All Of The Above - Hillsong United at the Molson Ampitheatre
Long time no blog…yes, my apologies. Life is crazy and my laptop has died. Ok, my adapter for my laptop has died and shoots off sparks if you try to plug it in…not exactly safe n’est pas? Anyway, despite that, and while it’s still fresh in my memory, I wanted to blog this before I lost it due to old age, hahaha. I'll update you all on other things when the comp is up and running again.
So I spent the entire day at The Ontario Place down by Lake Ontario on Saturday. We (some of our EM group and I) got on the bus from my house at 7:40am and got in line at the OP by 9:20am, waited in line for wristbands (so that we could get preferred seating) and finally got in the gates at 10:30am.
It was Christian Heritage day and Hillsong United (worship band from down ‘Unda’) was playing. The last time they played in Toronto, I got seriously trampled on (you can read my post in March last year about it “United We Stand?”). So this year, because there’d be seats and everyone knows how much I love getting first in the door or best in the house stuff...haha… I was determined to get this preferred seating.
Walked around in the heat of what has been the hottest day in Toronto and got to hear some praise and worship by other bands in a side tent, checked out a seminar by Starfield (a brilliant Canadian worship band), and waited for another 3 hrs in the sun at the gates so that we could make a mad dash into the Molson Amphitheatre.
It was similar to last year’s pushing and budding and trampling just waiting at the door but man, when those gates flew open, we did too. Joseph and James P. grabbed us some great seats! Centre, 7th row from the front. Amazing!!!
The concert was great, but I think what was the greatest was turning around behind me to see 12,000 other people who had filled this place up to max capacity, all with their hands lifted in praise to our Father and Lord. Jumping, singing, dancing, crying, praying, and letting loose all their joy, hardship and emotions and giving it all up to God in worship.
8000 stood up that night to accept Christ as their Saviour…I was moved to tears, mostly because a few of those people are very near and dear to my heart and it was just God confirming prayers that have been prayed for such a long time now – I’m talking over at least the past two years.
The most amazing thing for me though was the ride home. Yes, everyone was dead tired, as we treaded on to get to the TTC street car stop at 11pm. Some very interesting things happened at that stop too…you’ll have to ask me about it in person. Anyhoo, we all were crammed like sardines in a can in the street car, everyone coming from the same concert. Suddenly, some people just started singing out praise and worship songs that were familiar to many. A lot of others joined and soon almost all of us were singing and shouting out the windows of the streetcar. People falling out of the pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs off of Bathurst were all stunned and didn’t know what to say. Some were too scared to get on the street car with us crazy Christians. Our streetcar driver enjoyed it quite a bit too! We kept singing, they kept staring in amazement and we kept waving ‘hi’ to them as we made our way through downtown Toronto.
One of our girls was really tired and she looked up at me, saw me singing along and said, “Kim, no! Don’t sing!” She just wanted to sleep in peace. But I couldn’t. How many times will I ever get to sit on a streetcar full of Christians, shouting out praises and letting the world know that we have accepted Jesus as our Saviour? In an ideal world, it would happen all the time. In Heaven it would happen all the time. In Toronto, this may have been my only chance.
We are to step out in our faith and be brave because we have Christ to offer to the world. I was and am so proud to be standing as one of the 12000 who were there that night as the greater church. It will be much harder to stand out alone but I’ll do it and keep doing it.
So I spent the entire day at The Ontario Place down by Lake Ontario on Saturday. We (some of our EM group and I) got on the bus from my house at 7:40am and got in line at the OP by 9:20am, waited in line for wristbands (so that we could get preferred seating) and finally got in the gates at 10:30am.
It was Christian Heritage day and Hillsong United (worship band from down ‘Unda’) was playing. The last time they played in Toronto, I got seriously trampled on (you can read my post in March last year about it “United We Stand?”). So this year, because there’d be seats and everyone knows how much I love getting first in the door or best in the house stuff...haha… I was determined to get this preferred seating.
Walked around in the heat of what has been the hottest day in Toronto and got to hear some praise and worship by other bands in a side tent, checked out a seminar by Starfield (a brilliant Canadian worship band), and waited for another 3 hrs in the sun at the gates so that we could make a mad dash into the Molson Amphitheatre.
It was similar to last year’s pushing and budding and trampling just waiting at the door but man, when those gates flew open, we did too. Joseph and James P. grabbed us some great seats! Centre, 7th row from the front. Amazing!!!
The concert was great, but I think what was the greatest was turning around behind me to see 12,000 other people who had filled this place up to max capacity, all with their hands lifted in praise to our Father and Lord. Jumping, singing, dancing, crying, praying, and letting loose all their joy, hardship and emotions and giving it all up to God in worship.
8000 stood up that night to accept Christ as their Saviour…I was moved to tears, mostly because a few of those people are very near and dear to my heart and it was just God confirming prayers that have been prayed for such a long time now – I’m talking over at least the past two years.
The most amazing thing for me though was the ride home. Yes, everyone was dead tired, as we treaded on to get to the TTC street car stop at 11pm. Some very interesting things happened at that stop too…you’ll have to ask me about it in person. Anyhoo, we all were crammed like sardines in a can in the street car, everyone coming from the same concert. Suddenly, some people just started singing out praise and worship songs that were familiar to many. A lot of others joined and soon almost all of us were singing and shouting out the windows of the streetcar. People falling out of the pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs off of Bathurst were all stunned and didn’t know what to say. Some were too scared to get on the street car with us crazy Christians. Our streetcar driver enjoyed it quite a bit too! We kept singing, they kept staring in amazement and we kept waving ‘hi’ to them as we made our way through downtown Toronto.
One of our girls was really tired and she looked up at me, saw me singing along and said, “Kim, no! Don’t sing!” She just wanted to sleep in peace. But I couldn’t. How many times will I ever get to sit on a streetcar full of Christians, shouting out praises and letting the world know that we have accepted Jesus as our Saviour? In an ideal world, it would happen all the time. In Heaven it would happen all the time. In Toronto, this may have been my only chance.
We are to step out in our faith and be brave because we have Christ to offer to the world. I was and am so proud to be standing as one of the 12000 who were there that night as the greater church. It will be much harder to stand out alone but I’ll do it and keep doing it.
Comments
I went to Hillsong in Sydney and i was TOTALLY amazed! i just couldn't believe how many ppl attend Hillsong Church and it was like attending a concert! I was in TOTAL shock during the entire service!
God is SO amazing!