It was a long, long flight. Some of us procrastinators were huddled around a tiny phrase booklet trying to learn Spanish. We mastered saying hello and asking where the banyo (bathroom) is, and then we gave up, figuring we wouldn’t need phrases like “I am very tall” during our 10-day adventure in South America.

The Vineyard Boise sent our band to help facilitate a worship conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador this October, and we were told to leave any expectations and agendas in Idaho. Gulp. The “we” in this chronicle is Andy Hendley, Julie Downer, Kerry Clark, and newlyweds Steve and Natalie Wickstrom, and myself. The six of us really missed Hoyt Fleming, who wasn’t able to go because of work obligations. We make up one of the worship team who lead worship on Sundays.

Andy, our fearless leader, reached into his gigantic carry-on and handed each of us a spiral notebook and a pen for journaling during this missions trip. Andy explained that he’d never been much into writing, but the notebook idea just wouldn’t go away.

Today the six of us hold those scribbled journal entries close to our hearts. They serve as a precious record of the changes God made in us as individuals, in us as a band, and in the church of La Roca (the Rock) in Guayaquil.

La Roca is a large, non-denominational, spirit-filled church that’s in the process of adopting into the Vineyard. Vineyard worship leaders from North and South America were invited to Guayaquil in order to equip and encourage the La Roca worship team and congregation, and to model ‘vertical worship,’ which means singing to God instead of only about Him.

Joining forces with Vineyards from around the globe was exhilarating. Tom Smith, a Vineyard pastor from Kansas City, Kansas, was our coordinator and earned the nickname “Papa Tom.” Vineyard pastors Mark Pierce from Nashville and Roger Cunningham from Chile are musicians and speak at conferences throughout Latin America. The Vineyard worship bands from Costa Rica and Chile came to play. Unified in Christ, we linked arms with the La Roca worship team and pastors and surrendered to God as a group, unsure of how the week would unfold. Thankfully it wasn’t just a bunch of pastors and musicians. God showed up. And He gave us a glimpse of heaven.

Day after day was filled with praying, sharing, playing, laughing, worshiping, eating, healing, and prophesying. All of this at the drop of a hat, at church, hotels, restaurants, wherever we were. Most of us averaged about four hours of sleep a night.

Mornings and afternoons at La Roca began with worship, followed by workshops on song writing, worship leading, relationship with your pastor, and other topics. Kerry taught a class on electric guitar techniques. Steve led a drumming class, after he’d bought a new snare for La Roca’s drum kit (their old tattered one had a hole.) Andy spoke on the topic of teamwork and unity in the worship band.

We gringos got to attend the workshops given in Spanish, thanks to our many “interpreting buddies.” Julie attended one of Hans’ (Costa Rica’s lead singer) workshops with Natalie whispering the translations. Amazed, Julie realized that Hans was teaching the exact same principles of worship that she’d learned from other Vineyard leaders.

Language barrier? It hardly seemed like one existed. Our hearts were identical. “These Vineyard guys flat-out love to worship,” Andy says. “They’re all about substance, not performance. We really do have the same DNA.”

Each evening the Guayaquil community was invited to a full night of worship. The bands began swapping musicians, and before long, three or four countries were represented on stage at any given time. Kerry remembers, “We were up there playing with Costa Rica, Chile, Nashville... We never even rehearsed, but it seemed like we knew each other. It was incredible the way it pulled together.”

The singers from Costa Rica and Chile led the vocals beautifully. At first the congregation was mostly unfamiliar with Vineyard music, but they quickly embraced the Spanish versions of classic Vineyard songs, singing from the heart.

Later on the Boise band was invited up. Andy, hunching down over the too-short mic stand, opened eloquently with, “Buenas noches... Uh... I am very tall.” (See? He should have learned that phrase on the plane after all!) Andy told the congregation that we were about to “throw the house out the window,” the Guayaquil equivalent to “blow the roof off,” and we made good on Andy’s promise.

Deep into worship, unorthodox and impromptu, we simply followed the Holy Spirit, our ultimate Worship Leader. Later, singing with the band from Chile, I became aware of an amazing new sound: my harmonies in English were blending with Rodrigo’s melody in Spanish. Standing among the other worshipers in the room, we were all blown away to hear different ways of addressing our same God. Multilingual worship is like discovering a new, higher dimension. Side by side we blended and the church raised its unified voice to the sovereign I AM.

As phenomenal as the corporate worship was, it wasn’t what we took home with us. Rather it was the times in between. They are the deeper things, the surprises God had prepared for us, the things that still make us cry.

During the first evening of worship, the Costa Rica band was onstage. The people were invited forward if they wanted more of Jesus, and over 150 crowded the area in front of the stage. Costa Rica’s lead singer, Hans Wust, smiled at our little Boise gang and motioned for us to go and pray with the people.

We all glanced at each other. “Does he mean us?” Slowly, Andy entered the crowd, and the rest of us followed. I remember thinking, I don’t speak Spanish! How am I supposed to pray for anyone? We quickly learned that God is multilingual in more ways than just worship!

Julie approached a crying woman from behind with the intent to pray for her. Filled with the Spirit, Julie reached out to touch the woman, who instantly fell to the floor. “All I did was pray in tongues,” she recalled,” and people were going down.” Kerry cheerfully recounted how “Steve’s eyes went huge” when the man he was praying for collapsed. God was illustrating to us that He does use unlikely people for unlikely purposes. Andy summed up our reaction of surprise: “People are falling out when we touch them and we’re going, ‘...banyo?’”

Suddenly, ministry time was infinitely more precious to us than stage time. More than anything, all six of us craved spiritual connection with the people of La Roca. Holding hands, crying, praying for healing, embracing. Quietly singing to individuals in English or in tongues. Kneeling on the concrete floor.

Each evening there were many who desperately needed prayer. The Holy Spirit often revealed their specific needs to us. A clear phrase would pop into my head, and I would repeat the phrase in prayer as the person wept or laughed aloud in the presence of the Father.

Pastor Tri always says we should worry what God thinks about us more than we worry what man thinks about us. Well, the church of La Roca has that down. The people’s love, sincerity, and eagerness brought the six of us to our knees. “They were so open and ready to worship Jesus,” says Andy. “The people were just waiting for this opportunity. They received us in a big way.”

“The congregation was starved for God,” said Kerry. “It just made you want to cry.” He told of an evening with a La Roca friend who, in his best English, explained that he and his wife had been praying for the Boise worship team the night before. “We don’t understand why we pray all night,” he told Kerry through tears, “but we la you. We la you so much. Brothers and sisters in Christ goes beyond language barrier.”

When the conference ended, the worship teams gathered at the hotel to pray for La Roca’s protection. The La Roca team pulled some plastic chairs into a circle, and the Vineyard teams stood behind them, laying on hands and praying.

God started to lead us into free worship. Softly we sang about God’s tender love. Then, one by one, the members of the La Roca team broke, just as the rest of us had been broken during the week. They visibly relaxed their control and melted into the loving embrace of Jesus. Several of them wept, a few sang, but all remained resting in their chairs for a long time, allowing the lyrics and God’s sweet love to wash over them.

The people of La Roca are developing a brand new intimacy with their Savior. Hans Wust says, “It is always a miracle to see how God transforms a whole church through worship. I’m still receiving e-mails from the guys in Ecuador about the transformation they’re going through. They’re excited and challenged, and hungry for more!”

Our band was so privileged to be a part of this transformation. In the thick of the action as the Holy Spirit moved, the six of us grew close very quickly. Before the trip, I was a little worried that we’d want to kill each other by the end of our journey. But when it was all over, we hated to part ways, even though our next practice was only a few days away. We came back a different band.

As if that weren’t enough, God met each one of us in profound and personal ways. To tell you about it would take up a whole article by itself. Here’s the short version: We experienced healing... we received vision for our individual ministries... we grew in spiritual warfare... and we were given stunning revelations, prophecies, and pictures of how God sees us.

And we all journaled. A lot. Andy is thankful that he grabbed those notebooks before he got on the plane. “I wrote over 20 pages in Ecuador!” he said. “It’s amazing that I had a passion to journal. Now when I read what I wrote, it gets me through the hard times. There is so much to look back on.”

When you go out and live the worship experience, God is faithful!

Amen, y amen!