After a two-year wait due to the pandemic, City Harvest Church’s Dialect Church launched its latest album “曙光” (First Light). Two songwriters on the album share the production process.
At the end of 2022, CHC’s Dialect Service launched its third worship album, “曙光” (First Light). “This album is a declaration of God’s light that pierces through every single darkness, as well as God’s steadfast, unconditional love,” explained Pastor Maria Tok, who oversees Dialect Service, as she introduced the album to the church on 3 and 4 Dec.
Yvonne Tan, 42, wrote the song “曙光” after receiving a revelation of God’s hope and love. “My dad passed away about six years ago,” she shares. After he was diagnosed with colon cancer, Yvonne’s father received Christ and was water baptised. However, deep in her heart, Yvonne prayed and believed in a healing miracle. Sadly, that did not happen..
“When my dad passed on, I was very angry and very disappointed,” she admits. Even though she continued attending service, her heart was not in it. In fact, in her heart, she was struggling to agree with the messages preached from the pulpit. “Pastor would say, ‘God is a God who heals’, and I would say to myself, ‘No, He isn’t.’”
This went on for the next three months until her pastor, Choong Tsih-Ming spoke to her. She knew then that she had to get out of her negative mindset and acknowledge God’s sovereignty, and that He is still a good God.
“I know that I cannot live without God. So, I started to worship Him and pour out everything before Him,” Yvonne says. That experience birthed forth the song “曙光”.
“I didn’t know what to write at first, but I knew I wanted to express that in this darkness, God is still here for me; that even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is still with us,” she adds. “More importantly, I want to tell Him that I want to stay in His house forever.”
Having no idea how to start writing, Yvonne went to Pastor Maria for help. The pastor helped her put her thoughts into song lyrics for a Cantonese worship song and then Yvonne created the melody for the song.
THREE YEARS TO PRODUCE THE ALBUM
Yvonne and her husband Erik Chua, 41, are part of the worship team for the Dialect Service—Erik leads the team. He worked closely with Pastor Maria to write the Hokkien songs in the album.
“Pastor Maria and I would come together to brainstorm ideas for the songs we wanted to write. I would then take a couple of days or weeks to come up with a melody and I would suggest some of the lyrics. Because I’m not very familiar with dialect vocabulary, Pastor Maria would then work on the song and make it sound better,” Erik reveals.
When it comes to his writing process, Erik shares that many times, the melody comes to him in parts. “Sometimes when I’m driving or working, a certain melody comes to mind but it’s only one or two lines of the whole song. As I start to think about it a bit more, God would fill in the rest.”
Erik Chua and Yvonne Tan are part of the Dialect worship team who produced the album.
Erik and Yvonne admit that they did not start out fluent in either Cantonese or Hokkien. However, over the course of serving in the Dialect Service’s worship team, they listened to numerous Cantonese and Hokkien songs, especially as they were preparing for the service’s annual Oldies Concert. “That helped me a lot in composing songs for the album,” Erik says.
The production of the album began in the middle of 2019. After Pastor Maria shared her vision with the Dialect Service’s praise and worship team, they started the process of writing songs. “Everyone (in the worship team) contributed,” Yvonne says. Besides creating their own songs, many musicians and singers also banded to write songs together. They also worked with CityWorship’s songwriters Caroline Tjen and Mark Kwan to refine the songs.
The result of the team’s hard work: four Hokkien and four Cantonese gospel songs for the album. It took around six to nine months for the team to write and edit the songs. Once the songlist was confirmed, the team started recording the songs. Unfortunately, shortly after they began, Covid hit the shores of Singapore and the government announced an islandwide lockdown.
For a long time after normal activities resumed, the singers and musicians could not gather to record because of the safe distancing measures. The musicians had to record some of the melodies in their own homes, and then CityWorship’s music director Alan Chan would mix their recordings.
When it came down to the title for the album, it was put to a vote. “We were deliberating whether to name the album ‘曙光’ or ‘耶稣的话’,” says Yvonne, who voted for “曙光”. “But I felt that the project took a long time to complete—it started pre-Covid—and during Covid, we didn’t get to meet each other often. Now we’re back in church and the album is finally launching, it’s like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Together with the launch of the album, Dialect Service also held a special gospel concert, 赐福的声音 (“The Sound Of Blessing”) for the service members to celebrate Christmas. It was a surreal moment for the team as the elderly members lifted their hands and enjoyed the songs. A new day has indeed dawned after the pandemic.
“曙光” is available in thumb drive format at The Ink Room’s online store for $19.90.
