2010-2011 Shining Light Member's blog

On Sunday, Shining Light went to Mars Hill Bible Church for worship. Their Teaching Pastor, Shane Hipps, shared an inspiring message on believing Jesus versus knowing Jesus. I believe that, for Shining Light to be able to reach audiences the way we have on this tour, we truly have to know Jesus, not just believe in Him, for our message to come across.

Pastor Shane explained it this way: He went to sailing camp when he was a teenager, where he spent more than a day in class learning the concepts and terms behind sailing. He believed those concepts were correct, but didn’t know at that point whether they actually worked. So, after class, he and his partner hit the waters, where Shane really tested what he believed and learned to know that those sailing techniques were correct.

In another illustration, just yesterday, we met Mark Lundgren, an FBI agent and counterterrorism expert, who shared with the group his journey on how he went from ignoring God, to beginning to acknowledge God, to believing, to knowing. His story covered a wide range of experiences, including personal and professional hardships and tragedies, which strongly influenced the strength and depth of how he knows Jesus.

For Shining Light, as we perform in front of numerous audiences on this tour, including many in juvenile correctional facilities, we have to know Jesus, not just believe in Him. The majority of the kids in our audiences are really able to detect the genuineness of our message, and whether we truly know the Jesus we’re talking about.

When you look at the first five shows of this tour, Shining Light is a group that knows Jesus. We’ve had some opportunities to share that knowledge with our audiences, both through the performances and the talk time following. Through our dramas, songs, and the personal testimonies from several members of the group, we’ve had the opportunity to vividly show how real that faith is, and that we know Jesus. It’s an inspiring message that is changing lives on this tour.

More than 200 inmates and rescue mission residents have seen that and their lives have been altered in ways that we’ll surely never see, being that our message is a one-time opportunity, and we won’t be back anytime soon to follow up. Our group, too, has grown. Throughout all the experiences of the last six days, Shining Light members have been stretched—they’ve observed, learned, questioned and watched dozens of new and unique experiences, and their faith has expanded. Some may even be moving from believing to truly knowing Jesus.

We can see some of this in the download times, and in individual conversations amongst the members and staff, though the complete results of this tour, and how it’s stretched our members from believers to knowers may not be seen for some time to come. We’re prayerful that the messages from these speakers, and all that’s happened on this tour can truly bring them closer to fully knowing Jesus.

As we’ve found out so far on this tour, God always provides. Last night, two of us on staff had a little adventure where God truly provided for us, which saved us a boatload of time.

Throughout the trip, we use a lot of ice to keep our water and food cold. Last night, I was the van driver for the last leg, and felt that I ought to gas up the vehicle for the next driver. In the process, Barb asked us to grab 10 bags of ice for Saturday. Alex and I easily found a gas station and spoke to the attendant who politely informed us that they don’t have any ice, and the nearest place was 11 miles away. Not being from Delaware, Ohio, I took her at her word.

Being that we were already exhausted, we went back to the school where we stayed overnight and asked Barb, “do you REALLY need ice??”

She responded, “I’m totally out, so, yes.”

Alex and I began our journey. We pulled out of the school, went to the end of the street and paused for 30 seconds to confer with the GPS and see where we wanted to go. As we did this, a local police officer passed by. I made my turn and started down the road towards the store. Less than a minute later, I saw headlights near my bumper and soon blue and red lights began flashing.

The officer was suspicious of Alex and I, two guys driving a big, 15-passenger van and not really seeming to have a clue where we were going. He asked for my license and asked what we were up to.

I mentioned that we were looking for ice. That might’ve made him more suspicious.

Then I went on to explain that we’re two staff members of a performing arts ministry from Lebanon, PA, who were looking for ice to help our food staff out, and asked if he knew of anywhere we could go.

At that point, the conversation changed from an inquisition to a helpful public servant giving us directions. He never even took the ID that I was starting to hand over.

He directed us to a store less than 5 minutes from our overnight accommodations, rather than 11 miles, saving us over a half hour of travel time. At 11:30 p.m., at the end of a two-show day, that was immensely helpful.

This is just a pretty interesting example of where God provided in a small way, giving Alex and I an extra 30 minutes of sleep. However, throughout the first three days, we’ve seen many ways where God’s provided. For example:

• He’s provided a young man, Angel, who is traveling with us this year and inspiring our audiences with the story of how he first met Jesus, and what God’s been doing in his life. It’s truly inspiring, and he’s easily able to relate to our audiences with what he’s done in his past—it’s quite similar to many members of our audiences, yet Angel’s found God and turned his life around, and he challenges them at each show to do the same.
• Safe travel. We’ve encountered some wild storms, traffic and even a flat tire, though we’re all safe and sound. We’ve had excellent drivers, and luckily the flat tire occurred at an overnight.
• Nice weather. Outside of some rain and storminess here and there, it’s been a pretty nice tour, weather-wise. That always makes it a little easier, compared to cold, wind and rain!
• Exceptional audiences. We’ve performed four times so far, for some tough crowds, yet they’ve been incredibly willing to share and ask questions of our group. God’s provided this to not only motivate and inspire our group, but it helps these audiences to get more out of our presentation. That’s why we do what we do, and we thank God for allowing it to go so well!

I can probably go on and on naming dozens of examples where God’s provided for this group, but, for now, I’ll say good night!

Hi, my name’s Matt and I’ve been part of Shining Light now for 11 years, the last 8 years on staff. I thought, as I got ready to go on tour, that it might be interesting for our friends who are staying home to have a staff member’s perspective on the trip. So, here I am.

As we get ready, I wonder how many people really know all the work that goes into making this 10-day trip happen.

To begin with, Jeff and Kelly, our executive director and production director, have invested countless hours in planning the actual trip. Jeff, in particular, has been working for since the New Year, making hundreds of phone calls, talking to prison chaplains and secretaries and folks with the Salvation Army in Chicago, all in order to setup the seven performances for this year’s tour. He’s also had to find multiple overnight accommodations that can handle 75 people, with showers (preferably more than 1!). He’s also made two trips out to the area, to visit many of our stops. We couldn’t go at all without the hard work and dedication on his part.

Kelly’s role is slightly different. She prepares the show, obviously, but also works on the spiritual component of the trip, developing daily devotions, small group activities, and videos for the group to respond to in small groups. She also supervises the small group leaders, who really lead the members during the week. She, too, invests countless hours getting ready and making sure each member has the opportunity to expand spiritually on the trip, along with probably a million other details and tasks that none of us will ever be aware of.

Another team that works tirelessly before we leave is our food staff. They’re providing 19 meals on the trip, including breakfast every day for 70-75 people. That’s over 1300 individual meals. And that doesn’t include various daily snacks. They’ve been planning and cooking meals for weeks, and freezing them for the trip. Saturday, we offloaded two huge coolers of food into the upright freezer that travels with us. Led by Barb and assisted by Carol, Sylvia, Jim, Rose, Michelle, and Deb, the food staff is one of the hardest working groups on the trip, and we’re immensely thankful for all the great meals they prepare.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the tech staff. Occasionally, when traveling with as much equipment as we do, it needs repairs or upgrading. Saturday, several production/tech staff members, and a few of key student leaders spent several hours in a blistering hot gym setting up a new projector, upgrading the safety mechanisms on the risers, and worked through a long list of other miscellaneous tasks. The tech team always makes sure everything is properly working for tour, and makes sure we’re fully stocked on all the equipment we need for seven shows.

All of this is in addition to preparing themselves personally for the trip. Every staff member has to pack themselves, as well, to go on tour, and prepare to be away from work for 10 days. It’s a lot of work.

We do it for many reasons, but two are pretty universal:

1) We love being part of a ministry that allows these kids to share the message of Jesus to those who need it most. We’re performing 5 times in prisons, and twice in an outreach capacity. We’re meeting hundreds of folks who don’t hear the message of Jesus otherwise.

2) We do it for this group. Many of the members, particularly this year, are young and many are fairly new in their faith. We get to have a part in their spiritual growth, and get to watch this happen over a season, and especially on tour. It’s an awesome responsibility, and the relational aspect of the group is one part that many on staff enjoy.

I hope you’ll join in our journey in the next 10 days. I hope to provide a few thoughts as we go, and I’d appreciate any of your feedback. Thanks for reading.

(Guest blog on Yosemite from Eva, who we’ll likely be hearing more from next year, as she’ll be blogging more regularly for Shining Light)

There is truly something to be said about the beauty of God’s creation and it’s affect on our mood as well as our perspective of our place in this world. Coming to Yosemite National Park for two days right in the heart of Tour is a really interesting chance to revamp your attitude and get your head right for the duration of the trip. Waking up early has never been a delight for me, but for this free time, I was totally okay with waking up at the crack of dawn. On Monday (day 5) we woke up, packed up, and headed out on what would be a sleep filled six-hour bus ride. At this point we had all been riding the spiritual high from our fantastic San Quentin experience but it was beginning to wear off as we realized we could finally relax for the day. After catching up on a little sleep, and seeing more of why they call it the Golden Coast, we awoke to a world of new wonders and trees that for the first time looked familiar! Suddenly the scenery around us was swimming with dark greens and thick browns, not at all the golden rolling hills we have now begun to expect. We had entered Yosemite and on the ride in alone saw cliff sides bigger than cities, waterfalls crashing into the house-sized boulders and trees that appeared to stretch on forever. With nothing but our backpacks and our goals we all embarked on what turned into a great adventure that I will never forget.

It quickly became apparent to me that I was no leader of the pack. But that was totally okay with me. I had set my goal, and I was going to meet it when the day was done. I was determined to make it to the top of Vernal Falls and back…preferably without dying. Thanks to Gisy, I made that goal, and she did likewise. We quickly paired off and set the pace. Through the extreme ups, where she endured, and the downhill slopes where I excelled, we took turns periodically waiting for the other to catch up, before moving on. In true Shining Light fashion this process of accountability finally found us at the footbridge, which was just the halfway marker. Stopping only for a few pictures, we continued on the next leg of the journey—more hills… exactly what I wanted. But we made it up.

The last stretch of the journey was stairs. An infinite number of stairs stretched out before us ending only God knows where, but we kept climbing. As the waterfall finally came into view, I fell behind from our group because of downward travelling hikers and having to share the precariously shaped rock-stairs. The falls were excitingly close, but I found myself overtaken by the wild whipping winds and the fiercely cold spray, to the point where I became soaked to the bone and it took mere survival to spur sore muscles onward. After re-entering the safety of the trees, I rejoined the group, posing for a few pictures, and hearing Gisy’s resolve to turn back now. How could this happen with the end goal so near in sight! So close to achieving what we set out to do! I wasn’t having that defeatist attitude for a second. I told her that we started this thing together and we were ending this thing together. So we pushed forward.

All the words I could ever write (and as you can tell, I like to write a lot) could never express to you quite the satisfaction of getting to the top of the falls. Setting a goal, working hard for it (I mean really hard), and finally reaping the reward of what you had to maintain was worth it all along changed my perspective of giving up. There were so many times where it got hard in which I could have easily said, I’ve gotten this far, let’s just turn back and be pleased with what I have. But I never did. Quitting wasn’t even an option, and when faced with my partner almost giving in, I was not shaken in my resolve. I was going to make it. And when I did, the beauty stretched out before me was truly something to behold. It was all the more beautiful to me because I had earned the honor of sharing in God’s glorious creation.

In my reflection of the day that night in our tent-cabins, I realized that a lot of our experiences through the day could be likened to our experiences on tour. There are so many times were we get tired, irritated, cranky, and homesick. But we focus our eyes ahead on the goal that we have set in furthering the kingdom. We keep going because we’re all relying on each other. We press on, with strength that is not our own, leaning on God to do things that we could never even imagine in and of ourselves. This is a huge part of our devotions for the week, taking a chance and stepping out of our boat to walk on water with God. For me, hiking a mountain to get to the top of a waterfall was not a boat. I love hiking and always have. But not quitting when it got hard, and pushing my physical limits totally was a boat I was in. With the help of my strong friends, I am proud to say, I made the choice to step out of my boat. I saw the wind, and felt afraid as the water pushed in on me from every side, and in my need, Jesus did not let me be overtaken by the storm. Instead, when I doubted my ability to go on, I called out to Him, and he lifted me from the water, resulting in me growing in faith and strength.