MANSFIELD — Pastor Hans Lang couldn’t contain his joy.
“Praise God! Hallelujah!” he called out as a young woman emerged from a steel tank-turned-baptistry, wiping her eyes as her t-shirt and jean shorts dripped on the pavement.
Lang is the head pastor of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church — but on Saturday afternoon, he was part of something much bigger than any single congregation.
Festival of Hope brought thousands of people to the Mansfield Speedway for a free event with children’s activities, $20,000 in giveaways, a time of worship and inspirational messages.
The event was organized by Godsfield, a nonprofit organization that brings together Mansfield-area churches for fellowship, outreach and spiritual growth.
“Godsfield has the mission of unifying churches so we can make an eternal impact on our community,” said Jessica Wilging, Godsfield’s executive director.
More than 400 volunteers from churches across Richland County helped with the event.
Dressed in neon yellow t-shirts, they handed out gas cards, groceries and Bibles. They monitored inflatable slides and craft stations. They helped with baptisms or manned tents where attendees could go to have someone pray with them.
“The body of Christ really rose up and worked together. It was moving,” Wilging said in a video posted to Godsfield’s Facebook page Saturday evening. “God was faithful.”
As attendees filed into the stadium seating, a dark gray cloud crept from one end of the track to the other. Singers, dancers and flag twirlers worshipped from the center of the dirt track.
The rain never came.
“We’ve had so many rain-outs at this racetrack. I’ve never seen anything like this,” the speedway’s owner Matt Tifft said as he took the microphone.
The audience cheered.
(These photos courtesy of Tom Puskar. Story continues below)
‘There’s a God who wants to redeem you’
Tifft was one of several speakers who shared his testimony during the event.
The former NASCAR racer and team owner told attendees he’d been agnostic and even an atheist before going on a journey to find his faith.
That journey hasn’t always in a straight line. Tifft first turned to God during a life-threatening health scare.
“That led me down a path of just curiosity, and it went away for a while, for a few years,” he said. “I came back to God again, and my life has insurmountably become better.”
Markus McFolling, an evangelist and former professional athlete, shared his story of finding God in the midst of addiction.
He urged believers to keep pursuing God with intensity.
“Some of us, we’re not living to the fullness of what God has for us, because we’ve allowed the lies to speak louder than the truth of the gospel,” he said.
“There’s a God who wants to redeem you and restore you and tell you that you can do it — not by your might, not by your strength, but by His strength.”
Wilging told the crowds that God had healed her mind, her body and her marriage.
“For two decades, I battled and I wrestled with all sorts of addiction: drug addiction, alcoholism, eating disorders, mental illnesses, suicide attempts,” she said.
“Death seemed like the only way to escape the hopelessness, but Jesus delivered me,” she added. “I guarantee you, whatever hopeless situation you walked in here with today, the solution is Jesus and it will always be Jesus.”
‘We won’t know the full effects of this day until we get to Heaven’
Wilging said more than 250 people chose to accept God’s love and salvation during Festival of Hope.
Lang said he believed what happened at the Mansfield Speedway will create ripples of change throughout the community.
“We won’t know the full effects of this day until we get to Heaven and we find out all the hearts and minds that are touched by this day,” he said.
“I hope that this desire for unity, this loving atmosphere, the aroma of it just continues to affect our city,” he said. “The divisions, the suspicions, the reluctance, the reticence to come together — I hope it just gets washed away by this flood of love that happened at the Speedway today.”
