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Jaci's Concert in Houston

Jaci @ Houston

This concert took place March 19, 1999 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands (a suburb of Houston)...

        It was pouring rain on the way to the Pavilion. The roads were wet, traffic was bad, and many of the street and traffic lights around the Pavilion weren't working. Around 7:15 P.M., the rain paused, allowing concertgoers to walk to the Pavilion and remain dry. Many sat on the wet grass, thankful that the rain had ceased. Others sat under the Pavilion. 7:30 came and went, and people began flocking to their seats from the snack and merchandise booths.
Jaci Singing         At 7:40, John Hull from KSBJ in Houston came on stage and thanked us for praying for the rain and for the rain to let up.... He explained that Jaci had spent some time ministering to some of the ladies in the Pregnancy Assistance Center North, and how that group was the ministry spotlight of the night. He opened the concert in prayer, and Brother's Keeper came on stage shortly, singing quite a few numbers from their unreleased album including "Rain On," "Heart Attack," "I Saw Heaven," "Too Cool," and "Who Cares." -- their album will be released April 20th on the Ardent label.
        The stage darkened, a low bass hum came over the speakers accompanied with the occasional buzz and beep and a voice reminiscent of an airline captain came on saying, "Good evening, this is your captain speaking, we want to welcome and thank you for flying J.A.C.I. Airlines, flight 10139. Our flight time this evening will be approximately one hour, twenty minutes. We will be cruising at an altitude of 30,000 feet. So just sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight. We hope your flight with us will be a pleasant one. We know you have a lot of choices when choosing airlines, so once again, thank-you for flying J.A.C.I. Airlines. Welcome aboard. Flight attendants, please prepare for takeoff. We want to make sure all seatbelts are fastened, seats are in their upright position, and all tray tables are in their locked and upright position. We've been cleared for takeoff. Takeoff in T minus 5 seconds, 4, 3, 2, 1..."

        A sequence of sound clips follows: "good, good, good," "stop me goose," [Top Gun] "superstar status," "people of the world," [Spice Girls] "dreaming about..." [Selena] "Only on VH1" "doot-da-doot-da-da-doot doot doot," [Mariah Carey - "Fantasy"] "feeling you now," "Morris with an MTV..." "It's a hard 'nuff life," [Annie] "la-laa-la-laa-la-la-laa," "pop-up video," [from VH1] "in Jesus' mighty Name" [from some televangelist], "Atschul with MTV news..." "planet groove," "allrighty then" [Jim Carrey - The Mask] "we've got girl power, man," [Spice Girls] "yes I can, yes I can," some random cartoon sound, "Jaci Velasquez, just 17 years of age. Jaci's name can often be found at the top of the contemporary Christian music charts." "Jaci Velasquez esta..." "last year received the Dove Award for best new artist..." "Jaci Velasquez" "This year, you've been nominated for female vocalist of the year, song of the year, you have a national Target commercial, 5 number 1 songs, a record going gold, and you're only 18 years old," "I think my focus group is definitely the young age. I'm dealing with the same things they are, and I've struggled with the same things, but together we can make a difference in this world." [Jaci] "The main message that I'm trying to get across with the music, with my music, is that there's hope -- just to know that a song I sang was a blessing to them in some way" [Jaci] "John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting...everlasting, everlasting life." [Jaci] "Jaci, Jaci, Jaci, Jaci, Jaci, Jaci, Jaci Velasquez"

Jaci in black

        Jaci entered the stage with an uproar of applause wearing black (see above photo) singing "Paper Tigers." Brother's Keeper stayed on stage, singing background the entire time (you can see two of the four of them off to the right in the above picture). She immediately followed with "Made My World," and "Show You Love."
        "How you doing out there, Houston -- are you excited about Jesus tonight? I tell you what, I am so happy, so happy to be back home, um. There is truly no place like home. I want to say thank-you to KSBJ for all your support and making this thing happen tonight.... I want to say thank-you to each and every one of you. Thank-you so much for being here tonight. I do not know what I'd do here, what we would do up here by ourselves. Thank-you so much." Jaci was frequently interrupted by the screams of "I love you" from various groups within the massive crowd, to which she would always respond, "Oh, I love you too!" [Download a .wav file here] Jaci asks if it is still raining, and the crowd yells, "no!" She then sings "Little Voice Inside" followed by an acoustic version of "Glory" with slightly altered lyric -- she sings "...the glory has been found, it surrounds me, and opens my mind and sights." [Click here to download a .wav sound clip] She finishes the set with "Look What Love Has Done."
        "Well, thank-you guys...I am so happy, so, you don't understand how much I've been looking forward to doing this particular concert. I have been looking so forward to it... I have been nervously waiting to do this, and I can't believe all you people are here, man! You know, I've been involved in a ministry for quite a while.... What it is, it's awesome, those of you here that don't know what it is that I'm talking about, sexual abstinence, what it is is you make a commitment to keep yourself a virgin until the day you get married, and you make this commitment between yourself and God, yourself and your parents, and yourself and your friends -- to keep yourself pure until the day you get married.... I believe that God has someone that is going to be perfect for each and every one of us.... I'm one person that has made the commitment to keep myself pure. So far, I have kept it; by the grace of God I have kept it.... I wrote this song about 4 years ago with a friend of mine in San Antonio, TX, and it's entitled, 'I Promise.'" -- which she than sang with acoustic guitar and soft drums.

        Jaci changed into white, while a mix of "Child of Mine" was played on mostly electric guitar and keyboard, with Brother's Keeper singing, "It's all about...." She returned to stage singing "Child of Mine" followed by an uplifting performance of "On My Knees" -- which she got unanticipated audience participation on. [Click here to download a .wav file] Following her performance of "God So Loved," Jaci again spoke:
        "Praise God.... You know what, I would definitely have to say...I'm definitely a person...that has lived out my dreams. I don't know what else to say except to say that I have lived out a lot of some of the wildest dreams I never even knew I had.... I have three brothers and one sister, and I have a sister-in-law, a new sister-in-law, and I have been very blessed to have the family that I have. My mom and dad travel with me...everyone's here except my sister.... I don't know what I would do without them.... We got some news about...a month ago. I have a sister, remember that I told you was not here. I wasn't raised with her, she was raised apart from me and...we always hear news about what's going on with her, and I get so frustrated with her all the time because she not only breaks our hearts, she breaks my mom, my dad's heart. It kills him all the time whenever he hears news about Mindy. She's a drug addict, and that's really hard and right now she's actually in prison...you would think that we all come from the perfect family homes...but God is doing a work in my family.... You guys have to promise me that you'll keep my sister in prayer, anytime you think about her, anytime you think of me that you'll pray for her. Because I hate to feel angry with her..., so keep her in your prayers whenever you can, that would be awesome, ok? Let's just do a couple of worship songs, and give the glory to the One who truly deserves it this evening, and all the time. He deserves the glory in every possible way..." Jaci then led in singing "More Than Anything." [Click here to download a .wav file]. She then called her father to the stage to preach, and he led in an altar call, where some made decisions to follow Christ. Jaci followed this especially reverent time with another praise and worship song, "Anointing, Fall On Me."
        Jaci continued on with "If This World" and then again thanked her audience, Parable Stores, Grapevine Books, For Heaven's Sake, Sunshine Book & Gift Shop, Christian General Store in Nederland and Beaumont, and Brazos Valley Book and Gift. She also thanked the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) for sponsoring her tour, and mentioned that they had teamed up. She again thanked Brother's Keeper, and introduced the band, and then sang "Un Lugar Celestial," followed with a Latin upbeat rhythm and additional Spanish lyrics. She and the band left the stage. But wait...
        Encore! Jaci and band returned to stage, singing a medley of: "We Can Make a Difference," an upbeat, faster version of "Flower in the Rain," and finally "Baptize Me." J.A.C.I. Airlines landed smoothly, and passengers left the flight to the merchandise tables and their vehicles. The rain had let up, the street lights were fixed, and God had truly blessed us all with the talents of Jaci and her band, her Father's preaching, and the unity of the Spirit one feels after attending a truly awesome Christian concert.

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