NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa., (BRN) – The third annual Victory in the Valley Christian Music Festival was another great success!
Once again, Grace Baptist Church – New Bethlehem partnered with Family Life and many local churches and businesses for the music festival. We began the event at 4 p.m. with a local praise and worship band, followed by Hannah Kerr and Cochren & Co. It was great to have them in our small town and to hear their stories of how they came to know Jesus.
In addition to the testimonies of the performers, we had retired local pastor, John Phillips, share the gospel with the crowd. We also had a few young people share their stories about how God has made an impact in their lives.
One young woman, Amanda, told about the disability that has left her in a wheelchair and how she prayed that God would heal her. When He didn’t, instead of sinking into depression, she asked God to, instead, use her to further His Kingdom.
Other things available throughout the event included a Victory in the Valley Information tent, fun and free activities for kids provided by two church youth groups, Heaven Cent tent and concessions.
Additionally, we had a baby in attendance who is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. Her family shared her story and there were personnel set up in the Clementine Tent to take applications and swab people to see if they were a match. It was a blessing to us to be able to do our part to help their family.
Leading up to the event, there was a team of approximately a dozen people who organized and planned out the day. But it took much more than that to make it all happen. All told, we had many volunteers helping with concessions, prayer tent, artist merchandise tents, table and canopy set up and parking.
We estimated at least 500 attendees, our largest crowd to date. We are pretty happy with that number and expect that we can get more people to hear the gospel in the future as word of this event spreads throughout the community and surrounding areas.
Thank you so much, Baptist Resource Network (BRN), for your contribution to this event. It was a fabulous way to share the gospel and something that our community really needed!