The Dancing that Night was Magical!

Words are hard to come by to describe what happened on June 27 in Iligan City at the IT University Arena. It was the second night of a two-game stand for our basketball team. The team was poised to play a formidable opponent from Cebu. They were a team loaded up with a couple Americans to add some needed height to counter our tall and fast team. It was a team composed of a PBA player turned coach and young men who loved Jesus and were willing to share their stories.

But that was the headline. What really was going on is almost indescribable. Mark was leading the band on the stage, playing worship songs. While it was hard to hear the words to the songs, the worship was going out. This was the “pre-game” activities as this evening was prayed for and committed to the Lord.

When Mark concluded worship, worship didn’t end. Renee Wynia bravely took her position on the basketball floor and began a spiritual dance before the Lord to the tune of “We Bow Down.”  Here was a mother and worshiper dancing with all her heart before the Lord in front of possibly 6000-8000 fans who had come to watch a basketball team from America. But they were fixated on the worship that they had likely never seen before. Renee was pouring her heart out before the Lord in dance...

Prior to the dance, prior to the worship music, I was backstage pacing. Jun asked me earlier that day to give the short message, a short exhortation and I was busy praying regarding the message I believed the Lord had put on my heart. I don’t have the words of the message. The one thing I know, it was going to be about Jesus. He was not just a good man or a great prophet like Abraham and Mohammed. Yes, I was going to drop the M word in this crowd, in this city where a few decades earlier, real battles were happening between C’s and M’s over the territory. I felt that strong about proclaiming this Jesus as the one - God himself - coming in human history for you and me. He is not some figure on a cross but God himself desiring relationship with everyone in that stadium that night!

When Renee started her dance, I became emboldened. My faith rose. When she completed her dance, I started my short 8 minutes speech at a fever pitch. I usually don’t start there, I go there. But I got there out of the blocks. It wasn’t a perfect message. I miscommunicated a few things early, but I believe the message of Jesus got through to this crowd, this attentive and captive crowd. Then we prayed for Jesus to come in and to start a relationship with each one there...no place for an altar call that night.  But something powerful was happening in the realm of the Spirit. (That’s not a cop out or cheap rationalization about what happened. For many came up to me later and described the intensity of that opening with powerful declaration in music, then dance and then in words. All we needed next was for someone to be physically healed...next time? If the Lord wills.  God was very present.  

What happened during the game was magical too but certainly, the magic was in the power and presence of God to participate even in the midst of a game played between 10 athletes and a ball and two hoops. It was special indeed!