Above from top: September 31, 2021 Kathryn Mattis
moments after baptism. Brenton Irving shouts with joy
following a baptism. Left: Members of the worship band
Agape Tribe lead the tent worship October 31, 2021, left
to right, John Rexroad, Sara Hauser-Bonnett, Brent Naylor.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com 25
WBM
Speakers like Bennett commented, if you are still here in December,
I will be back.
On the ninth night, Green delivered a simple message of the
revelation of Jesus Christ. A great deal of those present, including
many leaders, were baptized or rebaptized. Setting aside his camera,
Hubbard, his wife and son were among them. (The next morning his
daughter and mother who had been watching live in Vermont were
also rebaptized.)
That night, a continuation of the Tent of Meeting was announced
with a reduced worship and speaker schedule of 6-9 nightly, with
a goal of maintaining a schedule of around the clock prayer and
worship.
“There’s a lot more to come, we have only just begun,” Hauser-
Bonnett says. “Revival is happening, it is here, it starts with us, it’s like
this little wildfire that started ramping up, bringing people together.
Covid really tried to break that. We just needed to press in.”
It’s hard to estimate over the course of the tent’s first 41 days how
many lives were touched.
Daniel Christian, the church’s technical administrator and one
of the worship leaders, saw the continuous days of worship change
others.
“It normalized daily worship as a lifestyle of worship,” he says. “It
showed people they could maintain this lifestyle and still be able to
accomplish their tasks, work, family and a lifestyle of worship at the
same time.”
Many wondered out loud, will this turn out to be the long-awaited
fulfillment of the Eastern Carolina Phenomenon?
“I think it’s a seed for what God’s about to do. Something big is
coming and it’s time to get ready,” says Nick Thornhill.
At L.O. Sanders’ Deliverance Evangelistic Tabernacle in Jackson-ville
in 1975, international prophecy teacher Derek Prince foresaw a
great revival in the region, greater than the 1904-1905 Welsh Revival,
which saw 100,000 people come to the Lord in the first year. Prince
prophesied the Lord would personally visit the region and declared
“There will be kings and leaders from the north, south, east, and west
that will come and study the Eastern North Carolina phenomena.”
What’s next? Hubbard is editing his hundreds of hours of footage,
and collecting stories of Jesus, healings and miracles. He has been
fundraising to produce self contained mini movies of God Stories he’s
collected.
“I think we’ve done a lot more than we think we’ve done,” Blake says.
The late fall temperatures dipped into the 40s at night. Pending
addition of heat, the church has moved back into the main sanctuary
and tent services are on pause. However, each day was livestreamed
and archived on the church’s YouTube channel.
And the tent? Sides are on, it’s waiting, and anyone can still go and
seek God.
“We left it up … people can go there. Just pull in and go in and
find a place of respite,” Hauser says. “I am already trying to set
my sights maybe on spring, there are the spring feasts. We’ll see.
The tent is rated for 90 miles an hour. The fire marshal gave us a
six-month permit. I am just waiting to see what the Lord does in the
future with it.”
Expectations remain high.
“If God can bring one Son or Daughter into repentance and back
in the kingdom, it was all worth it, “says Brenton Irving.