The one where the pencils were never handed out

About three weeks ago, the choir had its last presentation in JIC. The turnout was surprisingly good with quite a lot of ppl actually bringing their non-christian friends. Probably one of the best pre-christian turnouts in JIC for a long long time. The choir sang and Albert spoke. There was no response from the audience i.e. no hand raising or rededication, well, not from where I was standing.

Was packing up the singout books after the meeting and to my utter shock, there were lots of response slips still left in the singout. Well, no one filled in the response slips cos the pencils were not handed out. Aaaggh !!! Guess where were the pencils ? Right at the back on the greeting table (the table thingy right in front of the entrance) was a big plastic bag of pencils. Aaaarghhh !! Ok, the chairperson forgot to also announce that ppl had to fill in the response slips until it was nearly the end of the meeting….Quite disappointing actually when it was supposed to be a major church evangelistic event.

When the choir committee initially suggested that we do an evangelistic piece, I was quietly not agreeable. Simply, because I felt that our church and most of the brethren churches that we were going to will not be prepared for evangelistic piece. I was right. Sure, there were counselors standing behind, but I was made to understand that these counselors were only briefed on Sunday morning itself and the chairperson was only asked to chair on Friday, 2 days prior to the meeting. I could be wrong on both accounts, so don’t quote me, and I hope I am .

Big deal, some would say, we just forgot to give pencils for ppl to fill in the response slips. Never mindlah. It’s a small matter. At least they heard the gospel, I mean the seeds have been sown. But not handing out the pencils or briefing the counselors at the very last day or choosing the chairperson two days before is a reflection of our real attitude toward evangelism. We don’t really care about unsaved ppl. I was quite disappointed, to be honest, at the church(no one in particular, just collectively)…But JW hit me on the head when she said “How come none of the choir members remember as well?” Hmmm…Ok, I was just as guilty for not remembering, for leaving the work of spreading the gospel to the speaker, for leaving it to the counselors and the pencil ppl (whoever they may be and yes , we need the pencil ppl the next time around), for not reminding the chairperson, etcand for thinking that it my only job is to sing . Period.

Next time round. We will be more prepared. We better be cos we are dealing with lives here. Other ppl lives. This was a lesson well learnt or should be learnt, if we haven’t yet done. There is some good news – we had a grand total of 3 response slips, filled in by ppl who brought their own pens or pencils(Pencil ppl, pls get ready to give presents for ppl who bring their own pencils). I didn’t see them all but the one that I saw, enjoyed the presentation, would like to be invited for the next one and understood the message. Hurrah.

OK , volunteers to be pencil ppl, anyone ??