After leaving the morgue, the participants were taken on a journey through the last 59 minutes of each person's life and what would await them in eternity.
This year, I was in the heaven scene, directed by these 2 dear friends of mine - Kathy and Mary Ellen. They did a magnificent job!!
Behind the curtains of heaven, Mary Ellen and RJ would run the music and sound. There was a tv monitor so they could watch for cues. They chose wonderful music. All night long, we would be bathed in worship!
The cast took turns having breaks behind the curtain also.
After the audience left the hell scene, they would be greeted in heaven.
This wonderful lady has a tremendous testimony of her own journey with Christ!
We adored all the little kids who helped! It was hard work for them with late hours. Once someone who came through said some awful things to them. The next night we gathered around before we began and Doug gave the children (and us) encouraging words from the book of Timothy. It touched all of us.
Those of us at the banqueting table felt we had the best seats in the house. Infact, none of us wanted to take a break because if we gave up our seats, it was hard to get them back! Everyone loved to sit here. Not only did we have great food - grapes, bread dipped in oil, nuts, chocolate! - but we got to see the faces of the people who came in. We would pray for each person as they would watch the scene played out.
At the end of the scene, the audience became part of the act as "Jesus" would step up to each person and say a word to them and hug them. This is where we would see the Spirit move! People would break down and cry as "Jesus" would have just the right Scripture verse to share with each person. We would literally see people with hard faces, crumble. As "Jesus" would kneel to talk to the children, it was so sweet to watch them eagerly hug him so tightly around his neck. Many times the children were brought to tears too. And I've never seen so many grown men cry. Doug and Ryan would often share how God would place words in their mouths that they knew came only from God.
There were 3 groups of Chinese who came through (the first group had head sets for translation), also an Hispanic group with headsets and translator, and 3 groups of deaf persons with their own signer to translate what was said. We were all so touched to watch these dear people filled with such wonder and happiness as they watched the story.
I remember one group that came through. Hard faces. Disbelieving faces. But what joy to find out later that all of them accepted Christ!! In one youth group, 16 of the 18 did. There were 203 people who gave their lives to Jesus - and that is of those we know of. I'm sure there were those who perhaps did not want to raise their hand, or perhaps made a decision later. We did hear of one who did the next morning. 130 people also rededicated their lives.
At the end of each evening, Mary Ellen would play the song "When we all get to heaven". It had a western twang to it. I told her that country music will not be played in heaven! Ha! But it really was fun to praise Him for the promise of the joys of heaven! We would worship and dance each night at the end of the performance. It wasn't easy for these actors to do their act 24 times or for us to sit for 5-6 hours, but worth it all!!
On the very last night of Judgement House, Hell came to visit Heaven. That was the best night of all! All the demons and angels and saints all praising God together!!
I anxiously look forward to next year! "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." John 3:36
