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Virtual Hell: Apostolic Reinvent Halloween By John M. Aoki See Pictures Here. Each year, during
the Halloween season, the International Pentecostal Church in Bellflower,
California, puts on a stage production known as Virtual Hell, with
the primary goal of reaching teenagers with the message of Christ's
love. This year's production was the 12th drama in the
Virtual Hell series and was entitled Hell's Arena: Fight for
Your Soul. The Story Hell's Arena:
Fight for Your Soul is about a young adult named Jericho who
has just arrived in Hell, along with two strangers, Vivian and Lily.
Bewildered, fearful, and hopeless, the three discover a Hell unlike
any they have ever heard about. In this Hell, there is an
arena in which the Lost Souls must battle one another to avoid being
taken to the Pit of the Beast, the culmination/pinnacle of pain
and suffering. Lucifer, the warden and ruler of Hell, directs
all activities in Hell's Arena, using the Lost Souls as mere puppets
for his amusement. His favorite activities include reading everyone's
Judgment Records and unleashing the Beast to carry away the Lost
Souls who have fallen in battle. Jericho, Vivian,
and Lily try to figure out why they are in Hell and whether there
is anything they can do to escape. A mysterious Old Man tries
to help them understand and even offers them a dim ray of hope,
warning them, “Do not turn on each other.” After a failed
attempt to escape, Lucifer pushes the trio to the front of the line
to be judged and condemned in the Arena. Jericho, Vivian,
and Lily are left with the choice to either fight one another or
be brutally taken to the Pit by the menacing Beast itself.
When the three defy Lucifer by resolving not to turn on each other,
Lucifer begins to read their judgment records and, in doing so,
reveals how Jericho's life crossed, and ultimately destroyed, the
lives of Vivian, a girlfriend who committed suicide as a result
of his abuse, and Lily, a stranger he killed while driving drunk.
Jericho protests, “This can't be! I've never met them before!” But
his protest is futile. After Lucifer
reads their judgment records, Vivian and Lily despise each other
and choose to fight one another, sealing their fate. However,
in the heat of their brutal battle, they realize what they are becoming
and refuse to finish the fight. Frustrated, Lucifer decides
to send them all to the Pit, but Jericho stops him by offering to
face the Beast by himself, sparing Vivian and Lily's lives.
Lucifer accepts Jericho's bargain. Jericho fights
bravely, but he is no match for the Beast. As the Beast gets
ready to deal the final blow, Jericho cries out to God--the Lord,
Jesus Christ--for help. With loud thunder and a clash of lightning,
Jesus appears to intervene and save Jericho from the Beast.
Jesus reveals to Jericho that Hell's Arena was all a vision; however,
Vivian and Lily are real people who will come into Jericho's life
in a few years. Jericho discovers that the life he was leading
on Earth was taking him, and others, down the road of destruction--the
road to Hell. The purpose of the vision was to send Jericho
a message of change and hope so that he could not only prevent this
future tragedy, but also help Vivian and Lily understand God's help,
love, and mercy, just as he did. The Preparation In the months
leading up to Halloween, our creative team met once or twice a week
to develop the story for Hell's Arena. With a solid
cast of characters and a script, we held tryouts in early September
to determine who would best fill the roles of the main characters
and extras. By mid-September,
the cast was chosen and began having weekly practices. Included
in these practices were “battle rehearsals.” In coordination
with the theme of the play, many of our actors and actresses had
to perform hand-to-hand and weapon-to-weapon combat. To keep
the fighting realistic, we used replica weapons (e.g., swords, battle
axes, spears, clubs) that were heavy and of authentic quality (i.e.,
metal and wood--no plastic),but were not sharpened. Most importantly,
the cast and crew made, and followed through on, commitments to
pray and fast regularly for Virtual Hell 12. In addition,
they invited family, friends and acquaintances, knowing that the
salvation of souls was the main goal. The Outcome Over the course
of eight nights, more than 1,700 visitors came to experience Virtual
Hell 12--Hell's Arena. Opening night was a tremendous
success with over 300 in attendance (one of our biggest opening
nights ever), and we were blown away on Sunday night with over 500
in attendance. Since attendance
is usually low on weeknights, we decided to dedicate certain weeknights
to specific organizations and target groups. Monday was dedicated
to certain community outreach programs hosted by International Pentecostal
Church, including the Alcohol Chemical Treatment Series (A.C.T.S.)
program, the Release & Refocus (anger management) program, and
the Celebrate Recovery program. All people enrolled in such
programs were given free admission that night. Tuesday and
Thursday nights were designated as “High School Nights.” All
high school students with student I.D. cards were given free admission.
We had at least 60 students from nearby public high schools in attendance
on these nights. The Halloween Night and November 1st
performances yielded over 500 in attendance, ending with powerful
altar calls and hundreds praying. Each altar call,
from opening night to the final night, was great, marked by the
eagerness of the audience to make its way to the altars. After
every performance, the altars and pews were filled with seekers
who were hungry for God and crying out to Him. Over the eight-night
period of Virtual Hell 12, at least 22 people received the Holy
Ghost (as evidenced by speaking in other tongues) for the first
time! As I spoke to
invite people to the altar on Halloween Night, I told the audience,
“We do not take a bow at the end of the performances, because all
glory, honor. and praise belong to God, and our reward is to see
people praying to the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving His Spirit.”
During Virtual Hell 12: Hell's Arena: Fight for Your Soul
we got our reward. God is faithful! Vital Statistics
John Aoki is the Associate Pastor of International Pentecostal Church in Bellflower, California. Among his chief responsibilities as husband to his beautiful wife Kim and father of three (Andrew, Nick, and Lauren), he works full-time as a Senior Software Engineer in Irvine. In his spare time, John works incessantly, writing plays and developing stage and film productions for Apostolic Entertainment Ministry.
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