Festival of Lights offers praise, worship and teaching
The Festival of Lights, a weekend of Christian praise, worship and teaching, reached a milestone this year as it observed its 10th anniversary.
“Every year it changes,” coordinator Shirley Clawson said of the event that took place Friday and Saturday at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, located along Route 119 just north of Uniontown.
But the Festival of Lights, sponsored by World Christian Outreach Ministries in Connellsville, is always filled with motivational speakers and inspirational song and dance that brings people from various states to the region.
Saturday morning, Clawson said up to 600 people attended Friday’s worship and that 200 were registered for Saturday’s workshops. A Saturday evening service was scheduled as well. Clawson said this year’s participants came from throughout Pennsylvania as well as Delaware, Ohio, New York, Maryland and Canada. Two ministers living in Maryland who attended are originally from Nigeria and Cameroon.
The conference offers nationally known speakers such as this year’s David Herzog, who co-hosts a weekly television program with his wife, Stephanie, called “The Glory Zone.”
Other speakers included worship leaders Don and Kathy Hershman, a husband-and-wife team from Princeton, Ky., who recently started Huruma Ministries to help struggling churches in Kenya; Rabbi Ted Simon, who co-hosts a nationally syndicated radio program called “Messianic Minutes;” Terri Stutler of Bridgeport, W.Va., who taught interpretative dance; Janice Berda of East McKeesport, whose message incorporates embellished banners and pageantry aids; Word of Life Ministries Canopy Team from Greensburg and Donna Zeigler of Pittsburgh area, who is director of a sacred dance ministry called Daughters of Judah.
The conference also welcomed Dudley Perio, 57, of Austin, Texas, who works in the oil industry and began speaking at conferences last year after a phenomena of gold dust began appearing on his skin.
Perio said he was home alone on Sept. 5, 2010, praising God as he prepared to attend church when he felt God’s presence. He picked up his guitar, closed his eyes and began to sing. His dogs began barking, causing Perio to open his eyes.
“There was gold dust flying around the house. I was covered in it,” he said.
Perio, who said the gold flecks appear on him daily, attended a conference in Houston a few weeks later and began speaking about his experience. A video of him attracted attention on You Tube and he wrote a book with Paul and Lynn Crawford called “Living in God’s Glory.”
Perio said, “If we find gold in each person, we won’t be looking for trash. If you’re looking for gold, you’re looking through God’s eyes.”