UniShow World: Dance

Showing posts with label Dance. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Sharing Love in the Heart of Minnesota

Ten years have flown by since the UniShow last partnered with West Central MN Youth For Christ. We thoroughly enjoyed our previous tours with them and were privileged to return for another week of events in and around Willmar, Minnesota.

The YFC staff are very connected and present in the area public schools and have great relationships with faculty and students. They arranged 5 assemblies for middle and high schoolers where we encouraged students to persevere through life's challenges so they can use their abilities to help others and impact the world. Then we were able to invite students to the evening outreach a few hours later.

During the evening outreaches, we shared openly about God and even led students in a prayer of surrender to Jesus. It was so exciting to see students take bold steps of faith and publically stand for Jesus among their peers. Over the week we saw around 30 indicated new decisions!

YFC staff were ready to connect with new believers at each event so we know these students will be discipled in good hands.

We heard from principles and students that the UniShow Universe was the best assembly they have ever had! Teachers told us later that their students were blown away and couldn't stop talking about it. Administrators also told us they saw students listening more attentively than usual to the message as we wove the speaking among the action. We learned of a student who was so inspired she got out her violin and began to practice after seeing Misun in action during the assembly.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Bumpy Bulgaria

The UniShow returned to Bulgaria for our third tour. From 1-16 August 2019, our team of 12 (from England, Australia, South Korea and America) traveled Bulgaria, sharing the Gospel among Turks in villages. It was a privilege to perform with an amazing, professional jazz musician, extremely talented drummer and other great artists.

It was an interesting tour with many challenges throughout. Venues were very difficult due to our events being in Turkish areas which are not maintained like the rest of Bulgaria. Children were also plentiful and unrestrained but we know they are precious in His sight and Jesus said to let the little children come to Him.

Turkish Bulgarians are looked down upon in Bulgaria and often feel ostracized in their own country. The program was presented and translated into Turkish and we distributed Turkish literature, hoping to connect better with them in their heart language.

We worked with local believers and churches and many said they were inspired by our bold presentations. Some in the city of Partizanin loved all of the show's exciting elements, as well as how we shared, but asked why we didn't use Christian worship songs in our show. We explained that public worship, although beneficial, can turn away people who are not looking for God. Yet, our goal is to draw these people into an encounter with Him. When we present the Gospel through an entertaining show, we build a rapport with those people and they are more open to listening. After hearing this explanation, the believers were enthusiastic about this method of evangelism and thanked the team for coming.

Several areas we presented in were still healing from painful events where "Christian" leaders broke trust and left the faith. We prayed God would use us as a healing salve and it seems God did encourage and strengthen believers, as a result.

We were able to share the Gospel openly and give invitations during events and saw much openness and interest in the Gospel. After one show, a teen approached Dustin asking what we were doing, since he had just arrived and missed the show. Dustin shared the Gospel with him to which he responded, "That is the smartest thing I have ever heard!"

After the show in Sungulare, David prayed with a man who's family approached as the prayer was ending. David had the opportunity to share more about Jesus with the whole family. After this the daughter approached David separately and said she wanted to know how to have a personal relationship with Jesus. He went through the points of the Gospel and how forgiveness is only available through Jesus when we repent and believe. She prayed along with him to accept Jesus into her life, connected with the local church leader and received a Gospel of John.

In all, we did 13 presentations for 2,750 people. Despite the challenges, we saw God at work in and through us. Thousands of Gospel materials were distributed in addition to the words shared from stage. We pray those seeds will be cultivated into lasting fruit that remains. Thanks for praying with us!

UniShow Universe Bulgaria team at it's finest.

Here is a recap of our Bulgaria tour. We had some quality musicians accompany the UniShow:
https://vimeo.com/355298617/17d583153b

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

A Wheely Magical Time in Turkey

From 9-23 June, seven of us set out on an outreach tour around Turkey. From beginning to end, we faced spiritual warfare which made this one of the more difficult tours many of us have experienced. We pressed on and know God was at work in spite of our difficulties and touched people's lives for eternity.

This UniShow tour unified the arts of unicycling, illusion and dance. World-Class illusionist Adrian Van Vactor wowed crowds with his mind blowing magic. World Champion unicyclist Dustin Kelm made jaws drop with mad skills balancing on one wheel. Katie assisted them both and filled in the gaps with a dance or two. Resident TACO members Dave, Safak, Hannah and Rosa joined in on the fun, as well.

Just before our flight from Istanbul to Diyarbakir in south eastern Turkey, a bomb was set off at a political rally in Diyarbakir, killing 4 and injuring over 100. Needless to say, the atmosphere in this city was tense at best. We went to Diyarbakir anyway hoping things would calm down but we were unable to do either of our scheduled shows since the performance location was across the street from the deadly bombing. Targeted retaliation killings on both political sides continued. Most of our 4 days in Diyarbakir were spent in the church because it wasn't safe to venture outside. We could hear clashes with police at night which resulted in more deaths.

From Diyarbakir we began zig-zagging our way back to Istanbul. Our first show was in Mardin in front of their museum. One man was really impacted and wanted follow-up information about Jesus immediately.

For our next outreach in Gaziantep we were joined by church members, increasing the diversity of our group to 12 nationalities. Many of the members of this only open church in Gaziantep are believers as a result of past TACO events. A guy who happened to be at our spontaneous show had been carrying Dustin's testimony/tract card in his wallet ever since the last show we did in the area 5 years ago!

In Antakya (Biblical Antioch) we performed in Palladium mall. Church members came to help out and connect with people. The mall organizers really liked our show and invited us to come back and perform the next night. The mall senior management didn't approve our return however, so instead we did a spontaneous show at a nearby park. There were many Syrian refugees in the area who were very responsive to our message. A Turk came to Dustin and Safak after the show wanting to discuss what he read on Dustin's testimony card. The man said that Jesus didn't die but was taken up to heaven. By the end of their deep discussion, the man really wanted a Bible so he could learn more about Jesus. After he received one, he was beaming, proudly and boldly displaying it for all to see.

Our next show was schedule to be for the Ramadan opening ceremonies in Manavgat. However, the festivities were canceled due to nationwide mourning for the death of a former Turkish president. We moved on to Antalya for our show at an amphitheater in the harbor where Paul and Barnabas set sail in Acts 14:25. Katie had a great discussion with a diamond expert and his friend who asked her to pray for them to soon become believers in Jesus because they wanted to but didn't feel they could yet.

When we arrived at the Sumer Park Mall in Denizli we learn that our show was scheduled 3 hours earlier than we thought. Thankfully we had arrived early and because the mall was impressively organized and prepared for us, we were able to start at their advertised time. There are only a few workers serving in this city. Two of them came to our event and will be following up on the many who turned in surveys requesting more information about Jesus.

We then performed at Next Level Mall in Turkey's capital, Ankara. This was the least open show of the tour as no surveys, DVDs or literature were handed out and the translator censored Adrian and Dustin's messages. Afterward, Adrian had a great conversation with a couple who seemed very close to giving their lives to Jesus!

Finally, we did two spontaneous outreaches in Karakoy, Istanbul, drawing our biggest crowds of the tour. It was special to see the dozen local workers who joined us, conversing and connecting with those in the audience. We were completely open in both shows and many requested more information about Jesus! Several interested people have already begun meeting with local believers.

In these 15 days, we traveled thousands of kilometers and performed 9 shows around Turkey. In almost every show the Gospel was shared openly. Thousands of Dustin's testimony cards, other literature and approximately 300 "More Than Dreams" DVDs were handed out in return for 256 completed surveys with 167 people requesting more information about Jesus!

On our last night in Istanbul before returning to the States, we connected with Ed Pratt who is trekking around the world on his unicycle. It was fun to share stories of cross-country unicycle trips and hear about some of his adventures thus far. He is about 3 months into his 2 year journey. Cheer him on by clicking here.