Walk This Way 2007

Wow, where to begin with the weekend we just had!! The words that come to our minds as we reflect on the weekend are: unbelievable, exhausting, humbling, heart breaking, awesome, inspiring, enlightening, entertaining, moving, but most of all God glorifying.

God's Army arrived in on Thursday and were able to be a part of The House FM all request hour that night. The DJ, Carter, is a good friend of Bryan Hindman so Bryan hooked us up with him so we could get some air time. God's Army just released their new album "6:12", which is in reference to Ephesians 6:12. So it was good to get some air time with their new songs. Many called in and expressed how much they liked their music. I was even listening to their all request hour tonight and someone called in requesting one of God's Army's songs. Below is a picture of the live video feed from their website:

On Friday, the band began by visiting Hoover and they were given free range to talk about whatever they wanted- - -even God. The teacher also told the students they would receive extra credit if they went to the concert. Later that afternoon the band visited the Westside Community Center and The Boys and Girls Club and spoke with children. The day wrapped up with the band members having dinner with their host families and then spending some time out at the High School Football game.

Things started off very slowly Saturday morning with just a handful of kids at the workshops. We were determined not to get defeated by the low numbers, so Rich, Johno, Laura Jones and I hopped on Barnabus, cranked up the music and cruised the Westside neighborhoods looking for kids. Within the hour, the bus was full of kids and just as we arrived with our bus, the Westside Community Center van arrived with a van load full of kids as well. Praise God!!!! It was amazing to see how God brought the kids like that. By lunch time we had so many kids, we didn't have enough chairs for everyone to sit. The kids were awesome during the workshops and seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously. They did workshops in dancing, rapping, and songwriting- - -with one of the favorites being a rap where the kids picked words and the artists had to make up a rap about them. The rap ended up being about Meatloaf and Asparagus. Here is a picture of Taivia teaching the dance moves to their song "Warrior".

After the workshops, we moved outside to Frontier Park with the Slide, Boxing ring, Juniper Jump, cotton candy, and craft table. The kids LOVED all of that. Janet Rix told us about how Camryn and Emma Robertson got all the kids around the table ready to do crafts and told them they couldn't do crafts until they listened to the Bible story. So Camryn and Emma proceeded to tell them about God and Jesus and then allowed the kids to do their crafts. By the end of it, they had about 18-19 kids signed up for a Bible Study. We are not sure when this is supposed to take place, but we will figure that out if these kids are wanting to do it.

We started serving dinner around 5:30 and we had TONS of people come through and eat. We ended up serving 600 hamburgers and we are not sure how many hot dogs- - -A LOT!! After dinner, God's Army and Tedashii both had awesome performances and everyone seemed to really enjoy their music. It was amazing watching people of different churches, different races, different ages, different socio-economic classes all coming together to enjoy an incredible day of worship!! We are very thankful to all the hardworking volunteers who made this event possible. We are humbled and awed by the sacrifices that so many made in order to show love to the people on the Westside. There were parents who said, "We never have anything like this over here!" We met so many kids and parents and now the doors have been opened to become a part of their lives. We can't wait to begin developing relationships in order to help these families find hope in Christ.

Thank you to all the volunteers who came out!! We appreciate you and love you!!! We also want to thank the host families for their hospitality in opening their homes- Brian and Aubrey Baker, Donnie and Tammie Mooreland, Caroline Casselberry, and Jude and Mindi Henry.

Special thanks to those volunteers who worked especially hard:

Bryan Hindman

Jude and Mindi Henry

Kristin and Keith Girard

Gary and Janet Rix

Judy and Melvin Hill

Mark and Laura Jones

Johno, Rich, Seth and Daniel

Brad and Kristin Barber

Brian and Aubrey Baker

Kalan and Mandi Powers

Paige Saylor

Jim and Laura Robertson

Alex and Rachel Feria

Hannah Gore

Erin Strobel

The M.O.B. group - -(Missions on Bartlesville)

Caroline Casselberry

Donnie and Tammie Mooreland

Frank and Shonna Dickinson

HOPEFULLY WE WILL POST MORE PICTURES LATER!! God Bless you all!!!!