Rich, Heather and Alana’s Blog

Hey everyone! Yes, we’ve been in sunny South Florida for a week and haven’t blogged once. That doesn’t mean we haven’t had anything to write about… it’s because we’re packing our days with so much fun! I’m writing this one about my experience going to the Calvary Fort Lauderdale Christmas Eve Celebration for the first time, but when Heather gets some time, she’ll write more about what we’ve been up to. We’ve enjoyed saying up late and sleeping in. The weather so far has been wonderful. No hurricanes yet and in the 70’s the whole time!
For anyone who reads our blog and doesn’t know… Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale can safely be defined as a mega church. With 20,000 people who attend, I believe it’s the 8th largest church in the U.S. Having so many attendees, they have 4 services each weekend. But a couple of times each year, they get get everyone together as a church body. But to get everyone in one place, they have to rent an indoor hockey stadium. This is the first year that they’ve actually outgrown even the stadium and have done two “celebrations”!

It was a cloudy evening when we were arriving for the celebration service, but as you can see in the picture below, the clouds opened up and this ray was shining directly on the stadium. How cool is that!? Thanks to Matt Hickman for capturing this picture!

The stadium is where the Panthers play. It’s huge. Even with two performances, the place was nearly filled to the brim. Here are some pics from our seats.

During one part of the evening, they sang a song called “From a Throne to a Manger” when hundreds of people dressed in almost every imaginable garb from every country in the world came to the manger to worship the King. When it was over, all these people were up worshiping Jesus and the “angels” were singing and dancing around. It was really breathtaking how well they captured how it’s going to be in heaven!

They also did the most amazing presentation of “Little Drummer Boy” that I’ve ever seen. Done in a “stomp” style, I couldn’t believe it they didn’t hire professional people to do it. Everyone was either a volunteer from the church or a student who attends the school (Calvary Christian Academy, where my mother-in-law works and bro-in-law goes to school).

Then we had a candle lighting! EVERYONE had a candle and it was an amazing sight.

Then Pastor Bob came out and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus! How cool is that!? Thanks to Matt again for capturing it on video. Click on the video to watch!

Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale “Happy Birthday Jesus

Then we all did “the wave” around the stadium three times (one for each person of the trinity). It’s hard to see very well, but watch the video anyway!

Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale “The Wave”

It was so much fun but it was balanced with the seriousness of the coming of Christ. Pastor Bob gave a wonderful presentation of the good news of the gospel and hundreds of people came forward to give their heart to Jesus!