Why Are We Going Down to Orlando?

You may be wondering why we are going down to Orlando for yet another AMTC SHINE event so soon. Well, let us tell you! When we first met AMTC in Indianapolis last October, we immediately knew that we were supposed to attend the SHINE event in January. At the time, we didn't have admission to the event, a place to stay or funds to get there…however we knew that we were supposed to be there. It was a matter that we asked our prayer warriors to join with us in prayer on while we focused on the Christmas production. As many of you may remember, God answered those prayers in amazing ways. In January, we traveled down to SHINE and were so very blessed. You may remember that article that was posted shortly after we returned – see here. God then gave us yet ANOTHER opportunity to see Him in action through AMTC this past March. Through that experience, He awakened a bit more of our calling in ministry to artists – see more about that here. Additionally, in March, we were blessed to be a part of seeing our own few ministry friends audition for an upcoming AMTC SHINE event. Now, two of them are part of the program and are preparing to be a part of Summer SHINE during the first week of July. God even allowed us to see them in the dress rehearsal a few weeks ago!Now, here is where I need to back up a bit. You see, one of the things that we felt very strongly from day one of meeting AMTC was that if one of our 1heart Arts friends was to go down to SHINE, we were to go with them in support. We had NO idea that it would be the very next SHINE event! We also had NO idea that it wouldn’t just be one, but instead TWO! So who are these very talented folks that are making their way down to Orlando to share their God-given talents? I’m so glad you asked!

The first is the person we are actually traveling with down to SHINE, Wynter Zabrina Veal-Drummond. We met Wynter Zabrina’s mother last year and it was an immediate connection. Janet Veal-Drummond was part of the Christians in Theatre Arts (CITA) Facebook page and she saw a post I had made on another ministry friend’s status. That was all it took for us each to gain curiosity in each other. You see, she was one of those artists was looking for God to open a door for her to do ministry. It just so happened that we did arts ministry, so it seemed like a pretty good match! She graduated from University of Indianapolis with a Theatre degree and had a passion to share the talent with the Christian community. During that initial meeting (a long one I might add), we asked the Lord to bring her all that her heart desired, including to serve Him in theatre ministry. We continued looked for ways to plug her into the ministry work we were doing AND we invited her to Karitos. Both she and Wynter attended Karitos last year with us…and Wynter even got to dance in one of the evening’s processionals. After attending Karitos, we continued to stay friends with Janet and Wynter…and of course pray for that open door. At the same time, we were praying for God to show us if there were ministry friends that we should help in guiding to AMTC. Who would have known that our prayers would lead us to that same open door! In March, we were blessed with the opportunity to pray with the AMTC staff over the audition room. Before starting our prayers, I was seeking the Lord to tell me what I should be praying for and I sensed Him saying, “Pray that people make it to the auditions, to ask for protection from for car problems, people’s discouraging words.” Then, I asked God if there were specific people that I should be praying for…and He answered loudly in my spirit, “yes!”.

One of those people was Wynter.

Though I was happy to be praying over the space, I couldn’t get out to the car quickly enough to message her and tell her that God wanted her there. Now how do I do that?! I didn’t even have to ask that twice because when I pulled up Facebook on my phone her post was the second one down…saying that she didn't think she was going to go to the auditions. I quickly replied to the post and told her (pretty bluntly in fact) that God told me that I was supposed to encourage her to be there. God pierced her heart and she was there the following morning. I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how amazing of a day that was for us…God showed up in all His glory. We also saw the brightest part of the whole situation…this girl was MADE to dance for Him! Her audition blew us away…yes, it was technically very good…but that wasn’t it. It was POWERFUL…it radiated the Holy Spirit and communicated God’s love. Wow…how blessed are we? I’ll let the video above tell the rest of the story about her journey so far.