An enraptured audience repeated every word and action of Bishop Hezekiah Walker as he testified to God’s favour, faithfulness and love in the Gospelfest event billed as Ultimate Gospel on Saturday night.
“Faithful is our God,” affirmed the effervescent Walker, while urging patrons packed into the Gymnasium to hold onto their spouses, let go of their grudges, and simply allow love to be the cornerstone of their lives.
In 70 minutes of Holy Spirit-led musical testimony, the American gospel minister cited a few of his own experiences of miracles, including walking away from a head-on vehicular collision in which he was involved some years ago.
“I heard the police officers saying to me ‘mister don’t move’, but I heard the Holy Ghost say ‘get up and go free’. . . . Everybody around me was amazed because they couldn’t believe I was standing on two feet, and I told that police officer ‘you don’t know the God that I serve’,” Walker told his audience as they sang along to his 2005 hit, Grateful.
Coming onstage immediately after intermission on the stroke of 10 p.m., he simply fed Barbadians what they had come for, including his personal testimony of betrayal and restoration in God Favoured Me, his conviction in Souled Out and Faithful, the soothing balm of love in I Need You To Survive, and his triumphant thankfulness in Every Praise.
“I feel so much love in this room,” he said, as the crowd, most standing with arms outstretched, crooned along with him and his Love Fellowship Choir.
Line after line, Barbadians sang with conviction, sharing and empathising with the experiences of the Grammy Award-winning Walker who, in his own words, has been “reaping the harvest God promised” and taking “back what the devil stole”.
He ended the show with Every Praise, the catchy and simple number which recently made headline news after a kidnapped ten-year-old boy in Atlanta, Georgia refused to stop singing it until his kidnapper released him unharmed.
“It’s amazing that we can do gospel songs which can touch these little kids. It really touches my heart to hear kids singing because they could be singing anything. It just lets you know how impactful gospel music is,” he told the DAILY NATION afterwards.
Among Walker’s supporting acts at Pine Hill Ultimate Gospel were the impressive Vincentian chorale Called Out and the Lester Welch-led Gospelfest Mass Choir which brought the crowd to its feet with I Know Who I Am by the Nigerian worship leader Sinach.
Local vocalist Omar Osbourne also joined the mass choir to render R. Kelly’s I Believe I Can Fly, while James Leacock led the choir in a medley that included the uptempo Waving Ting by Sean Daniel.
Total Praise from Martinique sang five familiar songs in French, bringing an unusual element to this event, but if one fault could be noted: they were a bit too long on stage.
The NIFCA award-winning drama exponent Andre Belle combined mime, dancing and costuming with musical recordings to create an energetic, well-choreographed piece; while the Revival Time Tabernacle men’s choir from Toronto, British singer Anastacia Baker and Covenant Life Teaching Centre worship dancers completed the line-up.
Rev. Paul Watson opened the night with a prayer of thanks for the success of each event this season, while Gospelfest organiser Adrian Agard requested a special offering to assist the ailing Joseph Niles and young Nayan Warrington.
MC was Rev. Dr Mark Harewood.