Supernatural School kicked off with a bang,
check the first night celebrating the youth. Supernatural School is in its third installment. It began three years ago when a team from Ankeny, Iowa came down to do a conference on the Holy Spirit. It has since morphed and grown since that first year, every time growing in size, scope and reach into the city.
The place was packed out with over 1500 youth in attendance! The evening started off with performances by Blessed to Bless, a popular gospel hip-hop group in Colombia; Escape, a popular Christian rock group and another popular performer (whose name I can’t remember at the moment).
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| Youth during praise and worship. |
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| Hip-Hop Group Blessed to Bless |
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| Alex was on film crew all week. |
The youth were jumping, dancing and singing along just as Escape was wrapping up their set when suddenly all of the power went out. It was pitch black and for a brief second I worried about the chaos that might ensue if the lights didn’t come back on quickly, but then the whole place erupted in chants. “Cristo Vive” – Jesus Lives – and various chants filled the air as they all began to shout out together. When my eyes adjusted I saw groups start forming into spontaneous prayer groups. The power stayed out for somewhere around 5 to 10 minutes, I’m not even really sure, but what happened in that unexpected darkness was incredible! The youth utilized that time to worship God, to pour out their praise. Simply amazing!
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| Youth jumping and chanting when the lights went out. |
The lights did come back on and the program kept going. One of the visiting team members, Christopher Olson, gave the message and at the end opened the altars. The team members, each with a translator, walked through the crowd praying over youth and adults throughout the whole sanctuary. It was beautiful to see each person pouring their hearts out to God, many releasing pain and unforgiveness they had been holding onto.
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| Prayer Time |
As Pastor David Olson and I passed through the crowd, one of the workers asked if we could come back a few seats and pray with the EMTs who were working that night. As a big event, it’s required that we have an ambulance and EMTs on standby should anything happen. We went back to pray for the man and asked him what he needed from God. He said he used to go to church off and on a long time ago, but he didn’t really have a relationship with God. He said his family was a mess, lots of problems in his marriage, in his extended family and he just felt like everything was out of control. We prayed with this man and tears began to fall down his face. He prayed to accept Christ into his heart and life and we continued to pray some more over his family. The other EMT came over and said, “Hey, I want you to pray for me, too.” So we did.
I’m sure these men never expected to have an encounter with God when they went to work that night and got assigned to our event, but God knew exactly what he was doing. They thanked us and hugged us as we finished praying and left with a different countenance on their faces. Praise God!
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| Our youth group from our local church. |
