Joy Isaguirre | Musings of a Blog Convert

Hillsong United Live in Manila was held at the Araneta Coliseum on May 26, 2008. As early as 4:30 in the afternoon, i’ve been receiving text messages from young people from different churches, asking me if i’m already in Araneta Center. The concert won’t start until 8:00pm but obviously most of the youth have already queued in line at the venue. Most of them got the upper box, lower box, and general admission tickets so they had to arrive early.

My brother and i were blessed to get patron tickets as early as February this year. Tickets to the concert sold like hotcakes and the Coliseum was jam-packed by the time we got there around 7:30pm. Texted the youth, several colleagues, and friends that i’ll be wearing a pink hat so they can easily pinpoint me from the crowd at the patron area. I guess it served its purpose because after the concert i was able to meet up with some of them. But before that, my brother and i got to talk with the sound engineering team and check out their awesome setup. The guy (forgot to get the name of the chap in the picture) from the Hillsong team was superbly talented and kind. Wish we could meet the rest of the Hillsong United team. Yeah, wishful thinking. hehe.

Sound Engineering Team

We were blessed and the excitement from the concert carried on way past midnight. Everyone was talking animatedly and laughing their hearts out, while having donuts and soda at the Araneta Center. We were all dead tired and half deaf but it was hard to call it a night. I guess the Hillsong team felt the same way because the concert lasted close to three hours.

To sum up the entire evening, allow me to quote what Joel Houston shared during the first part of the concert:

Well it’s good to see that you guys are crazy for Jesus as ever. God is doing a good thing across the earth, amongst His people. And uh, it’s such a blessing for us to be able to come and hang out with you guys, to see what God is doing in this place.

We have the opportunity to travel in so many places, to do what we are doing right now, serving people in so many places all over the earth. Sometimes i wish that everybody can see it, you know, that we are a part of something so much bigger, all over the world, you know. And the church is rising, and the church is getting stronger day by day.

Just bringing a huge fire that’s burning in our spirit. So we’re here in this building and it’s amazing that our hearts are joined with young people, all over the earth, from the islands, and every continent. We are brothers and sisters, who’s standing up and using their voice, making the choice to stand for Jesus Christ.

You stand in this room, and uh, you might feel really insignificant, you might feel like you don’t have anything to offer God, or have nothing to offer in this life but you know we’re all the same. Everybody. We all need Jesus.

I believe that tonight God will take a hold of this place. God will take a hold of our hearts, that we will not leave this place just so we have a nice worship experience. It’s amazing to jump around, it’s great, and it’s fun, and that’s it. But I believe the Spirit of God will arrest this place and we will be changed by His Spirit. With one faith we say that we will not leave this place the same as the way we came in. So I pray that you’ll be in that same place, that your heart will be open to God. His Spirit is here, His Spirit is here. Believe that God is in this place. We’re gonna sing, and we’re gonna worship, and we will give everything we have for Him. For His glory, for His purpose and the people say, “Amen!”

Amen.