Monday, March 23, 2009

Great concerts in Ballymena, Craigavon and Belfast!!

It never ceases to amaze me how the Spirit of God unites perfect strangers!  Here we are in a foreign land, learning the habits and dialects of a people we’ve only heard about, and meeting individuals we’ve never even seen… and yet we feel like family!  Only God and the shared passion we have for His kingdom can unite us in such a quick heartfelt way!  We are having some amazing concerts here in N. Ireland.. 

Our first concert was on Thursday night in Craigavon at the beautiful  Civic Center.  Start time, 8pm…  Seats lined the aisles of the overcrowded auditorium and anxious Irish folk filled them with great anticipation!  We were shocked to see such a large crowd at our first ever North Ireland performance!  Our promoter Ronnie Dawson plays with a group called the “Drop Inn Country Band” and they started the evening off with about 30 minutes of great music each night! The guys in the band were so kind and tirelessly helped out with sound equipment every night… They were so much fun to watch and did a great job, and we enjoyed their humor and hearing the different accents on some popular songs we all know… “Because He Lives“, “I’ll Fly Away“, “Try A Little Kindness”, to name a few, and the crowd sang along and had a great time with them!  By the time we got up, they were already warmed up and ready for more!  We sang 45 minutes, then took an intermission where we invited the audience to meet us and give us song requests.  We were overwhelmed by the songs that they knew and sang another 45 minutes to accommodate them.  Here are some of the most requested:

“Stand Still, He Understands My Tears, Yours and Mine, Sweet Holy Spirit, Heroes, He Never Failed Me, If That Don’t Make You Wanna Go, Walk On“…  to name a few… 

We sang what seemed to us a long time and at the end of the night, with pictures and autographs and visiting, we were,, to say the least , a “wee bit tired”!  J  But it was a great night, and we were so happy to be singing to an audience who seemed anxious to listen! The former mayor of Craighaven was there and gave us a tour of the Mayors Chambers after the show.  (He) Councilor Robert Smith has become a friend of the Isaacs for life!! 

Friday night’s concert was in a town called Ballymena (they would pronounce town like “tine”- all the words with the “ow” sound - sound like long “I“- (now=nie, how=hi, down=dine)… .. Its so cute, and a little hard to get used to!  Anyway, it was in the Seven Towers Leisure Center and the crowd was nearly full!   It was a wonderful evening and seemed the most spiritual of all 3 shows. The anointing fell on Sweet Holy Spirit, and before the concert ended, we were praying together and worshiping with tears abundantly flowing everywhere.  It was a fantastic night!

Our last performance in N. Ireland was in the  capital, Belfast, at the Spires Centre.  This was a large auditorium and was beautifully colored with careful architectural design.  It was our biggest crowd yet.. 800 excited fans, most coming for the first time ever to hear us, and around 100 who came back for seconds.   It was a spectacular night and seemed like the perfect finale for 3 amazing concerts. 

To wind up our time here, we were invited to worship at Pastor Dawson’s church last night.  He asked us to sing a few songs and Mom gave her testimony.  Then he gave a wonderful message and impressed on the people to come to the Lord.  One sweet 13 year old boy came up and prayed with him and hugged us all after the service telling us with teary eyes that he got saved J !!! That was worth all the hassle at immigrations in itself!! Thank God the Spirit is the same everywhere we go!  After church we headed over to the Dawson’s home (where we also ate a delicious home cooked meal of lasagna, chicken pot pie and 5 different desserts the first night we came!) Then last night we had, believe it or not, Chinese food!  Oh, and we also had KFC, Subway, and Dominos pizza this week..  Some things are just to good to stay in one country! LOL..  We fell in love with the entire Drop Inn Church and the precious Dawson family (especially  2 month old Caleb and 4 month old Daniel) !!  Thank you all for all your hospitality.  Come see us in the good ole USA any ole time!


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