T-minus 5 days and counting until BeachFest is a reality!  So far, it has been a busy week of preparation here on the ground in sunny and HOT Myrtle Beach, SC.  Hard to believe it is nearly time to shake another city for Jesus Christ!

You don’t have to be here long at all to encounter a “local” or even a tourist talking about the festival.  It sure feels like people know it is coming and are really pumped up about it!  Everywhere I go, I hear something!   You can almost feel the momentum building with the buzz that is all over the Grand Strand Region!

Andrew touches down just shy of midnight tonight for a full week of activities prior to the festival.  Sunday morning, Andrew will preach at a local church and kick off a last chance counselor training among other things.  (Be praying for him because he’ll be running on limited sleep after arriving so late the night before!)   Then as the sun rises on Monday, the true mania of festival preparation begins!  The flat land of asphalt and grass will begin to resemble a festival site as the setup begins. In the meantime, we’ll have Andrew working on media interviews, fundraising efforts (you can help support BeachFest too here!) and just generally loving on the community we have been called to for this season.
 
As for the team, we still have lots of arrangements, appointments and things to finalize and there is so little time!  However, the sun is shining brightly (and I mean this literally! The heat index today was 115 degrees).  This could prove to be a scorching hot festival...and I don’t just mean Hawk Nelson’s band! 
 
The festival site, which is the former Myrtle Square Mall grounds, is 55 acres and pretty much perfect for a festival in a tourist town.  It is just a few blocks from both the beach and the main tourist drag!  However, since there used to be a mall smack dab in the middle of a parking lot...well, let’s just say there isn’t a whole lot of shade.  So we need to recruit you now to start praying for great clear weather with tolerable heat and humidity for all!  Be sure to specifically pray the rain away too!
 
It really has been exciting to see the Lord provide mightily and work amazing feats through committee chairs, volunteers, staff and the local churches!  But we’re far from done.  Every member of the local team (consisting of attorneys to surfboard builders) has done a great job of pulling everything together and now it’s time to finish the race strong.  After all...BeachFest will go live whether we are ready or not...in 5 wee little days...we always prefer ready.

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