Winter Jam 2014!

Last year, the Winter Jam tour came to Fort Wayne on a frigid Sunday in January. The crowds were huge...so huge, in fact, that the arena filled up, an overflow room filled up, and hundreds more didn't even get in the building, after waiting outside for hours. Ryan and I worked the concert together and had a great time.

This year, Winter Jam was scheduled to come to Fort Wayne on a Thursday, and I wondered how and if that would affect the crowd. The concert draws a huge teen crowd, and it's hard for some students to get away on a school night, with classes running late for some {making up snow days an hour at a time} and extracurricular activities and such.

I wasn't scheduled to work it, but filled in for one of my co-workers, who had a scheduling conflict. I was excited about the lineup but so sad to be apart from Ryan for the night. It just wasn't practical for him to drive all the way to Fort Wayne after work. :(

Thought I'd share with you some of my favorite moments!

Ran into my friends, the Hancocks, while we were there! See that cutie on the left? I was there when she was born! Two years ago, right?? :)

This is one of my newest favorite groups: Love and the Outcome.

They're relatively new on the music scene; Ryan and I first saw them last fall, I think, when they were a last minute replacement for an opening act at a concert we worked. They're a husband and wife duo from Canada who hit the road after selling everything they had to go into full time music ministry.

And they are t.a.l.e.n.t.e.d. Any person who can play the keyboard, the drums AND sing all at the same time has my respect!

They performed their radio single, which I love: He Is With Us.

A little later in the concert, during a love offering, they came back out on stage and did a series of worship choruses. Really, really enjoyed them.

Newsong hosts Winter Jam, and I was so glad they did their classic song Arise, My Love during their set. That song gets me every. single. time.

 If you click on the link to the song you'll see a video of the most amazing art that went along with the song. {Note: sound quality is TERRIBLE in that video, but watching the artist at work is worth putting up with the bad sound.}

This artist came on stage while they sang and painted {with his HANDS} the face of Christ.

Amazing.

Another of my favorite artists: Plumb. And I'd never seen her live before, so I was really excited that she was in the lineup.

Plumb {real name: Tiffany} has an amazing testimony of how God restored her broken marriage...and it was so beautiful to hear her tell what God had done for them.

I like all her songs, but Need You Now is one of my faves and I pretty much cried all the way through it that night.

And the other group I was so excited to see live {for the first time} was Tenth Avenue North.

My hands-down, all time favorite song of theirs is Worn. Cried all the way through that one too.

 

I thought this group was so sweet...their lead singer went up into the crowd and stood there for a while, singing right in the middle of all the people!

{See him? It's like a Where's Waldo picture.}



Even though it was a long day and a late night, it was such a beautiful night of worship.