Hundreds claiming their new names!

Yet another Night of Hope is in the books! This past Friday night over 850 people flooded the campus of Quail Springs Baptist Church for an evening celebrating recovery, second chances & HOPE!

As the guests made their way into the worship center they were greeted by a glowing 25’ long LED board! The band, led by Cody Dunbar and Marcy Priest kicked off the program by leading the congregation in a killer worship set which included two appearances from Oklahoma’s own rapper / spoken word artist Dillon Chase.

Yours truly hit the stage as worship came to a close and welcomed the crowd by highlighting all the nights’ sponsors. As you can see from the image below, we were blessed to have an incredible line-up of resources from across the country represented to provide help and hope to all the families in attendance. You can find out more about each of these organizations on the Hope is Alive Trusted Resources Page.

From there we transitioned into what was personally one of my favorite moments of this year’s event, the Sobriety Celebrations. It's during this portion of the night that individuals stand to their feet as I countdown years and months of sobriety. With each timeline, people pop up, proudly proclaiming their length of sobriety. From my perspective on the stage it was way cool to watch it all happen.

After a couple videos (which we will release on our FB page soon) our keynote speaker Ashley Smith hit the stage. Her speech was incredibly moving and was by far the most talked about moment of the night. She blew us all away by her transparency and vulnerability. She gave hope to each group of people represented in the room. She was amazing!

The entire evening led up to the moment that came next… The theme of the evening was “Redeemed” and our hope was that each person in attendance would have the opportunity to accept the redemption God was extending to them or to celebrate the redemption God had already granted them. The plan was to celebrate this redemption by inviting everyone to come forward and “Claim Their New Name”. As you can see from these pictures the moment was remarkably moving.

People by the dozens came to the altar, wrote down the label they used to carry with them through life on one side and their new name on the other. Then we took them all back stage and gave them each the opportunity to stand in front of the entire crowd and flip their card from their old name to their new name. Proudly proclaiming their redemption, showing the whole world their new name!

It was a powerful moment that left tears welling up in the eyes of everyone in the audience. For me, it was the culmination of months of vision, prayer and hard work. And it was all worth it to sit there and watch person and after person smile ear to ear as they turned their card over and claimed their new name.

For all of you who came, prayed, volunteered, donated or invited people to come… THANK YOU! We pour so much time and energy into Night of Hope, because we believe God moves through moments. We walk away this year knowing that God show up and showed off yet again…

We can’t wait to do it all again next year. Especially since it will be our 5^thanniversary! Get ready, we’ve already got tons of ideas!