Here’s what takes place at a WOW JAMBOREE,
Bike repairs, children games, snow cones, bounce house, women & men hair cuts, family portraits, face painting, women nails, kids costumes portraits, we give away basketballs, footballs, soccer balls, etc. all free. It promotes good community service and a family fun filled day. Will you sponsor and partner with us this year?
As the Gospel is preached, then God in Christ Jesus our Lord starts to draw men, women, and children to salvation through faith in Jesus. Hundreds are saved, rededicated to faith in the gospel of Christ and baptised.
WOW Jamboree draws happy crowd
Mont Pleasant field packed for annual Christian outing Sunday, July 17, 2011
By Bethany Bump (Contact)
Gazette Reporter
TrishCornaire of Duanseburg, left, paints the face of 4-year-old Zyana Mills ofTroy while Zyana's sister, Keyana, 3, right, watches during the WOW Jamboree in Schenectady on Saturday.
Just moments before Dino Ward took the stage in Mont Pleasant Middle School’s football field, he looked around at where he grew up and what he came from. He came from a low-income neighborhood, growing up on drugs and crime, watching his parents die from AIDS, and eventually ending up in prison.
But at Saturday’s WOW Jamboree, hosted by Koinonian Christian Ministries,Ward would rap on stage before hundreds of Schenectady residents as a new man. The event, which used to be hosted by Winning Our World International until funds dried up, drew in a large crowd of families, teenagers and seniors for a day of singing and activities despite the heat.
“I became a drug dealer, a violent gang banger and spent half my life in jail,” saidWard, a lifelongSchenectadyresident who raps under the name Last Day Soldier. “But during that time I was able to read the Bible. What I thought was life was any women I could have, any drug I could sell, any car I could buy. But it wasn’t. It’s kind of a blessing that god has called me to do his purpose because I come from this.”
The upbeat and positive event appealed to many different people, though.Martia Dunham watched singers behind the main stage at the event with her two children, Nah’lonand Nah’quan.
The Schenectady resident said she brought her kids to the event to get them out of the house and give them a chance to see their friends. “I wanted to let them know there’s positive things that are happening here,” said Dunham, 27. “Even though we’re in the ’hood doesn’t mean we have to act like we’re in the ’hood. This shows them different things in our community.”
Several hundred volunteers organized the Saturday event with plenty of activities for young and old. Lining the field were tented areas for kids’ crafts, face painting, family portraits, food and the popular singing audition table.
“There’s more stuff out here going on than people realize,” Dunham said. “They have a lot of things, it’s just what people pick and choose. But the parents have to actually step up and watch what their kids are doing.”
In one field tent, three WOW Jam volunteers listened to children and adults audition for the main stage. Five children under 14 and five people older than 15 were chosen to compete for one $100 prize.
“I think it’s wonderful,” saidTanyaHull, a city resident and WOW Jam volunteer. “It brings the community together, everything was free out here, plus the message is trying to encourage people to get a closer relationship with God. So it was a combination of both community and God.”
DianaRoberts, who is in her third year of volunteering at WOW Jamboree, said she helped out when Winning Our World International first hosted the event. Pastors Ted and Yolanda Ward gave the event a local feel when the international organization couldn’t host it in the Capital Region anymore.
“I think they’ve done an excellent job following through with this,
”Roberts said.
“It worked out well for us here.”
