West Monroe Worship Experience Highlights Stories of Hope

More than 275 people recently gathered at Christ Church in West Monroe, Louisiana, for the third annual Worship Experience presented by Mercy Multiplied.

“We wanted to create a space for people to hear from the Lord,” said Caronda Williams, Mercy’s Community Relations Manager in West Monroe, “and that’s what happened. The presence of the Lord was so thick in the room people couldn’t even stand to worship!”

Williams, who planned the November 7 event, reported that singer and songwriter Malorie Akin took people “to the Throne Room” as she led worship. The stage setting was intimate, with simple accompaniment from Akin on guitar and Andre Williams at the piano.

Songs like “Reveal” and “Solid” brought power and poignancy to the room. Malorie Akin shared her beautiful song “Stripped Away” written many years ago while she was in Mercy’s Residential Counseling Program. It was only the second time Akin had sung the song publicly, and the audience was mesmerized by this very personal testimony.

The emcee for the Worship Experience was celebrated author, speaker, and the COO of Duck Commander, Jeffrey Kent, who spoke briefly about the impact of Mercy’s Center for Wellness and Counseling (CWC) in the West Monroe community. Kent commented on his experience going through the CWC himself and described Mercy as “bold in making decisions like opening counseling to men. Over 500 people have gone through that program and been blessed,” Kent said.

Videos shown at the event featured responses to the question: “How did God use Mercy Multiplied to transform your life?” A 2020 Mercy graduate shared the generational impact of Mercy’s Residential Counseling Program. A Keys to Freedom Retreat participant described how the retreat helped her “set aside all the distractions of life to take time to hear from the Lord.” A young man who participated in a Keys to Freedom study said the chapter on Choosing to Forgive helped him break free of some harmful generational patterns.

One highlight of the evening was a testimony from Shari Littleton. In the fall of 2020, at the suggestion of a friend, Littleton applied for the CWC program, which had just opened. “Putting in the work during my time in counseling was very difficult,” Littleton shared, but she learned to receive grace from God and began to understand that “repentance and forgiveness is a way of life.”

Littleton said the counseling program helped her discover that God is her best friend and will never turn His back on her. “God’s voice always brings light, hope, and love,” Littleton said. “When you allow yourself to get quiet and just focus on asking Him your questions, He will answer— and sometimes in the most unexpected ways.” Since completing the CWC program, Littleton has attended Mercy’s Keys to Freedom Retreat.

Wendy Nichols, who serves as the Keys to Freedom Retreat Director, was invited to the platform to talk about the retreat, which she described as a time for connection with the Lord, worship, teaching sessions, personal reflection time, small group sessions, fun, and fellowship. The purpose of the retreat, Nichols said, is “giving people space to hear from God. We work in tandem with the Lord to create an atmosphere where His presence is welcome.”

Nichols then invited the audience to participate in an activity used at the retreat called Lectio Divina, a practice of reading Scripture slowly, meditating on each phrase, and asking God to reveal His truth as you sit quietly in His presence. She asked audience members to close their eyes, and the room was very still as Nichols read slowly through Psalm 23 and invited each individual to consider what God was saying to them through this passage.

Caronda Williams thought the time for meditation was well received. She wanted to include this in the program to provide a “snapshot” of the retreat, especially for people who have not experienced hearing from the Lord themselves and think it is only available to “other people.”

“The CWC has a waitlist,” Williams commented, “and we have a wait list for the Residential Counseling Program, but the Keys to Freedom Retreat is flowing and people can access it.”

After the Worship Experience evening concluded, participants said the evening was “incredible” and “phenomenal.” The event was live streamed on Mercy’s Facebook page, and many viewers commented they were grateful to witness the service online.

Malorie Akin’s music is available on streaming platforms.

Information about the Keys to Freedom Retreat is available on the Mercy Multiplied website here.