Crowd tops 20,000 at 10th annual En Fuego in Verbena

Sherry Simpler remembers the days when holding En Fuego meant handing out hot dogs to 300 people and watching a local band perform on the back of a flatbed trailer.
   
It all happened in an 80-acre horse pasture in Verbena. And it was only a decade ago.
   
Though the pasture venue hasn’t really changed, most everything else has in the 10 years since the event began, according to Simpler, a member of New Hope Baptist Church, Deatsville, in Elmore Baptist Association.
   
On Aug. 26, more than 20,000 people attended the 2006 edition of En Fuego, which means “on fire” in Spanish — a far cry from the first crowd of 300 and doubling last year’s more than 10,000. Christian band Third Day headlined the event with nationally known speaker David Nasser. Bands such as Hyper Static Union and Grits played earlier in the day.
   
“I don’t think we can even have a clue how large an impact it’s making,” said Simpler, who has worked with En Fuego since it began. 
   
More than 167 decisions were recorded this year, including four inmates from Chilton County Jail in Clanton who came to work the event and gave their lives to Christ. “And untold numbers aren’t recorded,” Simpler said.
   
The event is evangelistic but also serves the purpose of drawing together the community in service, according to Johnny Giles, chairman of En Fuego Ministries. “It’s sometimes hard to get local churches to sponsor an interdenominational event but we have overwhelming support. And 95 percent of our church support is Baptist,” he said.
   
More than 10 local Baptist churches and two Baptist associations — Elmore and Chilton — sponsored the event.
   
“This was our second year to participate from a financial point of view, and we had more involvement with providing manpower this time, too,” said Jim Jackson, director of missions for Elmore Association. “We feel it’s something we’ll continue to be a part of.”
   
Volunteers from the association served as counselors, as well as transporting and putting up a large tent provided by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
   
Giles said the help was definitely a blessing.
   
“All the assistance we had helped achieve the event’s purpose — to allow kids to worship and have a good time, with the ultimate goal of reaching as many as possible,” he said. “God has to be in it for us to be able to bring an event of that nature to the middle of nowhere.”
   
For more information, visit www.enfuegoinfo.com.