Night of Hope 2017 – Recap

Night of Hope 2017 is in the books and WOW… what an incredible night we had!!

Last Friday night 1007 people attended HIA’s 5^th Night of Hope OKC event. Isn’t that amazing!!?

The evening was filled with moving moments, life-changing truth and closed with hundreds flooding the altar to “DROP” their fears, resentments and burdens.

Here’s a brief recap…

The night opened with a powerful three-part piece including Hope is Alive Resident & rapper “TMAXX” making his stage debut. The beat flowed from TMAXX to the North Church Community Choir as the performed a flawless acapella version of the classic ‘How Great is Our God’. Busting on to the stage as they finished was our good friend Dillon Chase, fresh off a US Tour & the release of his new documentary.

As the opening number faded out, Cody Dunbar of Dunbar Music led the packed house into Elevation Worship’s, “Do it Again”. This song included 3 short testimonies from Hope is Alive Residents all of which brought roars from the crowd.

Next up, hundreds of recovering addicts jumped to their feet as I led the crowd into our annual sobriety countdown. This year we did it with the lights down, with each person celebrating holding a different color glow stick. It made for quite a visual to go right along with one of the loudest roars I have ever heard! There is nothing like hundreds of people proudly proclaiming to the world, their well-earned clean time!

Worship concluded and we took a moment to recognize all of the incredible sponsors that participated in this years event. If you or someone you love is impacted by addiction, these resources are here to help you.

Tony Hoffman hit the stage soon after and left the audience wanting more and more of his incredible story of redemption. Tony talked about how hard it is to walk back thru a door once you’ve crossed the threshold. Helping the audience understand the difficulties most addicts face once they find themselves hooked. Tony left to a standing ovation! He was great!

During the transition from Tony to Scott Williams, a wild and crazy group of HIA Residents stormed the stage hooting and hollering to the classic Survivors song, “Eye of the Tiger.” Why you might ask?! Well, they were helping to promote HIA’s next event, the “TZ Memorial Sobriety Sprint”. This is an event you will NOT want to miss. Click here to sign up to run, sponsor or volunteer at this event.

To close-up the evening, we welcomed to the stage OKC’s own Scott Williams! Scott had the whole room cracking up as he told joke after joke to get started. As he transitioned to his sermon the entire room was on the edge of their seats. Scott perfectly crafted a message that touched every single person in the room. Challenging us all to “Drop” whatever it was that was blocking us from experiencing the new life, purpose, restoration and FREEDOM that God so desires for our lives. Scott closed by inviting each person to pick up the card placed on their seat and to write down the things, people, situations, circumstances or addictions that they needed to drop. Each person was then challenged to stand up and take their cards to the altar and “DROP” them there.

It was amazing to see a flood of people storm the stage, dropping card after card after card. In total over 300 cards were dropped!

Scott wrapped up his time with a call for people to make the best decision of their lives… to accept Jesus at the Lord of their life. Immediately dozens and dozens begin walking toward the altar! With the altar filled with people who had made a decision to turn their lives over to Christ, we closed the night by collectively singing the new hit song “Chainbreaker”. The power in the room could have echoed for miles. It was a moment I will never forget.

The night was filled with so many wonderful moments and ways to connect with HIA, that I wanted to make sure we recapped them all in this email. So here goes…

Stay connected to HIA through social media

Sign up for our coming 5k Run

Connect with a sponsor of Night of Hope about next steps

Check out all the pictures from Night of Hope 2017

Help support HIA financially

Learn more about the HIA Mentoring Homes

In closing, I want to acknowledge that I definitely heard the chant… “One More Year, One More Year and I promise you this, if God leads… I will follow.

Thank you so much to everyone who came, supported and promoted Night of Hope this year. It was worth every single second of energy, time and money. Why? Because lives were changed forever!

Stay tuned,

-Lance