Monday, August 1, 2011

Moody Church Service

Libera sang for the morning worship service at Moody Church yesterday. It's a beautiful, historic church built in 1925. You can read about the Moody Church here and about D. L. Moody here. He was an evangelist who preached in the U.S., England and Scotland.

The church seats 3800. Attendance is usually much lower during the summer since the Moody college students are not there. But not this Sunday! The place was packed! There were so many first-time visitors. There were maybe 50 empty seats in the whole place.

This was earlier before the service after Libera practiced
their songs. The seats all filled up. =)

This was right as the service started. We were packed to the rafters!

Dr. Erwin Lutzer is the pastor of the church. He mentioned getting to meet with the boys before the service. He said, "If you want to hear how English should be spoken, talk to these boys. I asked one of them how long they have been in the U.S., and he said, 'About a week and a h-ah-f.'" Insert nice British accent here. =)

The church had a live feed of the service, and Jimmy Riddle recorded and posted the songs to YouTube for us. I'm so happy for all the fans who've never seen Libera live or haven't seen the newbies. Aren't they sooo cute?!!! The people at this church are so nice, and the whole service was such a blessing!

Libera sang "Gloria" towards the beginning of the service, and it was fabulous. They were accompanied by Mr. Prizeman, an organist, and a string quartet. The acoustics in this church are so good, too. When they were done, the congregation applauded. In the U.S., some churches say "Amen" after something that they like, and others clap. This is a clapping church. =) As Libera went to take their seats on the right front rows, I could hear people gasp as if they were saying, "That's it? We want more!" Maybe they didn't have a church bulletin with the order of service in it. Much more to come! =)



The offeratory was done by Scott Griffin on the piano (he is a Moody Bible Institute graduate and works at Moody now) and the organist. Ben Crawley turned the organist's music pages for him. I wish this was on YouTube also. It was amazing! More applause.

Before Dr. Lutzer got up to preach, Libera sang 3 more songs. First was "Exultate." The beginning part that used to be sung by mini-Ben (now Big Benedict) was sung by Jakob, Daniel, Ralph and Eoghan. They were then joined by Luke, Matthew R-A, Carlos and Freddie. It was wonderful! Hope you like it as much as the congregation did.



Next was "Glory To Thee." Wow! Just wow! You all get to hear Eoghan's solo. It's so moving. You get to see how they sing it in a wave (or round) with group 1 starting, then group 2 joining, then group 3, and so on, and they drop out in the same order with Sammy and Josh singing at the end. Then Eoghan sings the last "Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost" and the final "Amen."  



Their last song was "How Shall I Sing That Majesty?" Jakob sings the first verse, and Eoghan sings the second. This song is so stunning, and the words are so meaningful. The congregation LOVED it and gave them a standing ovation! Standing ovations are pretty rare in American churches. I can promise you the standing ovation was not started by a Libera fan but by a church member sitting on the left (who is probably NOW a Libera fan. lol.) Just awesome! I could tell that the boys were very happy with the congregation's reaction.



Dr. Lutzer preached from Luke 19:11-27 about how we should use our lives to serve God and spread the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

After the service, the chaperones brought 4 of the younger boys out into the lobby to greet people. They were Matthew Madine, Dylan, Jude and Cassius.


Two little boys I babysit, Nick and Nate, came to the church service and the concert with their grandmother. They were running around after church passing out fliers for the concert to everyone, even outside! People kept telling them they sang very well this morning. lol.

Then more Libera boys came out into the foyer! What a great morning!


Nick (age 8) and Nate (age 9) with Mini mini Ben, Jude, Matthew Madine, Isaac, Michael, Orlando (in back facing left), Henry, Dylan, Daniel, Cassius, Luke, Barney & Matthew J.  Tiarnan, Sam & Jakob are in the back. =)       

8 comments:

  1. did you get to talk to any of the four?

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  2. The two boys are lucky :3 It certainly is a great morning at the church. Is that a box of colour pencils Jude is holding?

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  3. Your blog is priceless especially the cute photos ;0) thanks for sharing. You should have asked Robert Prizeman if Nick & Nate could audition, you never know they may have got into Libera haha!

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  4. hi, lexi. Did you know that the article u posted is priceless for fans who can't go to their concert. Really thank you so much. I just read it, keeping smiling & then tear filling my eyes. How I wish to go the usa, like the 2 girls from china-cuz i'm near china. Knowing that many fans flying all the way there really touches me. Will i be as crazy as that someday? But i really want to see them in person .

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  5. Nick and Nate look like they are over the moon with joy! Jude is smiling at them, too. I think that the boys in Libera are really happy whenever they make a connection with other boys in their age range while they are touring, like this, or during the Canadian tour in Kitchener when they performed for a group of students from the Catholic school board in our area. Libera brings the message to young people that they can aspire to find joy in singing and music as they themselves have done.

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  6. I have an answer for Charmaine regarding what Jude is holding. It is a practice workbook for a series of exams called 11+ that children in the U.K. write in their sixth year. The practice books are published by Bond for subjects such as Math and English, and there are a few other books as well. Jude is probably getting in some practice before next year. That is what it seems to be.

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  7. Mattew resembles him big bro Josh in external features!! and new libera boys are so cute n lovely :)!!

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  8. Hi, Anon! Yes, we got to talk to the 4 boys a little. Nick and Nate really liked meeting them, too. They both sing in the children's choir at church. :)

    Hi, Laura! I hope you do get to see Libera sometime. Maybe the Philippines in October or Japan in April?

    Thank you, Leslie! :)

    Hi, Hyunju Lee! I agree. You can tell they are brothers. It's so cool that there are 5 cousins touring now! :D

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