Yesterday we went to a rehabilitation center for runaway teenagers, single women, and women with their children addicted to drugs or alcohol. The moment I looked on the faces of these hopeless people my heart broke. However, we were able to share the hope and love of Christ with the best show we’ve done yet. After we sang, I prayed that God would give me a chance to tell my story. Well, God answered my prayer. I was able to talk with a woman named Nicole who had three kids with her. I could relate to her because my mom died of a drug overdose. I told her that was not God’s plan for my mom’s life and it is not God’s plan for hers. I told her that those kids God gave her are worth fighting for, and that God was fighting for her everyday because she is worth it. God spoke through me and I was honored and blessed to be able to share the hope and love and encouragement of Christ with someone who had not heard it in a long time.
Yesterday at first when me and the other dancers were getting ready to dance, suddenly I got really nervous. I went to the bathroom with some girls and I just prayed. God told me that I’m not here for anyone but Him. I had the funnest time dancing and serving the Lord like that. When the show was over, this woman with blonde hair came up to me and thanked us for coming and told me that we did a great job at dancing. It meant so much to me because I just went out there with God on my heart and the nerves flew away. I learned when I have god on my heart, no matter how big the nerves, I can overcome anything.
I got to meet Stephanie from Jefferson Starship. Seeing the reaction of the people to our testimonies and their openness toward us helped me to better understand why we came.
As I walked in I felt the pain and the hurt of the women. Being there in such an intimate gathering singing and dancing, giving God praise, I felt we gave them hope, which blessed my heart. At the end, a little girl approached me and asked me to teach her some dance steps. It was really cool that I could teach her, because I worship God through dance, and I not only taught her to dance, but I also taught her to worship.
At the women’s shelter, I met a lady named Christy. She was just saying how we were such an inspiration for her. She had gotten in such trouble at our age. When she saw us worshiping our God at such a young age, it helped her get through her day. It made a difference in her life. She said she’d start reading her Bible more.
Caryn’s testimony was just truly amazing. You could tell that all the people understood and were really listening to her. People are really in need to hear stories like hers.
I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to witness the response my testimony received. It was so rewarding for me to hear the stories of these desperate women who could relate to what I said – to provide them with a sense of hope. It was very difficult being at Westcare because it brought back so many painful memories of my stay at the recovery center where I received treatment. However, after speaking with these women and listening to how their personal testimonies related so much to mine, I realized that my time at Ridgeview can be used as a witnessing tool. So instead of trying to surpress the memories, I have been encouraged to share my story more often and not let my human pride or embarrassment get in the way. Hopefully by doing this I will be able to evangelize to a brand new group of people and perhaps bring them the knowledge that there truly are brighter days ahead. If we don’t do anything else on this trip, yesterday would have been completely worth it by itself.
Sunday went amazingly well. We arrived to set up at the school where North Valley meets at around 7am. We set up on the opposite end from their normal stage, so that they could have their worship team set up as well. For the first service (9:30) we turned the chairs so that they were facing our stage, and we did our entire program for them, videos, testimonies (well…2 out of 3…), and all. We were received very well, and it was encouraging to see many of their members wearing our t-shirts. Most of them got them Saturday at the park, but one or two were wearing shirts they’d gotten last year when we were here! Matt came up to do an invitation during the appropriate time in our set, and I think at least a dozen people entered into a relationship with Christ right then and there. Praise the Lord!
For second service we turned the chairs around, restoring their normal setup so that their band could lead worship. Matt gave an incredible message about the power of prayer and how we under-use it. During this service, several of our students went over to the Kid Zone, where they were able to help lead some fun songs and games, and just to love on kids for an hour. North Valley Fellowship was very glad to have our help, and I think we were at least as blessed by their warm welcome and encouragement.
After church, we tore down, loaded out, and headed for lunch out. As soon as we were done, we headed back to the houses for cold-weather gear, then loaded back up and headed up to Mount Charleston for some sledding. It was tons of fun, and a great time of fellowship with some wonderful North Valley students and adults. Here’s a quick video we put together from our sledding trip. Enjoy!
We’ve got plenty more footage to share, but it’s gonna take some more time, so stay tuned!
(I’ve asked that some of our students submit some of their own stories in writing to be posted here in an effort to publish more than just my limited perspective. Here’s the first.)
It was around the end of our gig when the North Valley Fellowship Band came up to play. As I and many others were gathered around talking with a couple of students from NVF, we heard the band play “What the World Will Never Take.” Immediately I glanced at Tad and we both said, “Mosh pit?!?” and we raced up to the stage. As we ran I looked behind to see about 20 people behind us. We were all involved with our hands up and really enjoying ourselves and the music. I could really feel God with us as we worshipped Him. Iam just really glad we had the opportunity to kick off this week worshipping with NVF.
Well that was really fun. They estimated 1500 people turned out at the park today. There were corporate vendors with tables all the way around the perimeter of the park. Not sure what they were doing…I guess just giving out info and samples and whatever else they felt like. A lot of them had donated some raffle prizes that they drew for throughout the event. Well…let me start over…
Band and crew arrived at around 8am to begin setting. The rest of the group joined us around 9, helping set up all the vendor tables and the food stations. We had the stages set up by around 10:15 and began playing background music while people were starting to arrive and mill around. FUSION ended up taking the first 25-minute set, in which we did the first half of our show (no video testimonies - the sun was way too bright to see the screens). Since the risers were on an 8-foot deep trailer, there was very little room for Featured Vocalists to move around at all, so they mostly stayed in their places. We were still working out several bugs in the systems during this first set, but we made it through relatively unscathed. Following us was a local Christian rock trio called City Lights in Stereo, who did about 20 minutes of original music, which was very good. Next up was the house band from North Valley Fellowship, who did some worship stuff with a couple of fun crowd-appreciation songs mixed in. During the breaks between acts, an MC named Tony (an NVF attender) helped transition with raffle drawings and some vendor announcements. The three groups traded sets twice more (we did the second half of the show for the second set, then for the third we did all our peppy upbeat songs again), while the raffle prizes got bigger and better. While our students were offstage they were assisting with food distribution and other activities around the park. Since this was to be our biggest event of the trip, we set out half of all the merchandise we brought (Awakened shirts and EPs, Reborn shirts and albums, even This Time albums!) to give away. Most of it was gone by our second set, and people were approaching us asking for more stuff.
I talked to the bass player for the NVF band during teardown, and he said he had met a guy today at the event that was brand new in town. This guy showed up to the park as a result of calling some Las Vegas entertainment hotline. He had no idea what he was going to, but he was so blessed that he found someone with an NVF shirt and started asking questions. Bass-player-guy told me that this guy told them he’d definitely come check out church in the morning and seemed very excited about finding a group of people willing to love and invest in him. This - just one of dozens of similar stories - is exactly why we came. Not to build up FUSION, but to provide an opportunity for NVF members to establish connections and develop relationships with community members who could potentially be reached for Christ.
We were scheduled to play again tonight at NVF’s Saturday evening service, but somehow they lost their venue (a YMCA I think) for tonight and had to cancel. Disappointing, but it’s given us a chance to relax and settle a little bit this evening. We’re currently all hanging out at the guys’ house, joined by a few of our new North Valley friends. We’re about to gather for a devotion time, so I’m gonna let this be it.
God’s at work in Sin City! Thanks for all your prayers; keep them coming!
(Click a picture to see a bigger version on flickr)
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