Day 1 - EMERGE Taiwan First Session kicks off!!!

11 July, 7 AM/7:30AM - A humid Wednesday dawns while we arrived at NTU Indoor Stadium - way before the first session 10AM.

Teams sprung into full actions - touching up all that is needed. Ushers, Security, TV, Chorus Board, Sound, Lighting in their respective positions - final checks were done.

The event venue right before the first session!

While all these work were being done, a long queue already begun forming outside the closed doors. This year - over 200 churches in Taiwan have participated in Emerge 2007. This means an expected number of over 5000 people will be swarming into the venue.

As you know, the Taiwanese people always give their best attitude even while queuing! No shoving around, no pushing - just patient waiting and being enthusiastic at the same time.

The first session begun at 10 AM promptly - Ps. Kong led the church to pray up the atmosphere in the midst of singing 'One Life One Love'. Compared to last year, the spiritual atmosphere can be felt tangible even in this first session!

It simply meant that the churches in Taiwan are more hungry for God than ever.

The church listened attentively while Ps Kong opens spiritual eyes to understand how youth Christians must rise up to impact the school campuses for Christ and how we must believe in the power of one. He shared the Word referring to the account of Shamgar in the Bible.

1 PM - The session closed with the church being called to be ever more fervent in prayer and a true dedication of lives to the Lord once again.

Eric at Camera 6 - top of the stadium.
This is taken during the Word Power session. (During lunch time)
Just imagine a fully packed stadium before this!

Following a short lunch break - Word Power contest begun! This ended at about 3 PM.

At this current moment, the rehearsals are being held. The audience had to clear the hall and requeue outside closed doors (even in the midst of rain). No complaints no whys. Just like last year, they armed with umbrellas, standing in the queue - all awaiting for today's 1st night session beginning 7PM! Taiwanese hottest band - F.I.R. will be performing in a special segment! Praise God - two of them (Faye 飛 and Real 阿沁) are born-again Christians - shining for the Lord in the entertainment world!

Rehearsals ongoing! Audience has cleared the hall!
In case you are wondering, Parade of Schools is a contest
whereby exciting cheerleading stunts are performed!

No time wasted - Daphne and Grace busy preparing the
bulletin newsletters for tonight's session!

Meanwhile, queues of people formed from all entrances.
You can see that the queues snakes all the way
from level 3 (venue) to ground level along the stairways.
It was raining heavily just before the final session
- a good relief from the summer heat!

The great 5000 over crowd begun to form as the time
inches toward 7 PM.

When the session ended at 11 PM, Eric (while Grace and
Daphne already ate!) went out with
few of his TV frens. 小李子is a popular porridge "buffet" place
with tasty dishes to choose from!

So that's all for Day One! Do stay tuned!