MY DAUGHTER AND I ATTENDED THE 2023 ASBURY REVIVAL:
Please don’t hate on it!
My daughter, Journey Grace, and I attended the 2023 Asbury Revival on Saturday, February 18th.
As a kid, I grew up on a dairy farm in Cave City, Kentucky, the home of Mammoth Cave near Glasgow, Kentucky. I left Kentucky in 1989 for Liberty University and later in 1992 to Dallas Theological Seminary, before being called to Colorado Springs in 1996 with the Southern Baptist Convention to start Vanguard Church, where I am still pastoring, today.
Every year, I make a trek back to Kentucky to visit my family and friends. Months ago I had planned to be in Kentucky to see my family and attend a Kentucky Wildcats basketball game in Lexington, Kentucky. It just so happened that the revival at Asbury coincided with the time I was in Kentucky.
I suggested to Journey Grace we visit the revival at Asbury after the game. We arrived around 5:30pm after the game in Lexington just 23 miles from Wilmore, Kentucky. The road leading to Wilmore is a two lane back country road that twists and turns like back roads do in Kentucky. As we got closer to Wilmore, the traffic picked up. As we arrived at Asbury, cars and trucks lined the country road sprawling for miles. It was an encouraging sight to see.
We parked and walked and walked to get to the line that had formed to get in the Hughes Chapel. The line stretched literally for a mile or more. We later learned on social media there were 25,000 people at the revival that day on the 18th. We also learned Chick-fil-A came by and fed everyone earlier in the day.
As we arrived to the lengthy line, three young women had a portable sound system set up on the grassy area near one of the administrative buildings and shared instructions with us. They said, if anyone was Gen Z to come to them directly and they would walk them to a different line and get them in sooner. I knew, before we arrived, that this was the case, but I wanted to go anyway for my Gen Z daughter to get into the service, even if I never did.
My daughter and I text back and forth, she got in about 30 minutes into the process. I remained in the regular line and got to know a myriad of people from all over the area and even other parts of the world. It was truly refreshing and amazing to behold the zeal and intensity that everyone demonstrated, as they all braved the cold temperatures, especially as the sun went down.
Periodically different people would leave the auditorium and walk down the long line of people waiting to get in and share testimony of what was going on inside and how the Holy Spirit visited them. One guy said he stood in line for 8 hours to get in and it was worth every minute of it. Another young woman was walking down the street with tears streaming down her face talking with exuberance on the phone with someone of how God had visited her and spoke directly to her. It was obviously life changing for her!
As night fell and darkness descended, the line slowed, but the energy and anticipation grew. I reached a point where I couldn’t feel my feet or hands from the cold and then eventually my body from the waist down was numb. It didn’t matter to me; I felt the power and energy. From the livestream being cast in the grassy area, you could see and hear the transformation of the Spirit moving and descending on people.
You could see and hear people moving in and out of the different chapels where either the service was being broadcast and or other live events were occurring. It felt to me like a county fair. It had that kind of joy and life to it, that took me back to my childhood days in Kentucky. It reawakened in me also memories of tent revivals I attended as a kid. The energy was palatable, fresh, vibrant, inviting, and simple. It was what I assume Peter, James, and John felt like on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was fellowship on mission. It was so life giving to see so many people especially young people seeking after the heart of God.
One man who attended said, “How can anyone condemn this? Seeing young people weeping, confessing, repenting, and calling out to God, there’s nothing better!”
While I waited in line, the guy behind me was from Indiana. He drove a few hours to be a part. The couple in front of me were from Frankfort, Kentucky. I am grateful for the handwarmers they gave me. We passed the hours getting to know one another. I have stood in a lot of lines, none more significant than that one!
I knew going in that Zach Meerkreebs had given a message in chapel and this was seen as the spark that launched this massive outpouring of God’s Presence. I have known Zach for many years. He is now a sincere follower of Jesus, but many years ago I remember him as an unbelieving Jew who was led to Christ by Joe Shulman, Zach’s soccer coach and member of our church, Vanguard. One of our Vanguard Pastors, Alan Briggs, was also a key part of discipling Zach.
I wasn’t going to bother Zach knowing his hands were full with all that was happening, but I text Joe and he encouraged me to reach out to him, so hesitantly, I did.
Zach was home that night taking a break from revival and ministering to his family. He was bummed we couldn’t connect. I told him, “No worries. I am here for my daughter to experience this, it doesn’t matter if I get in.” He was very kind and said to me:
“Next time you are around…let me buy you dinner as a big thank you! You sowed these seeds into me, brother. You created a lot of space for me.”
My response:
“It was a team effort- Joe, Big Al, and other Vanguardians! You are a Vanguard in this!”
(A little bird told me Oscar Tschiebwe, current Kentucky Wildcats basketball player, had been coming to pray with the students of Asbury as well. He’s the Tim Tebow of college basketball. Go Wildcats!)
What a glorious night it was for my family! God spoke to my daughter Journey Grace. She felt called to step out of her comfort zone and do something she didn’t think she would ever do. She sent a text:
Hi, I am at Asbury College right now and i don’t know if you have seen anything about it, but God is creating a revival. Jesus loves you and is chasing after you. God desires you and He has a specific plan for you. He WANTS you and He loves you. He is moving and He will move in and with you if you let Him. He loves you, I love you. I know you might not like this, but God has so much for you than this. let Him move. His heart breaks for the pain you feel, so let Him be your hiding place and your rock. I pray you find peace in God
The next day I sent this to Zach:
I want to share how God used this Asbury Revival in my family last night. I never got in. I watched on the screen outside, but my youngest daughter, Journey Grace, got in, she is almost 16. She stayed for a few hours and worshiped and prayed.
Last night in the chapel God spoke to JG and she sent a text to someone dear to us…
Zach, thank you for being faithful and stewarding where God called you and what God has called you to do, our family was blessed by God last night through it. It was a Divine and defining moment in my almost 16 year old’s life and future and we pray for our wayward loved one, may revival swell in the days ahead in this Divine moment.
Holiness unto the Lord!
It amazes me how God brings everything full circle.
God called us from Kentucky to Colorado. Our church has gotten to see 3333 people make a public profession of their faith in Jesus and follow Him in believer’s baptism. Our Vanguard Church community got to love on Zach for a few years. He was one of those 3333, thanks to Joe Schulman! God then called Zach and his family back to my motherland and God used Zach to birth a revival that deeply impacted hundreds of thousands, including my family at one our greatest and darkest points of pain.
I know a bit about Zach and Kristin’s story and I know their faithfulness has cost them greatly in the pain of their lives, too. Thank you Zach and Kristin for your faithfulness to fight through the darkness!
I am so grateful for the faithfulness of God to use Zach. I am so grateful for the outpouring of revival that we as a pastor’s family have already experienced in the deep dark pain of our lives. We pray that the ripple effects of this will not just be temporary but long lasting and everlasting and impact the entire globe before it is over.
Please don’t hate on what is happening in Wilmore, Kentucky. This place is electric with God’s Presence and it has sparked a revival and a renewal in the hearts of a new generation who long to see God move, again, in miraculous ways.
May revival sweep across our land, our nation, and our world for the glory of Jesus and our good! And may God call missionaries to the field, pastors to the pulpit, and church planters to break the hard soil of unbelief and unleash a new movement of church plants led by Gen Z for Jesus’ glory!
Come Lord Jesus and unleash a new move of your Presence, we ask, in Jesus name!
Holiness unto the Lord!
We pray, Lord, heal our land! (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Keep it simple!
Keep it real!
Keep it going in Jesus’ Name!
Blessings,
Pastor Kelly
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