BEST RISEFEST YET!

Every year the festival is great, but there was something extra special about this year! The rain stayed away, the temperatures were hot, but God took care of everyone!  Whether it was one of the artists sharing during their set or one of the speakers sharing the gospel, the spirit of God moved! The stories keep coming in on how God moved!!  Our good friend and RiseFest teammate, Jay Schemper said, “It’s going to be the best festival yet!”

Boy, was he right!

We had more festival-goers than ever before, 16,500 over the weekend!  Our campground was full - actually sold out twice - and because of the generous support of one of our partners we were able to open up more spots.  Also, thanks to some of our partners we were able to add an onsite shower trailer for campers! Our Creative Director, Ellie Dykstra designed a new Main Entrance that allowed the flow of festival-goers to go more smoothly.

 

 

 

Our mission to make RiseFest More than Music, It’s a Mission was lived out by all our volunteers. I’ve have heard over and over again about the servant hearts of our team. Our team went as far as making sure a hospice patient (who’s not expected to be with us by August) made it to the festival, was kept cool, and had oxygen plugged in so he could see MercyMe. We were able to go one step further and get him to meet MercyMe! Our Bless A Family program hosted – Tripp, his dad, Chad, mom Maria, and little brother Caleb! Tripp had a tumor on his brain last year, has gone through 8 rounds of chemo, and is now cancer free!! They were such a blessing to have with us!

A few of our partners helped other families walking through difficult situations be a part of our One More Initiative making sure they had tickets to the festival!

As we met as a team on Saturday morning our Prayer Coordinators told us that we had handed out more Bibles than ever before!

Like I said, “RiseFest 18 was something special!” It’s hard to highlight absolutely everything God did, just know He moved mightily!