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Stafford event lifts spirits

April 6, 2009 12:35 am

By DAN TELVOCK

When Roger Joyner was 2 years old, his dad committed suicide.

"The day my mother went to have the abortion is the day my father killed himself," Joyner said.

The 31-year-old is now the leader of the House of Prayer on Haight Street in San Francisco. The long-haired, tattooed Joyner visited Stafford County for a four-day prayer event that ended yesterday.

He spread the word of Jesus Christ and shared how he found his spiritual path while enduring a painful past.

In a sprawling white tent pitched at Sherwood Forest Farm off State Route 3, Joyner found himself on Palm Sunday surrounded by Christians, many with their own stories of pain and redemption through Christ.

More than 1,200 people--primarily young adults--attended the Awaken the Dawn event, which was presented for the fifth year by the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace.

Joyner's radical testimony of his own life and his own faith brought tears to those listening and sent shock waves through Dylan DeBruin, 20.

DeBruin is from Detroit but now lives with two families in the Fredericksburg area.

Joyner called to DeBruin in the crowd, and he came forward and sat on the straw-padded ground in front of the stage. The young man immediately began to weep.

DeBruin also became fatherless at the age of 2. His dad was murdered in Detroit and DeBruin said his mother was sentenced to life in prison for the crime--a murder he says she did not commit.

Since then, he has been in and out of foster care and orphanages. He has been homeless.

He was a drug addict.

He was an outcast.

He had no identity.

DeBruin said his tribulations essentially robbed him of his childhood. He tried loving people with his own strength, but nothing worked until he found Christ, he said.

"I think I will always have pain in my life," he said. "You can't love without pain."

DeBruin's and Joyner's paths have crossed before; DeBruin calls Joyner his godfather.

For nearly two hours, Joyner's voice blasted through a microphone as he talked about his own tragic childhood, his troubled past as a racist gang member and how his mission yesterday was to honor DeBruin with prayer.

"He's a hero in the heart of God," Joyner said in an interview at a picnic table a few minutes after his prayer for DeBruin. "He has such a huge heart and he moves me every time I see him. He feels like he is rejected by others, so I felt it would also help him with the rejection he feels. Honor is a powerful thing."

DeBruin clearly absorbed the love and affection friends and strangers showed him as Joyner spoke.

People put their hands on DeBruin's back while he laid face down on a pile of straw. He cried for nearly two hours, his pain flowing from him in front of everyone.

"I feel better than I've ever felt before," DeBruin said afterward in an interview. "It's happiness without a hook, if that makes any sense."

SCREAMING FOR GOD

Shiloah Horn, 20, ended up taking the microphone shortly after Joyner's prayer and screamed out her own angst. Sexually assaulted when she was 5 years old, Horn said she was crying because she felt the power of God.

"They are tears of pain because this generation doesn't know God," she said. "I've never screamed like that before. I just felt God's fire. I just feel like God is beginning to show our generation how much he loves us."

Her face turned red, and after she spoke, she fell face first to the ground. When she pulled herself up, her hair was covered with straw.

She said she moved here in 1993 and lost her relationship with God while attending Chancellor High School. She found herself in romantic relationships with women--something she said she never felt comfortable doing.

"I knew all the things I did were wrong," she said.

She met Draper Smith, a pastor in Texas, and she said he broke her desire for relationships with females.

"It was crazy," she said. "I honestly didn't believe it was happening to me."

She gave her testimony to hundreds of people Saturday night under the tent. Now an intern for the church group, she plans to go to Israel this June to pray with others in what they are calling a 24-hour prayer service.

After that, Horn said she plans to move to New York City and pursue a career in acting.

"It's been a dream of mine since I was little," she said.

RAIN THREATENED EVENT

On Thursday and Friday morning, the event organizers feared they might have to close down the tent. Rain pummeled the farm and people couldn't leave in their cars because of the pools of water.

Scott Bradshaw, the director of the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace and Mission Base, said as the rain continued to pour Friday morning, members of the group gathered under the tent to pray for the storm to end. Within 10 minutes a blue sky formed around the tent, he said.

"It was just like a miracle out of the Bible and the kids got really excited," he said.

The event continued, with live music, live art, assemblies, testimonies, speakers and long prayers. The focus was on being intimate with God, praying for others, compassion and supernatural ministry where God heals people of injuries and disabilities.

Bradshaw said mostly young adults attend the events to find release from depression, fear, anger, pain and anxiety.

"It's been a renewing experience with my own personal relationship with Jesus Christ," Bradshaw said. "There were lots of people weeping. It was so powerful."

Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com