You kind of had to be there, but...

One more thing before I leave Quito.

Gospel Meetings in Quito are on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 in the McLean home.  On this particular Saturday, there would be four workers and one soon-to-be worker in the meeting.  If anyone else had an idea about who would be speaking, they certainly hadn't let me know, so I figured I had better be ready, just in case.  When I arrived and found out that I would be a listener in that meeting, I was quite pleased.  It's not often that workers get to simply listen in a Gospel Meeting.  LeRoy did ask if I would guide the hymns, and I said I would.  Then he mentioned that we would be singing from the Juventino hymnbook.  For those who are unaware, Juventino Valdez, was a worker from Mexico who wrote a number of hymns before his passing in 1983 at the age of 48.  (I think I have that right.)  Our current hymnbook contains a few of his hymns, and our new book will contain more.  All of his hymns are compiled in a separate book as well, and that was our source of singing material for this particular Gospel Meeting.  "I see.  Well, I don't know all of the hymns in that book, so I'll have to see if I know the ones that you've chosen for this meeting," was my somewhat hesitant response.  LeRoy gave me a list of four hymns, and I began flipping through the book.  One of the tunes was familiar (insert sigh of relief here).  Two of the tunes were ones that I had just learned that week as we sang through the hymns that are to be added to the new hymnbook.  That meant that I had sung each a grand total of one time.  Perhaps we could make it through those?  The third hymn on the list was one that I had never heard before in my life.  I mentioned this to LeRoy, and he seemed to think it would not be a big deal.  Looking at the pattern of notes on the page, especially the first note of the chorus, I was thinking that it could be a rather big deal indeed as the tune did not seem at all intuitive to me.  Since no other response seemed to be forthcoming, I spent the remaining minutes before the meeting humming in my head something that I hoped would approximate the correct melody, stumbling greatly each time that I arrived at the chorus.

Meeting started.  LeRoy kindly announced that we would be singing from the Juventino hymnbook, that Kamela would be guiding the hymns and that everyone should listen very carefully to her and follow along.  Thank you very much!  We sang the first hymn and made it through okay.  (It was one of the ones that I had sung once before.)  What stood out to me, however, as we were singing, was that I could not hear one person around me who seemed to be at all familiar with the melody.  That meant that when we got to the one that I had no clue how to sing, I would be surrounded by people in the exact same boat.  During prayer, I switched seats so that I was sitting in the front row with my knees practically touching LeRoy's.  Surely he would be able to help me out on my mystery hymn!  The second hymn that we sang had a tune that everyone was familiar with and was sung without incident, following which, Alberto Basurto spoke in his very first Gospel Meeting, a very special occasion.  Then LeRoy got up and announced the next hymn.  Dum da da dum...  The moment of truth has come.  I started us up, and we made it shakily through the entire first verse.  When we came to the end of the verse, I had absolutely no idea how to get to the first note of the chorus.  So I just stopped.  I quit singing.  My logic was this: LeRoy apparently knows this hymn.  I am sitting right next to him.  He will just keep singing, and I will rejoin him and everyone else on the second note of the chorus.  The only problem was that I hadn't let anyone else in on this logic.  When I stopped, EVERYONE stopped, including LeRoy.  Now what?!?!?!  Well, I'm the leader.  Listen up folks, and follow me.  Since the first note of the chorus seemed an exceptionally odd one in the general pattern of the melody, I just chose an odd note that was higher than the one we had finished the verse with and went from there.  It was by no means beautiful, but we finally made it to the end of the chorus with no deaths in the crowd.  Each of the four verses got successively better, though by the end of the hymn, we were by no means singing it well.  Just another humility-promoting experience in the life of Yours Truly.  Seems I have my fair share of those!

After the meeting was over, I finally had a chance to pick out the melody on the piano and get the tune a bit more cemented in my head.  I dare someone to choose that one again!  And it's not even going to be in our new hymnbook!