As our local season came to an end we had major changes and really important rehearsals to tackle. The challenges were many, the obstacles were (at times) a struggle, but our continual support for each other and the dedication of our team helped us rise above all our adversity and achieve our goals!

Quickly after our Glenn Mills performance in February, we began work on a new song called Declaration-This Is It! Sharie and Megan were patient and gracious with walking us through their choreography, but we only had a few weeks to learn it and incorporate it in the Milton Hershey show. The pressure was on and time was of the essence with choreography as well as vocals.

Milton Hershey came and went and we debuted Declaration as an encore! We came on Saturday evening to set up and then preformed for their Sunday morning Chapel Service.  Over 1,200 junior and senior high school students were packed into Founders Hall. They were a great audience that pumped us up and really made us feel at home.

After that we had one rehearsal to learn and prepare our new song Hero with our new choreographer Darius! He drove all the way from Washington DC to come lead us through a grueling extended rehearsal. We had to fit what would normally take us 3 weeks to learn into one Sunday evening. Personally, my head was swimming with all the killer dance moves we learned as I drove back to school, and the next day i was hurting real bad. Darius really pushed us to not settle for mediocre dance moves but to really apply ourselves and use our talents to glorify the Lord. I can only speak for myself but I really hope we work with him again! It was refreshing to have his excitement, motivation, endurance and his amazing dancing at rehearsal,  and I was a little upset that we could only have him for one.

But April was here! And with it, the Manheim Brethren in Christ Church performance was upon us! Everyone was very tense about Hero going into the performance already but the show went off without any major issues. We had an extraordinary opportunity to invite people from the Water Street Rescue Mission as well as other Lancaster area outreaches and facilities along with the general public to come join us for the evening!

After that we had two more shows that were both open to the public to close off our season. We brought it close to home at Lebanon Evangelical Free church and then finished our year as usual at Teen Challenge Training Center. I always love Teen Challenge because we actually get the chance to sit down with the guys who live on the mountain and ask them real questions and gain wisdom from their life experiences. When we separated into small groups we had a unique chance to get to know our audience. It was a really rewarding and enlightening experience.

After the show we got to continue praising our God with some worship songs and then two testimonials from the audience. It was beautiful to hear how God moves in their lives and how much things change if we only turn over the reigns to the God of love and pledge to give all  glory to Him everyday. 

This end of my Junior year in college has been a busy and stressful one. Growing up seems like it never gets easier, and the pressures to conform to the world never get lighter. Being able to come to Shining Light every weekend and make intentional time in service to and for God has been a rejuvenating blessing in my life time and time again. No matter how exhausted I get, (in every sense of the word) it is never too great that I can’t give more.

More updates really soon— NEXT STOP:

SHINING LIGHT TOUR 2011

GREAT LAKES/CHICAGO!

Hello again!

I know, you all may be shocked and awed because I am writing for the second time this month, but we have been very busy at Shining Light, getting our message out and about! It’s been lovely having shows all the time, but truth be told I cannot wait to get back to rehearsal next weekend! It will be nice to have real devotional time with our small groups to reflect on what we have experienced of God in the weeks that have passed us by so quickly!

Take yesterday for example. We had our Glenn Mills School performance. Glenn Mills is a school for juveniles in the West Chester area and we have only ever traveled there once before. The facility is a beautiful plot of  brick dormitories and buildings perched atop a hill all gathered around a giant castle-like chapel. It has a very rich history of giving boys a second chance to get they’re act together.

Set up went off without a hitch, and we were well on our way to a great evening spent in adoration of our God. We had several changes in the program to make up for absences but despite the adversity, everything was done flawlessly– To the relief of many, whom the pressure was on this past week to learn new dances, speaking roles, and just general movements of the program. Many worries and fears were answered last night with the triumph that only God can provide! And boy, did He ever go before us and prepare our way! The responses from the men in the audience were so inspiring it was unreal! They were right there with us, understanding the pressures of everyday life, but fighting against popular culture. It was definitely a breath of fresh air to hear that they got us, that we are still relevant to our audience, and that God was given glory through our labor.

With joyful hearts we packed up our show and headed out for the night. Eagerly anticipating next week when we gather again and will have chances to download really all that these past few shows have meant to us.

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness and joy today. Thankfulness that I get to see the Kingdom of God at work, and joyful that my hands get to have a part in it.

I pray the same spirit of peaceful joy to you as well!

Until next time, friends!

Be kind to one another.

-Eva

After ringing in the New Year with our Nexus New Year’s Eve Gala, we were off to a wonderful start at rehearsal getting ready to incorporate our new drama and song selections “Born to Rock” and “Rock What You’ve Got”.  We have now successfully preformed it twice! Our Northwestern secure facility performance was it’s debut, and I can speak for everyone when I say the excitement was overwhelming for us and the audience responded really well!

We got a tremendous amount of feedback from the men at Northwestern by mail! So many of them sent us letters of encouragement and appreciation shortly after our preformance. It is always such a pleasure to hear from those who felt compelled to action by the spirit and hope of Jesus Christ.

Here is an excerpt from on of the letters:

Hello Shining Light! Thank you for coming to Northwestern Academy for your program, I really really appreciate it. It made me think about what I need to do to get back home and do what God wants of me. I make a lot of mistakes in my life. I was involved in a gang. I sold abused drugs, my friends and family tried to help me, but they weren’t enough. I am convinced by you to live God’s way, listen to his word, and be the best person I can be. I am a Christian but I haven’t been praying lately. I am going to start praying again today…                                

  Codie, NW Academy

It is inspiring for many of us to hear such a strong message in response to our ministry. It’s also a nice humbling reminder that we aren’t just planting new seeds, we are nourishing and watering seeds that were planted by those that came before us in the audience’s lives. Especially this time of year when school work is hectic and weather leaves some of us pretty negative (guilty as charged) it’s always a breath of fresh air from the mouth of God to hear feedback like this!

After Northwestern we had another Nexus event! The anual Superbowl party! But as is Shining Light custom, we are all about having fun and building community, but Service is what we do. So just this weekend we had another show, this time in Allentown, PA at Life Church open for the public and local ministries. I also felt lifted up by this show. The audience was attentive and supportive of our presentation and we enjoyed a sincere and authentic talk-time as well!

It seems lately that the themes of peer pressure and how we spend our time have been a constant theme, and the questions probed by those in the audience afterward were no exception.

Jeff has been teaching us and focusing small groups a lot on how we use our gifts of time, talent and money to further the kingdom and not our own selfish goals. This ties very intimately with peer pressure because so many times we can buy into the American dream that’s all about me, and what can help me, and what do i want for me. Being a follower of Christ challenges us to go against that grain and current to stand up for what HE wants. Being in Shining Light is always an encouragement because we’re all striving to make our lives less about me and more about HIM. It’s always nice after a hard week to join together to recharge, recenter and be prayerful for the next batch of challenges we will receive through the week.

I continue to be thankful for this ministry opportunity we have, even though it’s getting harder to stay as comitted as my life progresses and college changes and get’s harder. I never regret my decision to stay, even though I know that I could be doing a million other things. It is safe to say that 2011 holds big things for Shining Light, and I am prayerful that God continues to go before us and pave the road so that we may just choose to follow His lead.

Until next time, dear friends,

Be kind to one another.

Fresh from our first preformance at Teen Challenge, it’s hard to look back at the rehearsal weeks we have had since I last wrote and compare the two! Both have been so awesome for completely different reasons!

Obviously we have been preparing in our rehearsal times for all of the choreography and vocals, which has been stressful and fun. But more than that we have been preparing our hearts and minds to do this ministry. By now we have communicated that the experiences we will face are going to challenge us to see life from someone else’s perspective, and many times we will not like what we see. We wrestled with the way we think and view our audience and the way God views them. In my small group we flipped it around and also discussed what they expect from us and their view of us before we even walk in the door.

The next week we discussed the nearness of God, and how we can sometimes let our momentary feelings sweep us up and then to ease our guilt, we tweak our morals. Through these weeks we’ve been doing what has affectionately been titled the “Small Group Shuffle,” where we try to find the right combination of people in each group to benefit everybody. Though we try to keep conversation more deep than shallow, it was a challenge to open up to people without certainty that next week you can build on the foundation you set the week before.

When we finally got settled and our groups became more concrete we began to truely dig into who God is. We discussed who He is in our eyes and who He promises he is to us. We talked through how God is personal; He thinks, plans, feels, creates and does all of this with us. After setup was complete we watched a video that helped us step out of a Christian perspective and view the world through another person’s eyes. A man who doesn’t believe in God, but leads a moral life and is a good person presented his view on life and religion, that made a lot of us stop and truely examine the importance of knowing what we believe, and why we believe it.

After a change in venues for our Teen Challenge show, we thankfully ended up in Tri-County Worship Center. And with optimistic hearts we set out for what will undoubtedly be the first of many awesome Shining Light shows! Despite yesterday being a twist on the usual Teen Challenge show, it was clear that God went before us, even before we knew we would have an abrupt change in plans.

The new members were nervous and downright frantic at times. They were so conscerned with the choreography and where to be when; it was a flashback for me of my first show, and how nervous I was. “Which song is next??” “Where do we go now?” and “I totally messed up!” could be heard in whispers in between numbers. But afterward as I walked around and asked a few new members how they felt, they were excited and eager to tell me that they enjoyed it! It was a huge relief to finally see weeks of preparation finally create the whole show and have it just pull together like that!

The pastor at Tri-County spoke breifly and his brother actually taught a lesson after our preformance. It was a passionate sermon from the book of Hebrews encouraging us to prepare our own hearts before trying to minister to others. I thought this was a very appropriate message especially for my fellow peers in Shining Light. Even the best intentioned among us can get too caught up in commitments and loose sight of the true reason they do it– Jesus.

We look forward to more fun at rehearsal next weekend, and I will try to be more dilligent about posting!

Until next time, folks!

Peace & Blessings

Eva

I’ve been told by our website administrator that the blog has been a pretty popular hangout, so I know that I can speak for Kelsey, Robert, and myself when I say thanks for supporting our writing! : )

I’d like to talk a little bit about our last performance, which was for the women at New Life for Girls in Dover, PA, their families, and the public. Our small groups were again given the wonderful opportunity to speak with a woman residing at New Life. It was purely by coincidence that Mary, the woman who had spoken to my small group last year, was again paired with me, but boy, did I sure go to sleep that night after having a glorious revelation.

Mary is a true woman of God–there is absolutely no doubt in my mind about that. What threw me for a total 360 was that she was not in rehabilitation because she suffered from drug or alcohol abuse. She was not forced into rehab, kicking and screaming pleas of help, by a caring family who knew that she needed the help of the true professional: the Lord, Jesus Christ. Instead, she voluntarily entered the program.

Strangely, after Mary shared this crucial piece of information with our small group, my expectations of hearing a “really crazy story” were lowered. I figured things probably weren’t about to get dramatic, but I just smiled along, trying to grasp onto any bit of her story that I could attract readers with when I blogged about the show. Mary shared with us some stories of growing up in a Christian home, her father a minister, and her mother a firm believer in the salvation of Jesus Christ. Their daughter, however, began to move in a different direction. She moved out of the house and started a successful life of her own with a dream job and a multitude of friends. The amount of money she possessed determined her happiness. She did not develop an addiction to alcohol or begin using drugs. Instead, she simply woke up and decided that she was not happy with the life she was living. She needed more. She enrolled in New Life: the beginning of her new life. She graduated from the program a few months ago and is now working on their staff full-time, encouraging women with radically different stories, but with one common denominator;  their lives were falling apart and they desperately needed a Savior.

Even after speaking to Mary and tearing down after our performance, I felt melancholy about the whole small group experience. I couldn’t help but wonder what God was trying to show me through Mary’s story. It wasn’t until later that night, as I was praying to God before I went to sleep, that I was humbled.

God was able to illustrate my need for Him in a unique way–in a way that I had never quite experienced Him before. It struck me that I didn’t need to be considered an alcoholic or a drug addict before I needed His forgiveness of my sins. No matter how hard I strive every day to be more like Him and live in His ways, the bottom line remains: I am a sinner who needs forgiveness. The woman in the audience who went to jail for theft does not bear a sin that is any heavier than mine, for Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All. I am not the exception, for there are no exceptions.

But, alas, there is hope, and His name is Jesus Christ. For He paid the price, as Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

I thank God for the blessing of Mary, for she has brought glory to her Father’s name.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Live on,
Katrina

The first thing that was different from other shows was the set-up. It went SO quickly, due to our new and efficient risers. Instead of setting them up from back to front, which we used to do with the old risers, the new risers are set-up front to back, which is something the riser crew will have to get used to. Reportedly, the risers were set-up in fifteen minutes, an amazing feat. Although I am not involved in the physical set-up process, I have the honor of writing letters to our sponsors and those who write to us from different facilities, and got two letters completely finished. Some people who were done with set-up or weren’t doing anything also helped to write letters, so we got about a third of the required letters done. All the letters are handwritten and unique, and we talk about how Shining Light has influenced us and how God has changed us and other people through the experience.  After set-up was complete, we did mic checks and ate a dinner provided by the facility. Then it was time to perform.

We first noticed the students when we heard them yelling outside, which was slightly intimidating. They marched in, one by one, with green hats and yellow shirts. They all had numbers on their backs and were very quiet. I was near the screen in front of the stage to the right, and was able to observe all that was going on. The guards were exceptionally strict; I would NOT want to be caught messing around if I were a student there.

The show went very smoothly from my point of view, but some of the songs lacked some drive since Jeff’s keyboard was malfunctioning and we didn’t have a guitarist.  There were also some mic issues, but the audience really understood the message. For the second show of the year, it was no surprise to anyone that the show wasn’t perfect yet, but it has definitely improved since Teen Challenge. I’ve been to the Northwestern Academy many times, having been in Shining Light for four years now, and it had always been variable in its audiences. One of my first times there, the audience stood up and many were worshiping with us very evidently, but other times, the audience members have catcalled and laughed at everything we did. This time, we had a great crowd.  Many talked at the end during the “Talk Time” and were so appreciative of our coming to Northwestern. One member of the audience was surprised at how quickly we set up.  Another shared about the typical day at Northwestern, which apparently includes a ton of physical training.  After “Talk Time”, the students left in the same conspicuous manner as they came, assembling into perfectly straight lines, making a sharp right turn toward the door, and yelling out their numbers. Then we had our own talk time and talked about our reactions. We concurred that it was a great show, that God really worked through us, but that we have the ability to raise the show to a new level by the time of our New York weekend. Most of the energy we require on stage has to come from true worship, which only comes from giving our all to God. When we begin to do that, our show will be radically better.

It was a fantastic show, and I look forward to see it continue improving. Let’s keep on working hard, Shining Light.

I consider Shining Light to be a vital part of my musical and spiritual background, this year being no different. Shining Light has kept me from being pigeon-holed in classical voice by providing me opportunities to sing rock and R&B type styles. It has also given me exposure and experience in dance of various styles and plain acting. All of these have benefitted my musicality immensely.

But the main reason why I enjoy and appreciate Shining Light so much is because of manifest closeness of God I feel in it, whether on stage singing, writing a letter to an inmate, practicing a dance routine, or having small groups. It is said that the gates are Heaven are near the gates of Hell, and we experience that every time we walk into a prison and perform for the audience there. God uses us as his “shining light” to communicate to the inmates a message of hope, a message seldom preached in those facilities. Shining Light is such a vehicle to get across God’s amazing love, both to the audience and to us; having both seen and participated in Shining Light shows, I can honestly say that I am more greatly impacted on stage than off. Shining Light has been invaluable in keeping me on the righteous path for these grueling High School years. Having a network of passionate, Christian friends is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. I feel so blessed to be able to participate in this group, a group which has a powerful message and is unique in the United States and perhaps even the world in its mode of evangelism.

I have been at Teen Challenge several times, and if I’m not mistaken, this is my seventh time there. Teen Challenge is always a blessing. Local audiences are polite, but not responsive, whereas some facility audiences are rude, and responsive in that way. Teen Challenge, however, is a perfect balance of both elements. Considering this was our first show of the year, and returning members were rusty and new members were…new, the show was still a diamond in the rough. According to some audience members, it was difficult to tell that there were technical errors, but on stage, it seemed like we weren’t up to par. I was extremely impressed that the men weren’t acknowledging our faux pas, like so many others would do in other facilities. Despite our slip-ups, it reminded me that God works even in those situations— He drove through the message we all came to share, regardless of how well we danced or sang. I think that was most evident in the song “The Lord’s Prayer”, when at the end, all the members of the audience stood up and cheered. It was a glorious moment.

After the show, I was on a spiritual high. It’s always been difficult for me to step out of my comfort zone and really give my all to Jesus as I worship; but at Teen Challenge, I finally busted through that wall, and it felt so good. God has really used Shining Light to bring me closer to Him, and it’s been a remarkable experience. Whether it’s our culminating tour, a local prison, or a local community performance, God never ceases to amaze me through Shining Light. It has left an indelible mark on my spiritual walk and shown me the true meaning of the phrase, “God will provide.”

Throughout high school, I was always involved in pretty much any drama that was on our stage, and the wonderful opportunity to play several leads in musicals and plays. I was quite sad to see that part of my life end, and then remembered a wonderful show I had seen presented at Manheim Brethern in Christ Church by Shining Light. So, long-ish story short, I am now a member of Shining Light. Yay me!

Anyway, my first night at Shining Light I knew a total of one person, who also goes to Manheim Central. But that was okay with me, seeing as I’m really not a very introverted person.

Since then, I am proud to say I do know more than one person, and I’m very excited to be making so many friends! The atmosphere at Shining Light is very Christ-centered and inviting, the way the body of Christ should be. It has been such an incredible blessing to me to be able to be surronded by so many Christians who have a heart to reach out to those who are largley forgotten about.

During these past weeks a preparation for the first show, I was really very how impressed how organized the ministry is. Everything is planned out so well, and it really makes the whole experience much more enjoyable. So bonus points to the leadership team!

I also had the opportunity to audtion for a recieve parts in the drama, “Wonderfully, Speacially Made” and a solo for the song, “You are the Truth”. Although this has made for extra practices, I’m pretty okay with it. It provides another chance for me to hang out and fellowship with my friends from Shining Light.

Approaching our first show, I will not deny that I was more or less dreading two things: 1. Khakis. 2. Set-up. First off, I really despise khakis, but I figured I could probably suck it up, seeing as that’s not really the focus of our program. So I moved on. And then set-up. I was mostly apprehensive because I really had (and still don’t) have a clue as to what I was doing. But I really wasn’t all that bad, and I should be much better at set-up by the time tour comes.

Surprisingly, I was not really nervous for the show, maybe because I’ve done similar things in the past. Before the show, our small groups we able to talk with some of the guys who were at Teen Challenge, and it was awesome to see the be so open with where they came from and where they want to head, now that they have God in their lives. I am also currently reading the biography of David Wilkerson, the man who founded Teen Challenge, so it really a blessing to see the fruit of God’s work in his life.

The guys at Teen Challenge (who were not really teens..although I suppose “Teen Challenge” sounds a bit cooler than “Middle-Age Challenge”. Just a thought.) were a wonderful audience and really helped to boost my confidence, seeing as we will soon be facing slightly more intimadating audiences soon.

Overall, Shining Light has been a crazy awesome blessing in my life, and I can’t wait to see where God takes us this year! God bless everyone!

And here’s a sweet verse that I’ll leave you with:

Philippians 2:14-16 (New International Version)
“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…”