Backbeat Serenade Dress Rehearsal
Keynote and Impact’s bands are out on the road, both in the US and over in Estonia right now. They’re having the spectrum of experiences one would expect. Everything from faith encouraging times seeing people coming to Christ to massive technical logistical difficulties, topped off by one guy finding out he’d been performing on stage with his fly down! These are all great chances to grow in what it really means to serve God with our daily lives. We enjoy cheering them on in the successes and praying with them through the not-so-fun parts and thought you would, too. Here’s just a sample:
IMPACT: Wednesday, the 18th of July, we went to the Marion County Youth Detention Center. We seemed to be a tad bit pressed for time but we made it work.17 of the students at the center came to Christ! Our question and answer sessions were pretty cool. A guy named Trai said, “I really liked it. It got to my heart and got my attention to life so thank you so much.”
YOUNG ISAAC: (after a 7 year-old received Christ) The other cool story of that night was of a couple, one of which is a biker. A bit ago, a couple in this new church plant met this couple at an event and they had dinner together later that night. They were not Christians. Tonight, this very couple happen to pass by the park where we were performing at and heard us play. The wife told her husband that he had to stop, that she felt compelled by something telling her to listen to our playing. While Logan (our lead male vocalist) was sharing his story and gospel, she began crying. We were told that at the end of the night, she accepted Jesus Christ. Someone from the new church plant was able to talk to them and she told that person in tears that she wanted to tell about God’s salvation to her son who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has only two weeks to live. Again, go God!!
BACKBEAT SERENADE: This past Friday and Saturday night, we had the chance to go to two different RV campgrounds and perform for the families that were staying there. The first performance was at a campground called Jellystone(in Wisconsin), and we were able to meet some of the employees who ended up being a part of a Christian organization called the Navigators that had come to work for the summer at Jellystone. On Saturday night, we played at a campground called Del Boo and there were about 60 people there. At each show we hand out comment cards to the audience, asking them to give us feedback on what they thought about the performance, and what they thought about the Gospel and the story that was shared. When we received the comment cards back from the audience at the Del Boo campground on Saturday night, we got back thirty-three cards, and nine people out of the thirty-three, from the ages of 9-61, accepted Christ into their lives!
They’ve got about a week more on tour and then they head back to their regular lives.
Pray with us for the new believers from their efforts, for the seeds they planted in others to sprout, and most of all, that their own lives would reflect God increasingly as they go home.
Pray for them to stay firmly anchored in God and use this summer as a launching pad for what God will do in and through them in the future.
Pray also for God to work beyond our imagining through Heartbeat Tallinn and through the outreach efforts at the Olympics.