June 28, 1998
KIDZ GIG DELIVERS GOSPEL WITH A DASH OF SONG, DANCE
By SARAH GREEN -- Ottawa Sun
It was anything but a typical church service.
Beach balls soared through the air, actors in cartoon-like costumes sang and danced on stage and the voices of more than 12,000 people -- many of them children -- filled the Corel Centre yesterday.
The one-hour show was called Kidz Gig -- part of the four-day Billy Graham mission that winds up today.
The show used song instead of sermon and language that was more basic than biblical, but it delivered the same message that Graham has been spreading for more than 50 years: God loves you.
"The message is simple. It's clear and not so scary," said Richmond's Joyce Hamelin, who along with her seven-year-old daughter Jocelyn has attended every Graham service at the Corel Centre.
"When I was a little girl, I learned to be afraid that I'd burn in hell. But Billy Graham shows that hell is just a separation from God. He takes the fear out of it."
A choir of 2,000 children, all dressed in bright yellow T-shirts, sang from their arena seats while a dozen local kids, aged 11 and 12, joined the cast of regulars on stage to perform the musical numbers they had been rehearsing for more than two months.
"They're just excited. They were thrilled," said Kelly Middleton, of Orleans, who worked with the kids on the show's choreography. "But the boys didn't like the eyeliner."
Even the cameras, which were positioned around the Corel Centre, were operated by children whose parents are technicians with the Graham Mission.
The main character of the show was a giant blue songbook named Psalty, played since 1992 by California's Ernie Rettino who ended the light-hearted show with a serious message about God's love and forgiveness.
"It's exciting to see people respond to the love of God by having a cartoon talk to them," said Rettino, who described himself as a former atheist. "I grew up in a church where ... God was just ominous. The minute you did anything wrong, he was going to step on you and squish you out, so I quit."
As the audience sang Jesus Loves Me at the end of the show, about 1,500 worshippers made their way to the floor of the Corel Centre to bow their heads in prayer and make a commitment to God.
Marissa Hamon liked the songs as well as the beach balls that bounced through the arena at one point during the show, but the four-year-old Aylmer girl also understood the solemn message behind the fun, her father said.
"This is very significant for her," Joseph Hamon said.