About this conversation
Keith and Kara Kirkpatrick recap the weekend of Church in the Park in Bend, Oregon, which they describe as the thirteenth year of the event. They recall a week of rain in the forecast, a sunny Saturday spent building the stage and LED walls with their production team, and a soaking Saturday night when tents blew away and ended up in the river. They describe the frustration of months of preparation seeming to unravel and their decision to pray with open hands.
Keith and Kara discuss rain and rivers in Scripture, referring to Elijah praying for rain to stop and then to start, and to rain as a picture of God's provision and abundance. They connect water with life and with the Holy Spirit, and they tie the year's theme, meet us at the river, to their hope for revival in their city. They also describe a pattern they see in their own history, in which significant water problems have preceded what they call breakthrough.
On the day itself, they say the morning was clear and cold with stars overhead, followed by about eight hours without rain for setup and the service. During Pastor Travis Hearn's message, clouds gathered until the sky was fully covered and the air turned cold, which Keith described from the platform as a picture of God's glory. They describe the baptisms that followed, some local and some who traveled from other states, and a closing time of worship in the pouring rain.
Keith and Kara also talk about event logistics and their interactions with city, county and parks agencies before and during the event. They close by reflecting on what they believe God taught them about dependence and about revival that cannot be manufactured, and Keith prays for listeners.
The conversation,
in their words.
Transcript from the recording’s captions. Select any timestamp to hear the original audio.
This is Confessions of a Pastor, a relentlessly real peak behind the scenes of Journey [music] Church in Bend, Oregon. From church in a strip club to a strip mall, going where Jesus would go to reach people Jesus would reach. This is the good, the bad, and the ugly. All for the glory of God. A journey of misery and miracles. We are your hosts and the founders of Journey Church in Ben. I'm Pastor Keith. And I'm Pastor Kara. [music] Come on. There really is hope for everyone. Hey everyone, it is the week after church in the park and boy do we have some stuff to talk about. You know, Kara, there are some Sundays that just everything goes well. There are some Sundays that things just seem to fall apart and go wrong. But I'll tell you, this past Sunday was a different kind of Sunday because there was months of preparation, there was fundraising,
there were permits. I mean, there were so many hundreds of people that served as superheroes. That's what we call our volunteers. There were so many things that came together and this was a Sunday like none other. I'm talking about church in the park, everyone. And we just thought today we're going to give you a behind the scenes. We're going to give you a glimpse about all the stuff that we talk about that nobody gets to hear. Here we go. About stuff that happened that maybe you don't know about. We we've been talking about this for for the last few episodes because it was a whirlwind leading up to Churchland Park, but I don't think anyone could have expected what we experienced this past weekend. So true in Bend, Oregon. So [laughter] true. It was a wild time. So it was. Kara, are you ready for this? I think so. I mean, let's do it.
We've been talking about it even for the last 3 days. Like, we got so much to talk about. So y'all, this might just be a three-hour episode today. [laughter] Actually, we got time for that. We don't have time for that. We've got a meeting in a couple of hours. But I I will just say this. We got so much to talk about. So let let's just start with the morning after. So let's not talk Let's not talk about the the day of yet. Let's talk about the morning after. We wake up on Monday morning, the day after church and park. Kara, what are you feeling? Relief, exhaustion, excitement. What are you feeling Monday after church the park? Okay. All of those things. One of the first things I thought of was, "Wow, look at the blue sky." Okay. Can we go there? That's okay. I That's and and I was also exhausted, but I was filled up like none other. It was an amazing day.
But I'm not going to lie, one of my first thoughts was, "Look at that pretty blue sky." Yes. So, you're referencing the entire week leading up to the church in the park. Every single day [laughter] had rain in the forecast. It was gray. It was rainy. In fact, the day of, and we're going to get to that because there were so many spiritual components of this that happened that day. Even for the listeners that are that weren't able to participate, we're going to go into those details cuz it's so important. We're not talking about weather here. We're talking about the supernatural, the spiritual colliding with the natural. And there's so much stuff out there. It It does. And on that Monday, there was not a single cloud in the sky when we woke up. We're talking crisp blue sky with sunshine when it's like, "Wait a second. Yesterday [laughter]
was pouring down rain and the day before and the day before and the day before rain." So why Lord? That's okay. We're gonna get to it. There was a reason. There was a reason. There was a reason. So, I mean, we could back up to the day before Church in the Park, too, before we go there. So, let's let's just stay on the day after for just a moment. So, you're thinking, "Wow, this is weird. It's the sun is shining." Uh, there was definitely exhaustion, though, too. I was exhausted. I mean, we laid low all day. Yeah. We took a walk in the morning and I think that totally took me out and then I just laid down the rest of the day. Yeah. Straight up. It was It was exhausting for everyone. That's one of those days you get up earlier than usual. You work a little harder than usual. I mean, it was Well, it was also just the weeks leading up to it, too. It was a push. Yeah. Come on.
Yeah. Yeah. And just just the whole experience. And And the day of was wild. Okay. So, the day after we're both exhausted. We're both kind of like in awe of the weather, which, you know, normally that wouldn't be a big deal except for what we're about to talk about today, right? So, let's go to the day before. Okay. The day before it's it's Saturday. I remember waking up on Saturday with excitement because there was blue sky. There was Yeah, there were clouds in the sky, but I could see crisp blue. The sun was out. There was There was clouds all day. I prayed out loud. I was just thanking God. I was like, "God, this is so good. Look what you did this weekend." Yeah. Yeah. And it allowed um the AV team uh you know to build an amazing the
the amazing platform they built and [clears throat] system they built for us. So God his his hand was in the entire thing despite the rain that did come which we'll get to. I really think that the heavens opened the times that they needed to open and then rain came the times that that it needed to rain. Like it was actually really um it was really profound actually. So Saturday they they spend 8 to 10 hours building LED walls, sound system, trusses, uh platform stages. I mean, we're talking the whole kitten kaboodleoodle. Great production. Uh massive our team set some things up that day, too. Yeah. Some of the the tents. Yep. Um I mean, lots of tents were set up on Saturday. I mean, much of it was set up early Sunday as well, but Saturday was sunny most of the day.
I mean, there was it was like, "Hey, I think this is going to hold off through Sunday. This is great." So, then we have a special guest come in, the preacher for Church in the Park, the one and only Pastor Travis Hearn from Impact Church, Scottsdale, Arizona. And you and I go to dinner with Pastor Travis and his assistant, Juan. Yeah. And we go to dinner and everything's cool. I mean, we're like, "Hey, this is cool." We go to get some steak. Yeah. We We're at dinner for a couple of hours. A little longer than usual cuz I told them it was your birthday. you were upset because uh then you know Sunday was your birthday and we had dessert and they brought a candle out and you know we're having a delightful dinner and I'm sharing all this because when we left the restaurant we opened the door to the restaurant
and it's pouring freaking rain pouring it was pouring rain pouring on us pouring rain I'm like what is going on like I knew the sound system was set up the LED wall was set up. I knew all the tents were set up and it's like it's pouring rain. So like we get in our car, you know, running to the car soaking wet. I don't even really say a word. I'm just like like stunned and I got nothing to say. I'm driving home literally praying out loud. Lord, you're allowing this. You're sovereign. You're in control of all this. Why? Please stop it in Jesus' name. Peace be still. Let this rain stop. And it's like raining harder and harder. and we're getting home and it it rains so hard and finally I'm just I'm at a place Saturday night where I'm like, you know, this is
out of my control. God is in control of all this. If he wants it to rain, it's going to rain. If he wants us to cancel this, then we'll cancel this. And I'm a little upset, like, you know, honestly, but let's just go to bed. We go lay in bed. And then we get in our staff thread that night, 10:30 at night from Jad and he's like, "Hey guys, just got back from the park and it's so windy and so rainy. We had tents fly away. Some end up in the river. Meet us at the river. Meet us at the river, baby." [laughter] Like, meet us in the river. Hey, would y'all pray about this? And you know, it didn't just rain for like a few hours. It rained all night. I had people tell me they were up at 2:30 a.m. praying because it was raining so hard and they were just like praying that day. Yeah, I think Monica told me that.
I mean, I I heard from a variety of people that that said they were praying at 2 3:00 a.m. because they could hear the rain so so hard that day. So, I mean, just this kind of surrealness like when you prepare for something for a year and then months and then, you know, well, and let's just go back to the history. We've this was our 13th Church in the park, I believe. Not one has ever. We've never had that type of rain leading up to it. Rain in the forecast. Never. We've never been rain on at Church in the Park. We've had fire. So, we've had or we've had smoke that we had one that was very, very smoky. But aside from that, it's always just been sunny and warm. Yeah. Everyone. So, if we could just take a pause right here and just spiritually speak about rain for just a moment. I mean, you know, life is the natural realm always
reflects the spiritual and it's not to get so hyper spiritual that you, you know, your cell phone dies and you say, "Oh, the devil killed my cell phone today." No, you forgot to charge it, right? You know, like, but there is something with once you start to see through spiritual eyes, um, it it definitely becomes more and more apparent. Amen. But I agree with you. You could way swing way too far to the side of overspiritualizing things. But yes, once you do open your eyes, there is there is a correlation. Yes. And and we ought to be aware of those things. We should be asking God for a spirit of wisdom and [clears throat] revelation. And you know, the the Bible speaks often of of rain. We've got a lot of examples of that both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. You know, James references Elijah who prayed for God to stop the rain. And God did stop the rain. And then he he prayed for God to
start the rain. And you know, he had to fervently pray for that. It wasn't just one time he prayed for that. Maybe that's what I should have done is gotten down into a a position of of [laughter] was the posture of of giving birth, you know, like Elijah did in the Old Testament where he prayed seven times for the rain. And he sent his servant each time to go, "Look, do you see the clouds? Do you see the clouds?" And eventually he saw one the size of a fist. And God just didn't send some rain. I mean, he sent like a massive torrential rain. And so we know that God is sovereign over the weather. We know that you can pray and God, you know, uh hears our prayers. Yeah. You know, uh be it in whatever realm, but to come back to rain in the scriptures, it's often a sign of God's
provision, of God's abundance. Yeah. You know, you can't have a harvest without rain. If there's a drought, it really impacts economies, food source. You know, rain is a reminder of God's blessing. Yes. Right. And we also have even in in um our own personal lives, you know, such a a history with flooding and um just water issues. I mean, we go back all the way to our very first house in Bed in 2005 where the water was flooding underneath the ground and we didn't know it filling up the neighbor's crawl space. Um, and every single house since then, we've had flooding issues. And it's it's typically in those early years, we didn't correlate it. But as we've matured in faith, the the correlation has become pretty apparent that whenever there is some
type of a a pretty big water issue, um, there is breakthrough that's coming. It's on the horizon. We're on the precipice of breakthrough and I would put this in the same category. Amen. So if we were to look at just water now, not just rain, water symbolizes life. That's a universal worldwide um you know um known I mean you go to Africa without water you die. I mean water represents life. Jesus says, "Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John notes that Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit. So belief in Jesus will result in life everlasting coming out of you by the means of the Holy Spirit. Yeah.
So this is so significant and not only all this like our theme this year was meet us at the river, which obviously the river is is a a huge body of water. So like none of it is wasted with God. None of it. And we see rivers all throughout the scriptures. We see it in the book of Genesis. Y uh in the Garden of Eden. We see it in the book of Revelation in the latter two chapters with the the river of life. I mean over and over God uses rivers as a sign and a symbol of life. Yes, rivers are a picture of life. You see God's provision with rivers. the the the Israelites entered into the promised land through the stoppage of the the Jordan River at flood level at flood level, you know, stepping into the
river. So, our theme this year was meet us at the river. And really, we've shared this story on this podcast. It was birthed out of this picture of if we're going to do church in our city, it's not just church in our city, it's for our city. So we are asking for people to meet us at the river for the sole purpose of revival. Yes. Believing for an encounter of God, a move of God. Could this be the beginning of a great awakening? So here we are praying for months. We're fasting and praying on Fridays through August. Which pretty much every Friday that we fasted and prayed, something big happened. Fires, floods, I mean someone on our staff, floods in her her home. I mean, it was like all these things happening. It's like preparation, preparation, preparation, and then the weekend comes and it's Saturday night and it's dumping rain. And you know, for those who are
listening, when life happens, whether you're planning for a wedding, uh your first child, you're preparing for a big event, and when things just don't happen the way you expect, you know, the pregnancy is difficult or there's a miscarriage or, you know, the loss of a loved one or you get you lose your job, you're let go. When when things when life doesn't happen the way you want, you really realize how little control you have. Yeah. Of everything, [laughter] right? I mean, it's true. You can try. You can prepare. You can work hard. You Cuz we did. We prepared. I mean, we were more prepared this year than ever. Absolutely. We paid for the permits. We met with all the proper places. And we're going to get to that, too, friends. I mean, we're just scratching the surface right now because we want to
just relate to what was happening in the physical realm, what was happening in the heavenly realm. And I will say like when you pray, you have just declared war on the enemy. Satan hates it when you surrender your life in prayer because you've just given God his uh dominion to have his his will and his way. And that's what we did, Kara. We said, "Lord, let your kingdom come. Let your will be done through church in the park as it is in heaven. We ask God to do that. Now, when you ask God to do it, you can't always predict what he's going to do. Yeah. Or how he's going to do it. No, you rarely can predict it. So, if if he brought the rain, maybe it was for a reason. Oh, I definitely think so. I mean, I I I shared with you something and this is unrelated to Church in the Park, but it's it is related, too, because
you know, we didn't have any protesters this year. uh we didn't have any no news agencies came out the local newspaper all the local news agencies they will come out when 50 people pro protest the president you know you can get no king protesters 50 people with signs the news will come out and they will make a a good 3 4m minute news segment on protesters at the park protesting this we had thousands of people at the park and news agencies don't come they know about it but they come. But I will tell you this. I've got a theory and I told you this already. It was cold. It was rainy. I saw a guy go to uh a pride event, a LGBTQ plus event simply to share the
gospel with the team of people. They bought they brought thought-provoking billboards and signs to try to engage with people in prayer and in kingdom-minded gospel conversations. And they went to this event and he simply said the event was so poorly attended this year compared to previous years. He's like, "Wow, maybe maybe this is working us advancing the kingdom through gospel conversations because this year was so poorly attended." And someone commented on his post and and someone from the LGBTQ plus community said, "It's because it was hot, you clown." Meaning the reason people didn't attend that day is because it was so hot. Yeah. His comments were, "Wow, isn't that interesting that when it's uncomfortable, you're
unwilling to engage and participate in what you're celebrating?" And you and I talked about this and it's not to bash people individually, but it's to talk about the conviction of what you live for, what you show up for, what you do. And there could be a theory here that because it was cold and rainy, people didn't show up to protest. Yeah. You know, I know that's true often times that, you know, those who are in opposition of the kingdom. You know, Jesus said, "If you're going to follow me, pick up your cross daily and follow me." He says, "If you really want to be blessed, you need to be persecuted for righteousness sake, for my name's sake." And there is a place here where I don't think protesters are wanting to come out and get uncomfortable to protest the kingdom. I don't know. Tell me your thoughts on that.
I don't know. Maybe. I mean, we had we definitely had other other um oppositions. Yes, for sure. But no, we didn't have protesters, which we did kind of expect it. We, you know, we had a presence at the Pride Festival whenever that was in June. We had people from the church um you know head down there to really with really good intentions you know to pray with people and um they didn't have signs. No, they were not protesting but but I think it was it it it ruffled a lot of feathers and I think there was an anticipation that that some type of protest would happen and it didn't. So well I I I'll go under the record and just say if if you really are going to advance a a message, you got to have uh what you and I have even talked about. You have to have grit. You have to have tenacity. You have to have perseverance.
You have to have endurance. It's what this nation was founded on is you've got to be willing to suffer to see something through. And I really think that in the woke world that we live in that we have witnessed a massive shift in morality of redefining what God has created, it's not going to have longevity because the moral conviction behind it isn't willing to suffer for the advancement of that message. So that that was my my point and and just saying like could it be that God brought an uncomfortable weather cuz we'll fast forward to the fact that if you're going to go allin for God, you've got to be willing to go all in for God. Yeah. Which was what in my opinion one of the very profound things that happened this year was because of the weather, which we haven't even gotten to yet when it hit,
but um the amount of people that still stepped forth and said, "I'm getting baptized. I'm getting dunked in this freezing cold river. I'm coming out to cold air to rain coming down and I don't care. And that's like that to me was just a defining line in some ways of um the gospel advancing in this community and people's choices being real. These are not people getting baptized that are being forced to be baptized. This is not a generational baptism. These are people saying, "I choose Jesus. I'm going to get baptized in my cowboy boots and my jeans. I'm going to get out and it's going to rain on me and that's going to be okay. So, I I think it's important now we go there because uh let's lead into Sunday.
All right, we talked about the day after. We talked about the day before the rain, all the preparation leading up to it. Now, we get to the day of and I'll just I don't know if this is hyperbole or not, but miraculously we wake up and it's amazing. Yeah. It's clear sky. It's crystal clear. I remember I woke up that morning. I don't remember 4:30, 5:00 a.m. And I walked outside. It was really cold. I felt like almost a winter morning. I look up in the sky and I see thousands of stars. I'm like, "What the heck?" You know, like, so now it's 5:00 a.m. and there's clear sky. We get ready. We go down to the park. Sun comes up. It's gorgeous. this this sun shines and it's it's it's shining on us and you can feel the warmth of the sunshine.
Yep. Now, let we'll talk about the details of the day, but there was a solid 8 hours of no rain. Yeah. I mean, at least 8 hours. I mean, it was like we got to do the a prayer at 7:00 a.m. worship uh preparation, all the setup, tons of inflatables, tons of food trucks, tons of tents. All the things that went into it all got to be set up. No rain. Totally. Then we got to have church. No rain. Yeah. Let's talk about the service for a second. Okay. Because it was just it was a great day. It was by far I I've said this time and time again. This was my favorite of any of the Church in the Park services we've ever had before.
Yeah. Me too. And it wasn't just the church service. It was the whole experience. It was the praying and be like why God to the day of like thank you Jesus you know to what led up to it. So going into the opening worship I mean literally the sun is shining people are happy thousands of people show up. I'm like I'm my insecurity was there but I'm like at this point I've surrendered it to the Lord. We're like Lord if a few hundred people show up whatever you know like this isn't on me. This is on you. If they show up whatever happens God they show up. Thousands of people showed up. Yeah, it was crazy. Blankets, uh, lawn chairs. Yeah. I mean, they they showed up and they they showed up early. Well, can we back up to we didn't really talk about this that um you know, we had a we had the uh
tech company put a cover on the um [laughter] on the trusses and the first one of the first things that uh Callie actually points out to me that morning is she like points up and it's this huge bubble that's just full of water on the ceiling of the production, you know, the trust system right over the drums, right over where the choir. I mean, we're talking hundreds of gallons of water stuck on this ceiling that and and it's at a slope, but clearly there was so much water over time, it created this bubble. Yeah. Yeah. And I I sent someone to go get a um a hose to siphon it. Yeah. A lift, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, it was probably 40 ft in the air. Yeah. And they just I don't know the the tech guy, whoever the the company just like Yeah. opened it up and the whole thing just the water just fell down to
huge water. Yeah, they took huge poles with like a broom handle at the end of it and they pushed it all down and it went down the LED wall which thank God is waterproof. And I mean it was a lot of water. It was a ton of water. Sorry. I just wanted to back up to that little piece that it was one more picture of like flooding. Come on. I mean it really was it was the the picture of what was going to happen that day. It was surreal cuz here we are now. The whole place is wet. We know our tents blew away the night before. I mean, it was it's just the whole day. It's like, okay, you know, it's like the day after a storm, [snorts] you know, like when you watch in the news like, oh, there's a torrential hurricane or tornado. Well, they only last for a few hours and then the next day it could be clear and calm. That's how it was. It was like clear, it was calm, it was like, okay, here we go. Everybody is excited. How many people told you like,
"Thank God for the day, like the weather that day." I mean, how many would you say? I don't know. I probably had hundreds tell me. Oh, yeah. Like for the weather holding out. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It was almost getting annoying because everyone's coming up to me like, "Oh, pastor, how cool that God did this with the weather. How cool with the weather." I mean, it was like that was the theme for the whole morning to me. I don't know, maybe you didn't get Yeah. Everyone I mean, it's obvious, you know, everyone was like sitting at the edge of their seat wondering what was going to happen, you know. Yeah. when the day of people were clearly thanking God for the weather for I I was getting so many people it was like the number one thing people talked about. They weren't talking about revival. They weren't talking about a great awakening. They weren't talking
about what it they one thing people were talking about all morning was the weather. Yeah. Well, I mean it was common ground for people so sense. So leading up to church starts awesome worship set. There's excitement in the air. Thousands of people are there. The worship set was dope. We had a giant the biggest choir we've ever had before because it was Journey Redmond, Journey Ben combining as one choir. Really cool chemistry and energy up on the platform. Great day. Pastor Travis Herm preached a message surrounded but not surrendered. And he brought up water. He brought up, you know, water in the Bible, uh, culminating with the theme of Ezekiel 47, the river out of the temple. Yep.
How when it was ankle deep, you're in control. Knee deep, you're in control. Waist deep, you're in control. You know, shoulder deep, you're still have your feet on the ground. On the ground. It's not until it's over your head that your feet, you know, no longer do you have control. Yeah. And he he gave a an invitation to go allin for God. Now, as he was preaching, you and I are sitting down there. It went from gorgeous sunshine, blue sky to I was watching the clouds. You could see it. Well, there was a battle. His entire message, there was a battle between the clouds and the sun. The entire message, the sun would come out, the clouds would cover it. The sun would come out, the clouds would cover it. Yeah. And and literally, you could watch the clouds at a at a fast pace. They were moving in. I mean, like they were
just they were coming together. They were colliding. And I was I'm watching the preaching, which is, you know, unique for me. I'm usually on the platform preaching, you know, and it's so distracting outdoors. You got people riding by on bikes and Yeah. kids running around, thousands of people. And And I'm watching the culmination of these clouds like just cover us. And it went from like warm and sweaty Yeah. to cold. To cold. But I mean, we've talked about like this just the spiritual picture once again of the picture that's happening in the natural that's that's reflecting the spiritual and to us it just felt like this. It was a visual of just the spiritual war that was happening in the heavenlies that we cannot see. Yeah. So, if we go back a few uh episodes or maybe one episode, one or two episodes ago, I asked you what would
what would a true encounter of God look like at Church in the Park? What would a move of God look like? And you're like, I don't know. you tell me. And uh I gave a description, you know, and I I I went off of Acts chapter 4 just saying, well, I know God's done this before, so what if, you know, he shook the grounds, you know, what if there was a shaking physically, you know, what if the clouds, you know, what if there was a cloud of God's glory on the place? I mean, it was like I I just tried to explain what if God just showed up in a way, and I don't know. I don't know what he's going to do, but that was the best I could use in my imagination. And to your point, Kara, there was something happening in the physical realm that represented what was happening in the spiritual realm. And biblically, to use a defense of this, in the book of Daniel, when Daniel's fasting and praying, he doesn't know what's happening in the spiritual realm. Yeah.
You know, and when the Lord tells him that there was a spiritual battle between Michael and Satan, you know, and he was prevented, you know, Michael was prevented by Satan. He was literally Satan was withholding, you know, fighting to to prevent what Daniel was praying for. I I believe there was something seriously happening. And here I've been praying on a personal level and inviting people corporately to pray with me for revival. Central Oregon shall be saved for a new great awakening. We don't always know what that's going to look like. No, I imagine in my mind, and I'm limited. I'm just a a human, you know, a childlike faith. My mind, I imagine everyone falling in love with Jesus,
everyone on their faces repenting before God, everyone weeping and worshiping God. Uh that didn't happen that day. But what God taught me that day is by the time Travis did the altar call, it was cold. Mhm. I think the clouds had formally covered. Yes. There was no more sunshine by the end of the message. Yeah. I mean, you even went on to, didn't you go up after his message and say something about that? I did. I referenced Exodus when it says the cloud covered the mountain and it was God's glory. Yeah. You know, that's how it felt. And the representation of once again in the Old Testament, the clouds represented God's glory. You know, there was a cloud by day and a fire by night.
When when when God showed up and gave the word, the Torah on the mountain, it was a cloud that covered the mountain. Yeah. And I expressed after the altar call, if you will, there was an invitation to believe in Jesus. And I expressed what was happening. We've got to be aware of this. Yeah. A cloud just covered this place. God's glory is here. Yes. Amen. And it was now formally cold. It went from like 60° to like 48°. Yeah. I mean, it was it was a pretty big shift in temperatures and then and and baptisms were just really starting at that point. My invitation then was to people to get baptized and the message was quit being surrounded by God and go allin, be surrendered. And now the rubber meets the road. Yeah.
Are you going to get baptized because it's convenient, because it's comfortable, because it's really cool and it's sunny and all your friends are there, or are you going to get baptized because you're going all in? Absolutely. And those were the people that got baptized. Yes. And we didn't have as many as maybe we expected, but the ones that did get baptized that day, Yeah. they were serious. Yeah. I mean, it was still over well over a hundred people that got baptized. 110 baptisms. Yeah. I talked with So, we the next day um well, whatever that couple days later as a staff, we um called every single person that got baptized. And that was fun. Yeah. I uh I talked with one of them called me back last night actually and I was on a walk out in our neighborhood and he told me that he was like really on the fence about getting baptized and he said, "I've been wanting to for a long time but uh you know he was just on the fence and like the weather and all
that and um he said something Pastor Travis said at the end was like are you going to go all in?" You know, like like I don't remember what the exact verbiage was, but that like pushed him over and um that's why he did step into the waters that day. Praise God. Yeah. So to me it's just it's it's was such a picture of of real I mean people real faith real people taking real next steps into real faith. Amen. Proclaiming Jesus in the middle of our city to a lot of people that doesn't matter how cold I'm going to get. So I think now like when we start to look at like okay how does God answer our prayers? We envision one way God answering our prayers. And then when he does answer our prayers, we have to acknowledge it. God did hear my prayers for revival. Yes, he heard my prayers.
And this, you know, [clears throat] I've processed this with you a lot, Kara. And I want to now in just a moment talk about some of those stories because they're wild and amazing stories that came out of of the people that got baptized. Just hearing some of the test miracle stories. We're going to talk about those in just a moment. But at the end of the day, if one person gets on fire for God, fully surrendered, allin for God, and let's say they are the mountain moving, faithfilled, spiritfilled believer that comes out of this, that could be the next Martin Luther reformation. It could be the next George Whitfield uh a great awakening. It could be the next Billy Graham revivalist. It could be the next Dietrich uh Bonhoffer standing up against evil, the tyranny of evil. could
be the next Reinhardt Bonkey to go to the nations and bring forth the gospel to all people. You just don't know. All it takes is one human being to change the course of history. Amen. Sometimes we think it's got to be a massive movement of people getting saved, but sometimes it's one person fully on fire that's willing to change a nation, to change the church, to do what's right in a world that's wrong, you know. And and all of a sudden, I think God started to invite inside of my heart like, "Hey, Keith, revival might not look like what you think." Yeah. Because what disciplehip really is is a heart fully surrendered. Yeah. It's not conformity. It's not a massive movement of uh you know, boy, this is exciting. And you make the news because all these people stay
around longer and louder and, you know, looks looks like revival. No, revival happens when you're all in. And that's what we saw that day, like you said, with people going into the water cold, coming out of the water freezing. [laughter] It was a dripping for Jesus. So they're massively in love with Jesus. Carol, I would say that was my favorite part. I've told you this, but that was by far my favorite part of the whole day. Amen. Was at the end um service was over the worship team is just like just bringing just praise music to the middle to the park, the middle of our city. And [snorts] it's pouring down rain and Oh yeah. So by this time the clouds haven't just covered. It starts it starts to rain. Sprinkling rain. Yeah. And then it starts and then it dumps. Dumping rain.
Yeah. So I'm out there with a whole group of people literally dancing in the rain. Pouring rain, singing praise songs, watching on the big LED wall all of the people getting baptized. And it just was it's something that will mark me forever. I mean it was it makes me want to cry. Like it was one of the coolest moments of my entire life. And I resonate with you and it was cool for me. We had elders baptizing, pastors baptizing. It was it was a New Testament church. Yeah. And just the people that got baptized. I mean, like we've talked about, you know, um it it it's the church. It's the church. When you have its kingdom. Yes. When you read stories of Philip and the Ethiopian unic, you know, it's it's wild. You've got these worlds colliding
where one guy's on a spiritual journey and he wants to know God and reading scripture and doesn't know it and and Phil comes alongside and says, "Let me explain it to you." And it's like, "Hey, I want to get baptized." That's what happened this past Sunday. It was a New Testament moment of the Holy Spirit colliding of people who are hungry spiritually and they give their lives to Jesus and they went all in. And we had people for the first time and more than I've ever seen in my entire ministry life, we had people come from all over the nation to get baptized. We had a gal from Rhode Island fly from Rhode Island to Oregon to come to church in Park and she got baptized. Y I got to baptize her. Her name's Faith and I got to even prophesy over her that God's going to use her faith. She went all in. She wasn't there a year ago.
Yeah. But she I mean talk about a movement to go from one coast to the next to get baptized. We had a couple from Minnesota who came in just for the weekend to go to church in the park who got baptized. Yeah. A husband and wife baptized together. I mean how powerful is that? Then a a young man who professed that he was a scientific atheist for more than 10 years who got invited by his landlords to come to Journey. gave his life to Jesus. His life was changed. Moved to Portland, drove over from Portland on Sunday to get baptized. Just to get his parents came too, who are atheists, I believe, and they came and sat through the service barely like I mean I think it was uncomfortable. Like I met this young man. I was like, how rad this guy is going all in and drove all the way here
from Portland. And you know, I'm so grateful I got to meet him and hug him. I didn't get to do his baptism, but I mean, we're talking people all over the place. Yeah. Who who came in to be a part of what God And then even local people, people from all walks of life. Oh, yeah. I mean, we had people who came just for Church in the Park from uh Southern Oregon. Uh we had one fly in from California just to be at church in the park. and the stories that were birthed out of the baptisms. I I heard from we had a whole team of people because we we didn't know if there was going to be hundreds of baptisms or dozens. And of course, it was freezing cold that day. And I had one of the superheroes tell me [snorts] he was just interviewing people because they're asking, "Have you believed in Jesus?" Yeah. Do you go to Journey Church? Like what's your story? And you know, there's a whole setup before they
ever get into the water. And one of the stories was, "Hey, have you believed in Jesus?" "Yes." Do you attend Journey? Yes, I have for uh at least a year. Well, have you been thinking about getting baptized? And this guy ends up going on and telling this person, "Well, I thought about it, but here's the deal. I wasn't going to get baptized today. In fact, I am camping with my family on the Columbia River." Yeah. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. knowing that Church in the Park was happening today. And he said, "I literally left in that moment. I left my family, drove five hours to church in the park. So crazy. And he's like, "As soon as I'm baptized, I'm going to get in my car and drive back." Yeah. To my family who's still there.
I mean, literally, the Holy Spirit collided in his life at 5 in the morning. He wasn't planning on attending church in the park. He wasn't his family wasn't even there. He decided to go all in. Yeah. I mean, just [snorts] how does that happen? But the Holy Spirit, no, I know. I mean, when you pray for revival and you you don't know. Yeah. You know what's cool? I told you about a guy that called me last night on my walk who got baptized and one of the things I forgot he mentioned was like he's like, you know, my life is kind of a mess essentially is what he said. And he said um he said, "But I have so much peace." Wow. Right now. Um in in spite of like he's like nothing's changed, but I just have this peace. Wow. And so I I guess I just reflect on that. It's kingdom. It's it's when you make the decision to go allin for Jesus.
The kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's our inheritance. That's what we get. And that's what I told him. I said, "That's that's that's what you get." So good when you say yes to Jesus. You get a peace that passes all understanding. Doesn't matter what your circumstances are, you can have peace in the midst of all of it. It was really cool. It was just a really real conversation with a guy who works at a local grocery store. Wow. Yeah. I talked to a gal. So, one of my phone calls was to a gal who's 80 years old 80 who got in that river freezing cold water on a freezing cold day in the pouring rain who lives an hour away. Yeah. Who lives on a horse ranch an hour away and I'm hearing her story and when I called her, her number showed up as Alabama. So, I'm like, "Hey, tell me your story." Like, I see her address is an hour away. Yeah. I see your phone number is from Alabama.
What's going on? She's 80 crazy 80 years old and she decided that it's not too late for me to still be obedient to the Lord to take my next step and good and she explained to me she's had a very very rough life and she I mean I I she hasn't given me permission to share her story but I'll just share just pieces. She said after her fourth husband died 15 years ago, she moved back back to Oregon from Alabama and she knew that she needed to take her faith more seriously, but didn't know where or how. And she said her youngest granddaughter came to Jouri and changed her life at this church. And so she's like, "Wow, if it changed her life, Wow.
Maybe this is what I need." Yeah. So it was a grandchild. Wow. And not just a grandchild, a grown grandchild. Well, that same granddaughter got baptized the same day as well. Nice. I was talking to someone on our staff who knows that granddaughter who was shocked that she's following Jesus. Couldn't believe it because she went to school with her and she's like, "Oh boy." Wow. This person was far from God. So good. I mean, wasn't walking with the Lord. This that's a movement. Yes. God God breaking generational curses that the devil was trying to perpetuate for generations to come. Yet the Lord gets a hold of them. And by the power of Jesus Christ, saving a grandchild, saving a grandmother and just seeing families
change, just go all in. And they don't have it figured out outside of saying, "This is what I know I need. I need Jesus." Yeah. And which gives you peace. You know, your life isn't going to be fixed by going all in, but you're sure going to have a lot of peace and a lot of joy. Talk about not being fixed. One of the coolest baptisms of the day was little Elijah. Mhm. Who's got cerebal palsy. Yeah. He's got cerebopal palsy. He's unable to walk. He's he's uh you know um stuck in a wheelchair, you know, for his life. And yet, I'll never forget the day he raised his hand in church to give his life to Jesus. You know, it was it was earlier this year and I I was leaning into this invitation altar call moment. Who wants
to believe in Jesus? And hands were raised and I paused and I said, "Come on, I want to really make sure is there anyone else that wants to believe in Jesus?" And you know, there's certain phrases I'll say, "It's never too late with God. It's never too You're never too young to give your heart to Jesus." I and and this little hand went up and I saw the hand go up and I saw the hand was still sitting down. Oh, and it was that day, Kara, that that's what why it's embedded in my mind. I I don't ever do this, but that day I said, "Stand up and be bold for Jesus. If you're really going to follow Jesus, don't just raise your hand. I want every person to stand up." And his little hand was raised and he was still sitting down. [clears throat] And I said, "Little little man, you know, young man back there, the child who's got his hand raised. Stand up." Yeah. I had no clue he was in a wheelchair.
I know. And then his dad took him. Yeah. Grabbed both wheels of the wheelchairs and raised him up in the air. And my gut like sank. I was like, I didn't know he was in a wheelchair, you know? And he raised him up. And there was a sacred moment that happened in that service. you know, this was 6 months, 9 months, I don't remember how long ago that this was quite a while ago. But I just it was it might have been a year ago. It was a while ago. But he he gave his life to Jesus. And I went up to him afterwards and I talked with him. I prayed with him. And it was a bonding moment for me and that family. And Elijah and I became really close friends that day and we wept together. He loves me. I love him. I've been to his birthday party [snorts] and I know he loves Jesus, you know, and he's been believing and following Jesus. He's he he's got
a whole life ahead of him of of challenges. But his dad brought him down in his arms just like he raised him that day when I said, "Stand up, you know, child, you know, and just like his dad raised him up in the wheelchair, his dad brings him in his arms down into the river." Oh, so beautiful. And he was smiling and dunked his whole body under the water. Yeah. And it was so beautiful. So beautiful. So beautiful. I just imagine the heavens were erupting in a roar of excitement and praise and glory to God because hell lost another one. You know, just the the picture of what baptism represents, the cleansing of our sins, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. a public proclamation of our faith.
Just just beautiful. So good. I mean, one of the things that struck our whole staff was uh the the young man with Down syndrome who was just so stinking excited to get baptized. I think that was one of my favorite baptisms of all time that I watched. I he was on the screen when we were in that in that time where I um explained that you know where the worship team is praising and the rain is pouring down and he's one of the ones that got baptized and he came out of the river and he's just like this you know like with a smile on his face. Oh my goodness. He was shocked by the water but then he's like [laughter] we don't know his story at all but man how cool is that? That's so kingdom. It it was amazing. I mean, there were so many parents who got baptized with their children and spouses that got baptized with their spouses.
I mean, it was of all the things that could happen, you know, like I was looking for a number, God was looking at the names. He He was looking at who who's going to go all in. And you mentioned the cowboy boots and it was that guy. He was just like, we tried to talk him out of it like, "Bro, those are going to be wet for weeks, you And he's like, he literally he looked me in the eyes and said, "I don't care." I mean, he's like, "I'm I I'm all in. I'm surrendered." I mean, people that got baptized that day care, when I got out of the water, I my toes were numb for 45 minutes. Well, and it it it continued to rain all the way through us cleaning up. I mean, we put ponchos on. Like, it rained from when exactly when the service was ending.
Yep. until we were done cleaning up and gone, it rained. We've never had anything like that before. Never. It was so symbolic. And then, you know, when we debriefed with the team on Tuesday and we celebrated stories, everyone had such a good attitude. It was like there was joy in the atmosphere. It wasn't like frustration of like, man, I can't believe we have to do this. I totally agree. And it could have been because like I I know that the the kids didn't get to, you know, enjoy the bounce houses the way they have in the past. And the food trucks probably didn't get as much, you know, business. And I mean, it was different. It was different. But I I actually I I really feel like God's hand was so on it that it's exactly how he wanted it. It was, you know, this year we really um leaned into
uh something much beyond just the celebration aspect of it, which is a thing. Spiritual weight, not just an event. Yeah. No, he wants us to celebrate. So celebrating is good. It's not a bad thing to have bounce houses and food trucks and all the things. Not bad. But I do think this year there was a a particular emphasis on revival, on spiritual depth that I think God met us there. It just it wasn't the way we were expecting it. But isn't that just God? Yeah. It's almost like he said, "I don't want you to make this about inflatables." Exactly. I don't want you to make it about I feel like he told us that months before the actual event. Come on. And you're you're exactly right, Kara. And if we're going to have our hands open in full surrender, God, you give, you take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Then take away what you need to take away. Strip it away, Lord. We're here for it. We're strip it away. And it it was so beautiful and
powerful. And the people that did show up that day, they were hungry. They were thirsty. and and God met their spiritual need. I I I pray that this Thursday at pursuit night will be an anticipation of a deep desire. I I pray that Sunday will be the same thing. I pray that this is actually I asked for a movement of God and I believe that the movement has begun. I agree. You know, it may not have happened the way I thought, but how good is God that his ways are so much higher than our ways, so much [clears throat] better. So, you know, we've talked about the rain leading up to the event. We've talked about the day after the blue skies. Uh we've talked about uh just some of the baptism stories. There's certainly more. If they come to mind, we could share some more. But I I want to just go to a place that like we we experienced some uh you know,
some opposition or uh I'm going to just be blunt with I I don't think this is an exaggeration. Some discrimination. Yeah. Leading up to this event. And and I'm going to well the day of as well. We we harassment might be a strong word, but I felt a little bit harassed by government officials. We have to work through the proper channels to do an event like this. We always have. We've always paid our permits. We've always done due diligence. And when you pay a permit like this, friends, you're required to do certain things. So, for example, we have to bring in our own toilets, and we pay for those toilets. We have to bring our own trash cans and not use any trash cans at the park. We pay for those trash cans and the removal of the trash. I mean, we we have to bring in our own water. We pay for all the water stations. I mean,
there's a lot of aspects of an event like this that people don't understand. Uh people want to criticize us. Oh, a church is going public and they can't do this. No, we're doing the same thing anyone else would be required. And it's based upon the amount of people you expect to come. So, the more people that are there, the more we have to do that, the more money the permits are, the more uh aspects we have to do. We have always followed protocol with the government entities. Yes. The Bend Parks and RA recreation district which is a government entity. The city of Bend which is a government entity and that that has to do with parking noise ordinances and so forth. This year we got so much push back from the Ben Parks and Recreation District. Yes, we did. They did not treat us with uh a willingness of wanting to see our event succeed.
Yeah. Frankly, and we've already shared this on this podcast and to the church, they we had a person through the district threaten us to cancel the event. Yeah. Literally tell us two weeks before the event, I will cancel your event. And we had to get a lawyer involved. Once the lawyer got involved, they rescended their threat. Uh [snorts] yet we still had this passive aggressive um uh harassment like you said. Well, even the day of even the day of. So, let let's talk about this. We do this event every year on Labor Day weekend. A part of that is most churches get low attendance on Labor Day weekend. We always do it the same Sunday, Labor Day weekend. Whatever date it falls on, it's Labor Day weekend. Now, you think about this Labor Day weekend. When does
the government take holidays? [laughter] Labor Day is one of the holidays that the government entities take off. It's a holiday weekend. Yes, we do this on a Sunday, which government typically entities aren't open on a Sunday. We had the government entities involved here, not only show up on Saturday, all day Saturday to make sure that we're doing things correctly and tell us what we're doing wrong when we weren't. Also show up all day on Sunday. Friends, we're talking government employees showing up on a holiday weekend on a Saturday and a Sunday. That does not happen. But it did happen to us. And not just one government entity. No, there were three. There were every aspect of the government entity. So Parks and Rec shows up, they tell us everything we're doing wrong.
Yeah. And it was like it was almost like at one point our office director who really like ran a lot of the the interaction between us and Ben Parks and Reck and made sure that we were doing things properly. Um, she got texted all day long with both Saturday and Sunday with every little nitpicky thing we're doing wrong. And at one point she's like, I'm pretty sure she's like up in a tree looking down with binoculars at [laughter] us because it was literally all day long. Any possible nitpicky thing she could nitpick, she did. And these are really silly things. I mean, we're not even talking like we're we're we're talking ridiculous things. For example, we have signs all throughout the park that say no dogs allowed per Bend Parks and Recreation
rules. That's what the signs say because, and I will declare this, they have had in our contracts in the past, and I'm going to have to look at this year's contract cuz I in the past, they've literally told us, you have to have signs in the grass. They made us a certain number of signs that we pay for. We make the signs. We have to put the signs in the proper places. Yes, they've told us how to sign. Then this year they said you can't have those signs up that say it's our rule. I know. That was one of the things she texted. So somehow the rules changed between a few years ago to now. And and they're telling us do not put our name on this sign that it's a rule. Now they have so many rules. The reason we had tents go away is we couldn't stake things in the ground certain depth levels. We
had to buy extra weights to weight them down. And we did have weights on everything instead of stakes because they wouldn't they had so many rules. And then all of a sudden that day they're like cover up the no dogs allowed sign. It's like this is wild. The little teeny tiny the the details of what they decided to do. Now leading up to the event, one of the things that you we were getting phone calls on Thursday, Friday leading up to it is the county the shoots county. So all of a sudden now the county is concerned with us going to a park. Kara, tell us what happened there. So, we still haven't quite got to the bottom of it, but somebody called on us and essentially triggered the Dashuites County to um call us and ask us for every single one of our food carts that are going to be out there. They wanted to they wanted permission to come to the event and do
an inspection, a health inspection on every single food truck that we had at the event. And and this is our 13th year. We've never never and so I talked to this gal on it was Thursday or Friday. I mean, we're talking days before the event and I said, you know, that's isn't that between you and the food truck? Like, why would you want to do an inspection at our event at a church service when they're trying to prepare for serving thousands of people? It just made no sense to me at all. And so, she backed down, but but then but they didn't back down because they showed up that day. G once again. Yeah. Government employees on a holiday weekend on a Sunday show up to do food inspections at a church service. Yeah. At food trucks that have nothing to do with us.
Um and you know she I got a phone call yesterday too that or you know this week too that I fielded that I'm going to meet with them and I you know I I apologized and said you know if we haven't followed proper protocol with that that is on us. However, Ben Parks and Rugg have have provided us for 13 years with a detailed checklist of every single thing that we have to do. This was not one of them. We've never been told that we have to contact the county health officials. So, we're we're trying to give you guys behind the scene glimpses of stuff you ordinarily wouldn't hear. This isn't just like we're having church. This is we're having to deal with government employees on top of yes praying with people on top of presenting the gospel on top of but I I mean we talked about this so many times the if the kingdom is advancing the enemy has to advance like the more we advance the more opposition we get.
It's it's in direct correlation like we should not be surprised at these things. No, we're not surprised. In fact, it gives us joy because God's word tells us these things will happen. Yeah. and and and on a global scale if we look at persecution um globally it's nothing% we're not getting beheaded uh we're you know Nigeria is experienced a rampant um you know assassination of the murder of Christians in Nigeria today in 2026. So, we're not comparing our persecution to global persecution. But what we are recognizing is the enemy does not like the disruption of the kingdom in our region. And when we say central Oregon shall be saved, God is doing a great work here. We're seeing this region uh start to experience revival. We're seeing hearts fully surrendered to the Lord. And the devil does not like it.
And we just proclaim the devil does not get the final say in this region. Amen. And we lifted the name of Jesus high in the middle of Bend, Oregon. and and Bend, Oregon does not like it. And we're not done yet. We've got some great things coming. In fact, this will be a great opportunity for just a real quick reminder. We've got the Kingdom Conference coming up. Yay. Let's go. Let's just take a quick commercial break. Okay. Love it. Hey, I'm looking for some hungry people. People that are hungry for the presence of God. Hungry for revival. Hungry to see our city changed. [music] Hungry to see Central Oregon changed. That's why we're hosting the Kingdom Conference in November. We're looking for some hungry people to change [music] the world. It's time, a new great awakening. Sign up for Kingdom Conference today. Okay, Kara. So, I've just got to ask this question. Was Church in the Park worth it this year?
Oh, yeah. Is that even a question for sure? Was it worth it to you? Absolutely. So, when we talk about Kingdom Conference coming up and all the hard work that's going to go into pulling off a conference, when we talk about all of the hard work that it was to pull off Church in the Park, it was not only worth it. I believe God was teaching us who he is. Yeah. Teaching us dependence on him, teaching us to pray, teaching us to fast. Yeah. I mean, I love this year that we incorporated fasting. Yeah. Me, too. I believe there was more than meets the eye. It was not an event. It was a lesson in disciplehip. a lesson in dependence, believing God's best, moving forward the kingdom of God in this region. Uh what would you say is one area that God taught you something regarding Church of the Park this year?
I think it's something that he's been teaching me for a couple months now, which is like to expect him to move, but with no expectation as far as what it's going to look like. Amen. Like we don't know. We don't know. We can pray and fast and and and go to war and ask the Lord for victory over this region, for salvation, for people going allin and and for a movement, for revival, and we don't know because we don't manufacture it. H like we don't know because it's not ours to know. It's not ours to manufacture. It's ours to um petition for. Yep. That is our responsibility, but the outcome is his. Revival can't be manufactured. So, if we were to apply this to the listeners, if they've made it this far in the podcast, whatever you need God to move in in your life can't be manufactured.
You've got to invite God into it. You've got to be disciplined to the point of prayer, fasting. You've got to be willing to surrender it all to God. And when he shows up, there might be rain. There might be opposition, right? There might be some difficulties in your life, but God's going to do it. Amen. And I just I I I envision this, Kara. This is like the picture I see here is you dancing in the rain with so many other believers celebrating what God is doing. You could not have predicted that. No. Two weeks earlier. No. If someone had told me that was what was going to happen, I would be probably depressed. I'd be bummed. Yeah. I I would not I don't know. I I'm glad I didn't know. Come on. Cuz in the moment it just happened and it was beautiful. Me too. If God would have told us, here's what you're going to have have to face. Rain the whole night before.
Here's what you're going to have have to face. Opposition from this area or that area. I mean, at the end of the day, man, God is so good. He's teaching us to depend on him, to trust in him. This is his church. Matthew 16, Jesus says, "I will build my church." You You're not building it. No, I'm building you. Yes. You are my church. I'm building in you who I am, and not even the gates of hell shall prevail. Amen. You know, and the gates of hell did not prevail against us. Isaiah said, "No weapon formed against you shall prosper." It is true. Amen. You know, the enemy could try to create the weapons and try to come against us, but at the end of the day, God always works it together for good. We love him and he's conforming us into his image. So, Kingdom Conference, Kingdom Conference is coming. I'm so excited. It's I with just the whole formation of what God's doing. The
Pacific Northwest, there are pockets of revival happening and Bend, Oregon is one of those pockets. It's it's happening over in the um Tri Cities up at the border of Washington and Oregon. It's happening in Vancouver. It's happening up in Seattle, Spokane. We're we're seeing it happen and it's happening in the region of Central Oregon. Amen. We have made a proclamation, Central Oregon shall be saved. And we're seeing it and we're going to continue to advance. We're going to continue to believe in greater things. And Kingdom Conference is just one of those. We declared kingdom come in 2026. And this is going to be really the bow on believing for more. Yep. Inviting other voices to participate and seeing what's going to happen. Yeah. I I approach Kingdom Conference with the same open hands that we did with Church in the Park. Something serious is going to happen.
There's going to be baptisms coming out of it. There there will be people saved. Yep. Just like the hundreds that were saved at Church in the Park. Uh there will be people filled with the Holy Spirit that have never been filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't know. Maybe there'll be healings. Maybe this is where the shaking comes. It's going to be our builder. I don't know what to expect. So, if you haven't gotten your ticket, get it. Get your tickets. And you know, there there's a high probability. Mark this. It's September now. Kingdom Conference is coming in November. I'm predicting, Kara, it's going to rain that week. [laughter] Okay, we'll take it. Who knows? It's November, so knowing us, it's going to be the biggest snowfall. Central Oregon has ever seen in November. It might be. Who knows?
The good news is we'll be inside either way. And you know, we barely scratched the surface today. I don't know if we're going to be able to talk about this in future podcasts, but at least we went down in history declaring just some of the behind the scenes, some of our conversations, some of what God got to do. I tell you, if anybody's been wondering what I've been drinking here, [laughter] this this is not urine. It's not Mountain Dew. This is what all the cool kids are drinking these days. I've got a teenager in the house. It's Bloom Energy Drink. We are not sponsored by them. This is not an endorsement. So, if there's bad stuff in this, I don't know. But Bloom Energy Drink is what I'm drinking, my friend. So, if you've been wondering for the last hour, what in the world is Pastor Keith drinking? Um, and it's actually it's decent. You would not like it. It's very sweet. Um, but there's I definitely would some type of bad stuff in this that I'm I'm drinking um to make I get through the day. It tastes a little bit like Mountain Dew. It's strawberry
watermelon, so I don't know why it's yellow. Strawberry watermelon is what I'm drinking. So, not what I would have expected. Yeah, it it's it's it's been good and it's been a good conversation. Kara, we're grateful for those who have made it this far. If if don't don't stop now. I want to pray with you believing God's best. Lord, we have been praying for revival and not just in the sense of stirring up something manufactured where it's a church service. We want it in our hearts. We want to be fully surrendered. We thank you for the 110 people that got wet this past Sunday. And now we say, God, we want more. We want to continue. We want those 110 to multiply. We want to see, God, the [snorts] multiplication miracle of disciples being made in this region, not just here, but those that went home to Minnesota, those that went home to Rhode Island. And we are believing God your best. And so, I thank you for what you did at Church in the
Park. Thank you for holding off the rain. But I also say thank you because you're faithful in the rain. We don't know what you did in that, God, spiritually, uh, what what you held off and what you did even more, but we just know your hand was on all of this. So, Lord, we thank you for hearing our prayers and answering it. Lord, we pray for all those that work at Ben Parks and Recreation District, all those that work at the county government agencies, and even in the city of Bend. And we say, Lord, Central Oregon shall be saved. We want every human being to know that they're made by you and loved by you. For those that listen have been listening to this podcast, God, I pray their faith was increased today. That they would trust you fully in whatever it is they're going through, their marriage, their family, their finances, their health. God, may we trust you and see you work greatly. I pray in Jesus mighty name today. In Jesus name. Amen.
And amen. Hey, thanks for joining us on Confessions of Pastor. We love you all and we look forward to seeing you next
