Lighten was excited to participate in CreationFest 2022, a 5-day Christian music festival featuring many bands including the Newsboys, Dante Bowe, KB, Zach Williams, and We The Kingdom. Several speakers also were featured, including Alycia Wood.
Alycia was asked to speak six different times on topics ranging from “The internet says there is no God. You say there is. Who’s right?” to “#Itscomplicated: A look at Sexuality, Gender and me.” She also gave a devotional on the Sacrifice of Isaac in the Old Testament.
Q&A sessions after Alycia’s talks went on for a long time. In the case of sexuality and gender, it went on for more than two hours! Several parents opened up about their struggles with children who were identifying as gay, describing that they felt handcuffed as to how to respond. Others struggled with sexuality themselves or had close friends who were influencing them one way or another. Some asked questions about the character of God, such as “How can we trust He is morally good?” Alycia also had one-on-one conversations with people trying to figure out what they believed about God.
One of the greatest joys for Alycia was praying with a young girl to become a Christian. The girl said that she had never felt God before, but during one of the talks, felt God and said she wanted to be a Christian. Just a few days later she was baptized at CreationFest!
In addition, we had a lot of great engagement with people at our booth. It was a great opportunity to get to meet people face-to-face, hear their questions, and jot down their prayer requests. There were a lot of teenagers at the booth who seemed eager to find ways to answer the questions their friends are asking about Christianity. They seemed encouraged to have resources like our content to help them learn more as well as a place to send questions of their own. We also talked with a lot of parents who were excited to learn about Lighten’s resources because many of them were struggling with some of the questions their children are asking.
All in all, CreationFest was a tremendous experience where we saw God move, non-Christians become Christians, the unsure gain a better understanding, and Christians learning how to better engage with our culture.