"You are the one that I want"

It is 1:08 a.m. according to the friendly little figures that are make-up the clock at the bottom left corner of my computer. I just came back from seeing Brooke Fraser at the Troubadour. I went with the lovely Ariel as an end-of-the-school-year thing. Plus, it was going to be one of the last times that I would actually get to hang out with her. So, in short...Brooke Fraser + Ariel = a really great day/night. :)

Brooke Fraser seriously has one of the prettiest voices I have ever heard in my entire life. Her CDs don't do her justice. Her voice really shines when she sings live, especially on the soft, slow songs. (At the end of the show, people kept calling her back on stage to play at least one more song. In her generosity, she sang two.)

The first song that she sang after she came back onstage was Arithmetic. It was her first big hit in New Zealand. I don't think that needs any explanation. Anyway, I've heard the song before and liked it... It sounds like any ordinary love song, BUT...it's not. Arithmetic is a love song to God, and when you see her performing it, you can see why. While she was singing this song, the whole audience was mesmerized. I guess, you could say that we were mesmerized the whole time she was singing, but even more so during this song. On the way back home from the show, I was trying to put a finger on what was so "unusual" about Miss Fraser's concert. The first thing that I thought about was her singing Arithmetic. That was it. Seeing her play and sing that song was seeing a girl in love with God. When she was playing that song, it was as if the whole crowd had disappeared, and it was only her and God. Nothing else mattered. It was a moment in time. Locked in for eternity.

Okay, so that description does sound a bit dramatic. But that's how it felt like to me.

The last song that Brooke sang and left us with was Albertine. I'm just going to steal what's written on Brooke's little booklet from the CD, because I don't think that I can explain the song better than her.

"In 1994, the tiney Central-East African nation of Rwanda was devastated by genocide. Almost one million Rwandans were killed at the hands of their neighbours, friends and community leaders within the short space of 100 days...the catastrophic outcome of decades of tension and fighting between two ethnic groups - the Hutus and the Tutsis - a catastrophic conflict that did not exist before belgian colonists moved in during the first part of the 20th century and introduced and alien political divide.

My first visit to Rwanda occured in June 2005, eleven years on from the atrocities. I visited local authorities, churches, schools, official memorials and living ones: child-headed housholds and communities living with AIDS, facing life without adequate medical care or basics like clean water. I met a people who are humble, joyous, diligent and in deep pain.

On ethe day before I was to fly out and onto Tanzania, my friend and guide joel Nsengiyumva took me to a villate school in a district called Kabug. He wanted me to see that Rwanda had hope - and no better way to see it than in the next generation. The kids and I exchanged songs and dances, and as things wrapped up and we were about to leave, Joel asked if we could take a few minutes and meet with an orphan whose personal history he was familiar with.

Throughout my trip Joel had introduced me to people as a musician from the other side of the world who was going to go back to my people, tell them about the people of Rwanda and help. No pressure. That afternoon we walked across the schoolyard into an empty classroom, joined by a tall, beautiful girl wearing the school's cobalt and navy garb, where Joel's introduction was about to become a kind of commision.

Just before he shared her story with me, that one of person laying down their life for another, he uttered these words:

'You must go back to your people and you must write a song, and I will tell you what the name of the song is going to be.'

He motioned toward the girl.

'This is Albertine.'

Albertine is alive today because of the selfless, sacrificial love of another. Funny thing is, so am I. And now I want to know what it's like to love other people like that, so have decided to spend my whole life on the experiment.

Feel free to join me. We might just change the world.

--Brooke."

A beautiful voice. But most of all, a beautiful heart. Today, at the concert, I was humbled and in awe of what God could through just one person. Here, standing in front of me was Brooke - a living testimony of God's plans...His heart. His love. And His hope for all people.