BEATS Review

That was the question release:potential asked a venue full of young

Christians in King’s College London Student Union on Saturday, May 30.

We spent an evening highlighting the reality of Christian persecution in today’s world through live music, powerful dance, multimedia and interactive experiences. The night kicked off with Surrender

and their powerful track My Refuge which brought to light the desperate situation in the tiny African nation of Eritrea. Between two and three thousand Christians are imprisoned in Eritrea at the moment. Even as you sit reading this, there are people held in shipping containers because they

refuse to sign a piece of paper saying they will give up Christ. K.I.D and Favour wrote their powerful lyrics after a meeting with Christian Eritrean leader Berhane who shared about his life and how persecution had affected him.

The full track of My Refuge can be downloaded from www.releaseinternational.org/current. Surrender was followed by a dance troop that magnifies Jesus through their choreography. Re:Birth Dance dominated the stage and engaged the audience through their moves - and literally did not

miss a BEAT!

  The night took an intimate, informal turn when everyone sat

  down on the floor to listen to stories from our persecuted

  family across the world. Release:potential shared about the

  situations in Eritrea and in Pakistan and the way Christians are

  being severely mistreated in both places.

  As the 3-minute snippet of the Bruised:Not Broken DVD

  played, a sense of unity swept through the venue as we

  shared feelings of anger at injustice, compassion for our

  family and empowerment as we began to understand

the weapon of prayer we’ve been entrusted with.

The bass kicked in and the amps were at full blast as [dweeb]

rocked their set. The lead singer, Tim Alford, spoke of how he’d

read about Pastor ‘Bike’ in Release magazine and how his story had

challenged him to find out more about persecution in China.

Jahaziel spoke from personal experience as he told of the hospitality

and love he was shown by his Christian family in Pakistan. He

delivered a challenging message as he encouraged us to embark in

spiritual warfare on behalf of our brothers and sisters who face

such appalling circumstances because of their faith.

As people were leaving, you could see that those who may have

expected ‘just another gig’ had been impacted by the

truths they’d heard. We were encouraged by the amount of people

who asked to sign up, and also those who came to speak to us

at the release:potential stand personally.

Everyone who attended, including all the artists and organisers, was given a bag packed full of resources which included the Bruised:Not Broken DVD, plus the book Tortured For Christ, written by Release founder Richard Wurmbrand.

For future release:potential events keep checking the events page!