openness of the crowd ushered in the presence of God for the preaching of the Word to touch the hearts of the people.”
