Micah Sullivan and 12 of his students grades 7-12, from Northside Church, are in Orlando this week competing for a national Fine Arts Festival for the Assemblies of God. “I started as the Youth Pastor here in August of 2019, and one of things that our denomination does is a Fine Arts Festival. We took 14 of our students in March to the district competition, and out of those 14, 12 were selected and invited to compete in Orlando, Florida this August for the National Competition,” says Sullivan. “We have been funding and preparing to take the students there for the last several months, and they are all so excited,” says Sullivan.
“Before I was hired, the Church hadn’t competed in several years. So when I came in and was looking for something to do with the kids, they were all excited to jump back into the Fine Arts area. My wife and I are both worship leaders and musicians, and are both very artistic ourselves. If we were going to share our fine arts experience, we wanted to make sure that our students had some incredible talent. Let me tell you, they did!” said Sullivan.
“The 25 students that come every week are all crazy talented. It’s great to see them using their God given gifts to share with the Church and the community. The students who are going are competing in several categories including: sign language, female vocal solos, song writing, worship leading, photography, alternative media, painting and 2 dimensional drawing. Something incredible is that we have a woman in the church who is also an ASL (American Sign Language) teacher. She has come in and coached some of our kids in ASL. This year we have 3 individual solos in ASL. The students take a song and translate it into sign language, and they do the signs together with a little bit of choreography. There is almost a dance aspect to it, it’s really incredible.”
“One of my seniors this year, who has worked really hard, wrote an essay that shared her testimony. She had been in a terrible car accident, and lived through it. The essay she wrote, won first place in the District Competition in March. Unfortunately, she was unable to attend, and she is also unable to attend this National Competition. We are going to bring her submission with us, and we hope to see her place again,” said Sullivan.
The students and their coaches check in this evening, and their competition starts tomorrow, Tuesday, August 2nd. “We will have performances Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are going to be flexible days, which is great because we have several surprises in store for the kids including beach trips, and SeaWorld. We want to make sure that the students have fun, and are rewarded for their hard work. Friday night will be the big celebration!” says Sullivan. Congratulations to the teens at Northside Church, and good luck!
