Hopewell

Hopewell United Methodist is a church in Beulah that invited us to come play for their "Student Showcase 2010". This was the second year for the event. It consisted of free food and drinks and different groups of performers. Two other bands played and they also had a musical drama team there. Students from any church could attend so it was basically like one big youth rally.

When I first walked in I was blown away by how many students came! There were probably about 200 there (adults and students combined). The room where the bands played wasn't very big and it was very loud because of all the hard surfaces for the sound to bounce off of. It was very challenging sound wise. After we got all of our equipment set up, we went to the sanctuary to pray. Well, it actually turned into a worship service all on it's own!!! It was one of the most incredible prayer times we have ever had. Ben is always a powerful prayer, but man did the Holy Spirit fall on him that night. We were all agreeing out loud with him and praising God. There are few things more exciting than a prayer time like that. Anyway, we also all laid hands on Eron at the end and that was incredible, too. I could go on and on...but I'll get to the worship time.

When we started out playing our opening tune, the kids were loud. They were running in and out of the room, talking, yelling, goofing around, etc. It was great that they were having fun, but we knew it was time to worship God. We got through the first couple of songs and they hadn't really calmed down until Eron shared what was on his heart. It was amazing to watch him speak with the authority of Christ. He asked the kids to calm down and to realize that we were there to worship God together. He acknowledged the purpose of the night, which was to WORSHIP and experience the presence of Christ. He boldly said that we hadn't achieved that yet! The students responded and almost immediately a calm fell over the room and you could tell that God was about to do some amazing things. As we made our way into the worship time, the kids started experiencing Christ. So many of them were truly worshiping, and several of them fell to their knees. A host of people immediately went to the ones who were breaking before the Lord in order to lay hands on them and pray. I know that God planted seeds that night as we all worshiped together and FaceFirst cannot wait for another opportunity to worship with more youth.



































(PICTURES TAKEN BY HEATHER ROBERTS)