I am writing a short summary of the STEMI rally in the past two days, so I don't forget.
Ticketing process was tough for the staff, very confusing because on the one hand we want to make it full house, and at the same time, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall only admit the exact number of audience according to the almost 3000 seatings. So we had to risk giving out more "pseudo" tickets than the actual availability and assume a percentage will not show up. But it would seem that this is a first for all of us (Previous one - perhaps 10 years ago, was done by 角聲), so many were scared of the number of tickets taken reaching the maximum limit that it may overflow. I didn't even dare to distribute any flyers or posters...until noticing only half of the hall was filled on Friday night. I quickly, without asking for permission from the staffs pertaining to the rally but the owners of the venues I posted, posted posters in Ah Hong restaurant entrance and the Flushing Library community board. Had some flyers in the library racks as well. And then I went out into the street next to the library and distributed about 30 flyers before I had to leave for ushering the 1-3pm "Satan's Investment" workshop by Dr. Stephen Tong.
After that, I wanted to distribute the flyers in Chinatown again, I had only about 10-20 left. I didn't want anyone to know, but as they were providing ride (Again with the ride - I made it with a combination of train and inflatable kayak in the last retreat! And only accepted ride home because if I don't I would never hear the end of it from them), I had to tell a few I will take care of myself because I may go to Chinatown for handing out flyers. The pastor heard it, she immediately disagreed and asked me to go with her, stating that it will overflow so there's no need for anymore flyer giving.
I was of course very angry inside, because I know I'm dealing with people who do not like preaching this way. Ameristians believe that "expecting rejections from others when preaching" is NOT the American way. But with her prediction, my curiosity, I calmed myself very easily, and eventually helped out the pastor in cleaning up the church before we head to Lincoln Center. I'd say, there's quite some work to do before we leave, so I'll settle for that, even though I also thought to myself, that I would see if it will overflow, and write into my journal accordingly with my afterthought.
So it didn't overflow, not on Saturday. The number increased from the previous day, but perhaps by 50% only. There we have it, thus I believe my criticizing above is justified. This, I stop here.
During the second day, the choir got to sit on the balcony during the sermon, so we don't hear all echos like we were back on the stage the previous night, which was very hard to make out anything we heard.
A few notes of Dr. Tong's quotes:
1. 1-3pm Saturday workshop at my church: Dr. Tong shared the recent response to Steven Hawkings' claim that God did not create the universe by saying, God created a man who said God did not create the universe. Everyone applauded.
2. Martin Luther: Faith is the acceptance of acceptance.
Nearing the end, Dr. Tong showed slide show of his Indonesian church, but again, the choir has gotten onto the stage getting ready to sing the last piece "Hallelujah". A guy behind me kept sighing because he missed the show (we cannot see the slide show because the projection screen was set in front of us facing the audience) as Dr. Stephen Tong explained his church's architecture: "these are twelve apostles", "the height of this structure here is 66 feet because the Bible has 66 books", etc. I tried to calm him down by telling him that this is the sacrifice of our servitude.
I'll stop here now, for I am tired now and need to wrap up the youth's Sunday School class for tomorrow.