Like all occasional encounters, there was no warning, only two people passed through the narrow church passage.

"Oh, hi," the sacred date began, and then, "Remember me, have we met in a tent in Moravia Falls?"

It has been 15 years since Wilmington’s storyteller Barkley Hubbard spoke to businessman Neil Black.

Blake is receiving the shipment of a custom revival tent with a red-edged canopy frame. He is no stranger to the revival meeting. He tried to set up a tent in the Wilmington area in time for Easter, but encountered a roadblock.

In the first week of August 2021, both of them celebrated Mike Blanchard's lifelong service in church. Not speaking is really not an option.

Sharing the details of the upcoming tent meeting, Blake started talking with him about photography. Hubbard replied that he "may not be the person you want. My passion is to tell stories with pictures." Black's response? "That's perfect."

Hubbard, a filmmaker just ended the interruption. He left the film industry three years ago to pursue a lucrative sales job in business direction. He said: "God is calling me to resume creative work."

In March, he established a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. With the support of his wife, he is ready to take a leap of faith, come out of sales, and live on God's supply.

A feature film internship before graduation and the smart Tarboro North Carolina grandmother guided him to Wilmington, near his cousin Pem Nash, instead of the more exciting West Coast. He has worked in studios such as NBC, Universal, Paramount, Disney and Hallmark for 25 years and learned about this transaction. He has done many jobs in major TV shows, movies and commercials, including drivers, props, set decorators, storyboard artists and performances. Between these two, he created his own system of works. 

Many of his films have been included in the Cucalorus Film Festival. Every movie is a stepping stone to becoming a better director.

With the approval of the Global Rivers Church, by September, Black obtained permission from the county government to set up his 100 x 60-foot tent between the administrative building and the children's building. In collaboration with senior pastor Tom Hauser and his daughter, senior worship leader Sara Hauser-Bonnett, Black’s affairs are flourishing, including the desire to capture tents in the movie revival.

"I said,'What does this look like to you?'" Hubbard said. 

Since the Fulfillment Fest held in Magnolia, North Carolina in 2012, Blake has not set up a revival tent. His first horse farm was built in 2006 on his 60-acre Moravia Falls horse farm.

"As early as the 90s, the Lord said that I hope you will get a tent for celebrating the time-holiday-three times a year. He said that they need to be restored to the Christian church. The church has lost their understanding of where they came from and why we do what we do. A Christian view of what Christians do," he said. "I try to always set up a tent to celebrate Passover, Pentecost and Sukkot. They are not just Jews-they are God's appointed time." 

The first performance festival took place 24/7 for 21 days. 

Two years later, Black’s 4,000-5,000-person tent was set up on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem during Pentecost. In the second year (2009), three Fulfillment Fest tents were set up, including the National Mall in Washington, DC

One definition of revival is to improve the condition or power of something. Another person said that Christian revivalism is an increase in spiritual interest or renewal in the church congregation or social life that has a local, national, or global impact. Christian writer and evangelist Robert Coleman said that revival is "the awakening of God's people or awakening their true nature and purpose." For Blake, revival is the era of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

The term revival is also used to describe an evangelistic meeting or series of meetings.

A month after the meeting in Wilmington began, Black saw it as a clean-up and a cultural shift. 

"What we are doing here is cleaning the spirit well," he said. "The church is jammed and overcrowded. We are here to release the spirit of God. I think this will reach a turning point, which is to reset the church for the entire country. I call it the way back to the early church." 

Black and his non-denominational members of Christ’s ministry used to use neutrality to organize events he presided over.

"Until now, I have never set up a tent on the grounds of the church," he said. 

He feels that Global River has the structure and people to speak or assume leadership roles. They did take a step forward, from volunteers dragging trash away or setting up parking cones, to speaking and drawing a revivalist sermon with 25,000 followers on Instagram.

Global River is no stranger to tent revival. In September 2015, it co-organized the Wilmington Jesus tent for 10 days in cooperation with the Ignite Ministry. In the next two years, five other cities followed closely behind.

The tent in September 2021 is based on the tent of the Feast of Tabernacles and will start five days after the Jewish Yom Kippur or Yom Kippur. Once a year, the Israelis will leave their homes and build huts or huts to meet with God.

Considering the tent of King David in the Bible, Hauser Bonnet arranged a worship team. The formula is to provide Davidic worship 24/7 for nine consecutive days and nights, with three to four speakers interspersed during the day and night.

Hauser-Bonnett and Blake invited local and eastern North Carolina pastors, prophets and evangelists, including internationally renowned pastor Kirk Bennett, senior leader of the International Prayer Conference in Kansas City, American missionary Edward Akwa from Cameroon in Africa, and Revivalist Jessi Green, she has just moved to the northern Wilmington area with her family. Green was the last scheduled speaker for the original 9-day meeting.

"In the past 15 years, I have cultivated wonderful relationships and connections spiritually. I envision that everyone will get together again, which will become part of the community unity goal. People from the North, South, East, and West, "Hauser Bonnet said.

As the tent was raised, a sense of sacred awe descended on the church grounds, especially under the tent.

"I like everything that happens in the tent," Tom Hauser said. "I like all the tents we have made. What happens is always great. The first is a breakthrough in expectations, religious beliefs and control. There is a sense of freedom, a sense of randomness, you are there, you are open. No People who will come to the sect or religious environment, they will come to the tent. That’s why I like it and why we do so much.”

The opening day was not without challenges. The city experienced 9 inches of rain in 24 hours, forming puddles in the entire site and tents. During the first three days and nights, everything was moved to the main sanctuary of the church.

Despite the dampness, those present were not disappointed. God is in the house. The operation of the Holy Spirit is publicly expressed, and life has changed beautifully.

On the fourth day, the tent was dry enough to be moved back outside. Everyone present knows that something big has happened.

"About my child, my mother, I got a word I really need," Karen Pray said. "This allows me to reflect on my behavior and my relationship with the Lord. I was solving this problem in a tent when the Lord allowed me to get there." 

At all times of day and night, people come to worship, pray or reflect, or just sit in front of the Holy Spirit. 

"I felt so close to God there. Even though there are so many people around, you still feel lonely in front of God," said Tom Hauser's wife Ginny Hauser.

Hubbard always takes his camera to capture the wonderful moments. For him, it even became a family affair, including his 14-year-old son, also named Barkley.

"Some nights I really want to go to the tent. The atmosphere...I never really like going to church, it's different," his son said. 

Hubbard discovered that the Lord was leading the focus of the camera.

"He's leading me; I'm led by Him; it's not just me operating the camera. I want the Holy Spirit to guide the camera," he said.

Not only that, he also became a participant.

"I focused the lens on a person who received prayer, and suddenly I realized that I was also praying for that person in the Holy Spirit," he said.

Salvation, release, and healing are happening. A young man appeared early, dragging his little son. His wife asked him to inspect the church farm, and when he did so, his attention was drawn to the sign of the tabernacle. Later, his face was beaming, telling about his despair, the troubled marriage, the years of the warlock, and how he was skinned, one piece at a time. This change is dramatic. He was full of hope, joy and love, and his marriage was restored. When his wife cheered with the crowd, he was one of the first people to be baptized in the tent.  

In the first nine days of the original plan, Tom Hauser realized that this might last longer. Speakers like Bennett commented that if you are still here in December, I will be back.

On the ninth night, Green delivered a simple message about the revelation of Jesus Christ. Many people present, including many leaders, were baptized or re-baptized. Aside from his camera, Hubbard, his wife and son are among them. (The next morning, his daughter and mother who watched the live broadcast in Vermont were also baptized again.)

That night, the conference tent announced that it would continue, and the hours of worship and speeches from 6 to 9 o'clock every night were reduced in order to maintain a schedule of prayer and worship all day long.

"There is still a lot to do, and we are just getting started," Hauser-Bonnett said. "Renaissance is happening right here, starting from us, it's like this little wildfire spreading, bringing people together. Covid is really trying to break this. We just need to squeeze in."

In the first 41 days of the tent, it is difficult to estimate how many lives were affected.

Daniel Christian, one of the church's technical administrators and worship leaders, has seen continuous worship change others. 

"It normalizes daily worship into a way of worship," he said. "It shows people that they can maintain this lifestyle and still be able to accomplish their tasks, work, family, and worship lifestyle at the same time."

Many people are wondering aloud, will this be the realization of the long-awaited East Carolina phenomenon?

"I think this is the seed of what God is about to do. Big things are coming, it's time to prepare," Nick Thornhill said.

In 1975, at the LO Sanders Salvation Gospel Tabernacle in Jacksonville, Derek Prince, an international prophecy teacher, foresaw the great revival of the region, which was greater than the Welsh revival of 1904 to 1905, with 100,000 in the first year People return to the Lord. Prince predicted that the Lord would personally visit the area and announced that "kings and leaders from the North, South, East, and West will come to study the phenomenon of Eastern North Carolina."

What's next? Hubbard is editing his hundreds of hours of footage and collecting stories about Jesus, healing, and miracles. He has been raising funds to produce independent mini-films of God's stories he has collected.

"I think we have done a lot more than we thought," Black said.

The temperature in late autumn dropped to more than 40 degrees at night. Before heating increased, the church had moved back to the main sanctuary and tent services were suspended. However, it is broadcast live and archived on the church’s YouTube channel every day.

Where's the tent? Both sides are waiting, anyone can still seek God. 

"We put it on hold... people can go there. Just stop and find a breathing space," Hauser said. "I'm already trying to set my sights on spring, where there is a feast of spring. We will wait and see. The rated speed of the tent is 90 miles per hour. The fire chief has given us a six-month permit. I am just waiting to see how the Lord will use it in the future. What does it do."

"If God can make a son or daughter repent and return to heaven, it will all be worth it," Brenton Irving said.

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