Faith's First Concert Experience

Earlier this year I decided it would be fun to do something extra special for Faith's 21st birthday. Ever since I went to Bon Jovi a couple of years ago with my sisters, Faith has been telling me she wants to attend a concert, too. 

When she was younger, I knew she could not have handled all the noise, and that a concert would be way too overstimulating for her. I did, however, take her to a NDSU Bison game a couple of years ago and she handled that like a champ! Because of how well she did with that, I began searching for concerts coming to the area. 

The only one that I thought Faith might be remotely interested in was the Zach Williams Revival Nights Tour. The best part was that it was going to be held in Fargo just a few weeks before her birthday! The tour also featured Matt Mahar and CAIN, who both perform songs that we sing in church. 

First time ever at Scheels Arena in Fargo! 

To make it even more exciting for her, I asked her dad if he could meet us in Fargo for part of her early birthday celebration. As the event grew closer, she became more and more excited. The only thing I was apprehensive about was how long of a day it was going to be for her. 

I knew she would still want to go to church, then we would have to leave right afterward to get to Fargo at 3. There, we would check in at the hotel and meet up with her dad. 

During church, the guy leading worship knew Faith would be going to her first concert and also knew which artists we were going to see. Because of that, he chose to have us sing a few songs by Matt Mahar, one by CAIN and one by Zach Williams. It was so nice that he did that! 

Right after church, Faith and I swung through McDonald's for a quick lunch and then I connected her to the feeding pump so she could have her lunch as well. We only stopped once so that I could disconnect her feeding and get her repositioned in her chair. We got to Fargo shortly after 3 and met her dad in the parking lot. We had a few hours to relax and grab supper before the concert. 

The plan was to have Rob drop Faith and I off at the entrance of Scheel's Arena. I wheeled Faith inside and we found someone to help us to our seats. I had never been to that venue before, and honestly, I found it a bit difficult to navigate as there was no signage telling us that we needed to take an elevator to get to the floor seating. 

We then had to work our way through a bit of maze just to get to the floor. After finally reaching the floor, I discovered we were on the wrong side, so it took us a while to get across the floor (not to mention get her chair over several power cords). I was trying to hustle as I wanted to get to our seats before they dimmed the lights.

While there was no accessible seating on the floor, they said we could just take a seat away to make room for Faith's chair. Nobody really did this for us, though, so I just sort of parked her in the aisle. This worked well so she could see better and so that she had plenty of room to move around and dance. When she's excited, she kicks her legs and her arms go everywhere! 

About five minutes later, Matt Mahar was on stage opening up the show. I was surprised by this, as I thought for sure Ben Fuller would be the opening act. It was great though, because he was the one that we wanted to see the most! He ended with one of our favorites, "Alive and Breathing." 

Matt Mahar is first to take the stage! 

After he performed, everyone had to turn around to look at the backstage for Ben Fuller. He sang 3 or 4 songs before CAIN took over on the main stage. While Faith had been doing great, I could tell she was running out of steam. I don't think she was quite prepared for how loud it was in there. (I'm not sure how many people were in attendance, but it was packed!) 

After CAIN performed her all-time favorite song (Friend in Jesus), she was ready to go. I did love how she belted out the lyrics to that song! (I can't listen to that song without crying, which made it hard to record, so I didn't get video of that one. You can listen to it below, though!) 

I wasn't too disappointed that we didn't get to see Zach Williams. My whole agenda was for Faith to enjoy her first concert experience. 

CAIN had a really fun stage! 

I figured out how to get out of the concert arena and back to the front doors. We called her dad, and it took him less than 5 minutest to come pick us up. (I had purposely picked a hotel that was nearby). As I got her into the van she yelled, "We rocked out!" 

Another reason I wasn't disappointed that she wanted to leave early was so that she could get to bed earlier. She was very tired after such a long day. 

We came, we laughed, we danced, we sang, we praised Jesus. Now it's time to go home! 

The next day, she said her goodbyes to her dad, and we hit the road once again. On the way home I asked if she would ever want to go to another concert again and she said, YES! All in all, I would venture to say her first concert experience was a complete success!