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It was a Thursday evening, June 6, 2002, and we were running a little late. It was 6:30 PM and the concert started at 7PM, but we were trying to get there early to get a good seat.

There were a good number of cars on the parking lot and they were steadily coming in. The concert was for a worthy cause. Myles Pope, a lively three year old, recently had to have a very dangerous, life-threatening surgery. Myles is the son of former radio promoter for Zion Records, Shawn Pope, and of course his uncle and aunt Kevin and Beverly McMannus are owners of the Zion dynasty. Just before Christmas the family was devastated by the news that Myles Pope had a tumor in his spinal column. Myles was diagnosed as having an AVM which is an ateriovenous malformation which is an abnormal collection of blood vessels in the spinal cord. The walls of the vessels are thin, dilated and prone to rupture. This can cause a hemorrhage which can interfere with his mobility and can cause death. Because the location of his AVM was in the spinal cord, Myles' was an extremely rare condition. On March 11, Myles underwent surgery in Atlanta and has been recovering remarkably. Myles' case is a true miracle.

As we were being seated for the benefit concert, the pre-concert program had started as the churches Praise Team was warming up the audience, and doing a very good job of it. At last the program opened with Les Butler, from Solid Gospel, serving as Master of Ceremonies. He opened with prayer and then quickly brought out the first group. The Haire Family delighted the crowd with their close family harmony, and of course they sang their chart climbing song from the movie soundtrack, �Sheltered�. The touching testimony of Don Haire about their small son making a tremendous recovery from a four wheeler accident, had the crowd on the edge of their seats.

Next on the program was The Hemphills. Joel and Lebreeska put on a very powerful set. The night was full of great testimonies, and Joel added his fantastic testimony of how God delivered him from depression. Of course their singing was great too.

After The Hemphills finished their set, a friend of Myles, from the church, who works for the local television affiliate, Channel 2 took the stage. He had made arrangements to have the story of Myles covered by the station. He showed the video clips of all the news programs. It was a very moving presentation.

About this time, Myles little sister read a piece that she had written about her feelings of everything that had happened with Myles, and what her and the family had gone through, not knowing if Myles would make it through the life risking surgery. There wasn�t a dry eye in the building.

This brought us to the next group as The Steeles come to the stage with a ton of excitement. Their sound was as good as I have ever heard them sing. The crowd came unglued as they sang their current radio single �Jesus Buried My Past�, but when Jeff exhorted the people just a little about the times we are living in and the shape our country is in, people were on their feet all over the building as they finished their former number one song, �We Want America Back�.

They also tried a brand new song on the crowd, that Jeff had just written in the morning, and somehow got a track put together for the evening program. It�s a new song that talks of the �Search And Rescue� that went on during the Sept 11th disaster, and parallels that to the �Search And Rescue� that our Savior has done since Calvary.

The anticipation kept growing as Mike Bowling took the stage for a couple of numbers, and as always the crowd loved his performance. They crowd didn�t miss a step as Jeff Steele and Les Butler took up the offering from a very generous crowd.

Of course everybody was holding on to their seats as The Crabb Family lit up the stage, featuring everybody except Kathy, but that�s only because she was running the sound. After The Crabb Family sang most of their number one songs, the crowd was simply filled with the Glory of the Lord.

It was a night full of tremendous singing and praise, but it was now over and the crowd had been dismissed, when the Pastor took the stage and announced that an amazing offering of over $10,000 was received.

While this sounds like a lot of money, and it is, the surgery had expenses of nearly $3,000,000. Yes, there was some insurance that covered, but the Pope family still has hundreds of thousands of unpaid medical bills. If you would like to donate to continue to help the need of this family you can do so by sending donations to:
Myles Pope Recovery Fund
105 Oak Valley Drive
Nashville, TN 37207

It was a great night of Southern Gospel Music, but the icing on the cake was seeing little Myles Pope running around the church. Just like the other little boys his age.

For a complete pictorial of this event see our Photo Gallery

Deon Unthank

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