By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – The attendance of the 2016 Shekinah show did not set a record Thursday night, but the attendees who crowded into the Honeywell Center’s Legacy Hall were treated to powerful messages of hope, making better life choices and taking second chances. As in the last 19 years, the Shekinah Tour went to middle and high schools in four counties around the MiBash area and culminated with the show at the Honeywell Center Thursday night.
MiBash News arrived when the band Ballenger was delivering their subtle yet positive messages of overcoming odds and obstacles to the attendees of the show. The subject is fitting for front man Billy Ballenger who spent time in prison after a drug bust in the late 80s.
In between the songs, the performance art group Break The Grey put on amazingly powerful performance in the form of dance and pantomime. Their performance seemed to show the kids in attendance about the dangers of peer pressure and doing things just because your friends are doing them. The amazing array of topics covered in a four minute pantomime included cutting, drinking, envy, jealously, suicide and eating disorders. It is one thing to talk about such issues but to see it acted out in what can only be described as performance art is another thing entirely.
But things turned even more serious when speaker Nathan Harmon took to the stage to describe in detail the 2009 drunk driving accident which left his passenger, Priscilla Owens, dead and Harmon doing a four-year stint in prison. MiBash News saw several people in tears during his powerful monologue and, judging by how quiet the crowd became, his message obviously got through. Marion-native Harmon is only 30 years old and young enough to perhaps seem like a contemporary to the kids at the show.
Harmon said that over 200,000 people have heard his message either in schools or online.
Harmon now pastors at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Kokomo.
Billy Ballenger, Breaking The Grey Founder and front man for the band Ballenger, has a message for those who could not attend the show Thursday night.
MiBash News talked to Melissa Snyder, who helped found Shekinah 20 years ago after her son Jonathan was killed by a drunk driver. When asked what Jonathan would think about all the thousands of kids Shekinah has reached over the years, she said that he would have gladly given his life to make such a difference in so many young people’s lives.
