Our Students Sang with Third Day at the Shenandoah County Fair

A few days ago we got a phone call. Third Day was playing the Shenandoah County Fair in Woodstock and they needed a community choir to sing with them on stage. A friend of a friend knew about SVTC and passed our name along.

I didn't even hesitate. Both homes were going.

We've done a lot of things as a ministry. Fundraisers, outreach events, community service projects. But this was different. This was Third Day. At the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds. In front of thousands of people. And they wanted our students on stage with them.

Friday night we loaded everybody up and drove to Woodstock. Men's home, women's home, staff. The energy in those vans was something else. Some of our students had never been to a concert before, let alone performed at one.

Before anything started, the group circled up under the pavilion to pray. No one asked them to. They just did it. Held hands, bowed heads, and asked God to be in the moment with them.

Our ladies from the women's home got to meet the band backstage. Look at these faces. You can't fake that kind of joy.

[INLINE IMAGE: Backstage group photo]

Then the lights hit and Third Day took the stage. The fairgrounds were packed. Hands everywhere. And right there in the middle of it, our students.

Singing.

In front of thousands of people at the Shenandoah County Fair. In Woodstock, Virginia. On a Friday night in August.

Six months ago, some of them couldn't get through a morning without something in their system. Now they're standing on a stage with one of the biggest Christian bands in the country. That's not a program doing that. That's God doing that.

God opens doors nobody sees coming. A phone call from a friend of a friend turned into one of the best nights we've had as a ministry. Grateful for Third Day making room for us, and grateful for the person who made that call.

If you want to know more about what happens inside our program, check out what Teen Challenge actually looks like.