Mouse House Memories: Night of Joy 2013

cindy — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 16:57:26 +0000

Last weekend, September 6-7, 2013, Walt Disney World hosted the 31st annual Night of Joy. My first Night of Joy was the original in 1982-my freshman year of college and I was a regular attendee throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but it has been 17 years since my last Night of Joy and this one. My husband and I were so excited to attend Friday night’s festivities.

In case you don’t know what Night of Joy is…it is a hard ticketed event at The Magic Kingdom where there are concerts by all different kinds of Christian bands through out the evening. Add to that Disney rides and food and you have an awesome event for the whole family.

Friday Night’s Line-up

Castle Forecourt Stage

7:40pm Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman
9:50pm MercyMe
11:55pm Skillet

Galaxy Stage

7:30 p.m. – Audio Adrenaline
8:50 p.m. – Audio Adrenaline
10:25 p.m. – Mandisa
12:10 a.m. – For King and Country

Rockettower Plaza Stage

8:15 p.m. – City Harbor
9:40 p.m. – We As Human
11:20 p.m. – Moriah Peters

We arrived in the park right at 7:00pm…in the rain. My husband wasn’t feeling well and needed some food so he went over to Cosmic Ray’s for dinner while I joined the crowd in front of Cinderella Castle knowing he would join me before concert time. Due to the rain slowing down set up, the Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman concert was delayed…quite a bit but the crowd didn’t seem to mind a bit.

Soaking wet #selfie taken while waiting for the concert to begin.

The concert was AMAZING! They performed together and separately. They did a lot of their classic songs including Friends, Dive, I Will Be Here, Alleluia, and Cinderella as well as leading the crowd in a worship set that was just beautiful, especially with the backdrop of Cinderella Castle. The rain finally let up about 2/3 of the way through the concert. The only downside was that despite chants of “put down the umbrellas” most people kept them out throughout the show which made it difficult to see even the large LED screen on the stage.

Michael W Smith-Steven Curtis Chapman Night of Joy 2013

Once the concert ended, I was getting hungry so we headed to Pecos Bills for dinner. Since there were no stages in the Frontierland-Liberty Square-Fantasyland areas of the park these areas were deserted! We walked on to Peter Pan’s Flight and Voyage of the Little Mermaid with no wait. Next we headed to Tomorrowland and walked right on to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin because everyone in Tomorrowland was at the Mandisa concert or watching the video relay of the concert on the screen at the Rockettower Plaza Stage. After the ride we headed over to Rockettower Plaza because I wanted to be in the front row for the Moriah Peters concert. I told you all about that in yesterday’s post Who Should Our Daughters Be Listening To? so you can hop over there to read about that concert. After Moriah’s concert we went to see a bit of her husband’s concert. This is the third time this year I’ve seen For King and Country,my boys even toured with them for two weeks this summer, so we stayed for three songs and then headed back to Cinderella Castle so my husband could catch part of the Skillet concert.

Skillet Night of Joy 2013

We had an awesome time at Night of Joy. I wish we had been able to attend Saturday night because I LOVE TobyMac and Building 429 and I would have enjoyed seeing them in concert. Have you ever been to Night of Joy? What Christian band would you like to hear at Night of Joy 2014? I am so excited because it has already been announced that Hillsong United will be there!

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Disclosure: We were guests of Walt Disney World at this event. We received no monetary compensation. I was not asked to post about this event. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Who Should Our Daughters be Listening To?

cindy — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 14:38:05 +0000

The last few weeks have been filled with talk about Miley Cyrus and what she has become. The once wholesome tween icon has fallen far and she doesn’t need our criticism, she needs our prayers. Unfortunately, there are few positive female role models for our girls in the music and entertainment industry and let’s be honest, anyone can fall at any time so we need to monitor our kid’s heroes regularly and continuously dialog with them about our morals, standards and beliefs so that they can notice for themselves when something isn’t right.

Lunch with Moriah Peters

Friday, I had the honor of meeting and enjoying lunch with a young, talented, passionate female musician that I think our daughters should be listening to, Moriah Peters. Honestly, when I was invited to the media luncheon for Provident Media Group at Walt Disney World for Night of Joy, Moriah Peters was the one artist listed that I had never heard of. I did my research before heading to the event and I was impressed with what I read and I looked forward to meeting her. When I arrived at the luncheon I was assigned a table to sit at, there were 4 of us “media” people at our table; 2 radio producers, 1 freelance Christian music critic and me. Each table was assigned an artist for the meal time and then after lunch the artists rotated from table to table in about 10 minute segments to have a chance to chat with everyone (I’ll tell you more about that in another post). Our lunch artist was, Moriah Peters.

Moriah is a 20 year old newlywed, married 60 days on the day we met. She is sweet, fun-loving and passionate about Jesus. When she was 14 years old God impressed upon her heart to not give away her first kiss until her wedding day. At age 17 she started dating her husband-to-be, Joel from For King and Country, and though it was at times difficult, with Joel’s support, she kept her promise to God and to herself and her first kiss was on her wedding day. During her 3 year relationship with Joel she wrote the song “Haven’t Even Kissed” which speaks to the fact that true love is not physical love-it is spiritual. In her just-released video for IAmSecond.com, Moriah shares her story of her stand for purity and the American Idol judge’s rejection of her-not based on her talent but based on her purity!

Moriah Peters in Concert

Moriah performed Friday night on the Rockettower Plaza Stage at Night of Joy. I was in the front row cheering my new friend on and I was impressed. On her CD her songs are lovely, the words are powerful and the message is fresh and pure. In concert those same songs took on a bit more of an edge and she rocked. I enjoyed the entire concert, but my favorite song was “Brave” which is not on her debut album so I am hoping it is on her next one. The audio on this video isn’t the best but here is “Brave” from Friday night. (If you are reading this via email you will want to click over to my site to see the videos).

One of my favorite songs on her album I Choose Jesus is “Bloom” because it has a great message for young girls everywhere. Here is the official lyrics video of “Bloom”.

It is my hope that you will check out Moriah’s work and share it with the young ladies in your life. Our girls need role models who point them to Jesus and Moriah does that very well. Make sure you get social with Moriah on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and her website.

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post. I was not asked to write this post, I felt compelled by God to share Moriah’s message and talent with my readers. I was a guest of Walt Disney World for the Provident Music Group Luncheon and Night of Joy. All opinions are 100% mine.