Women of faith filled every seat in The Stifel Theatre last Thursday (Feb. 23) for a sold-out evening of The Hope Revival Tour featuring Sarah Jakes Roberts and special guest Dr. Anita Phillips.
It was a massive ladies night out of praise & worship music, prayer, games, prizes, and most importantly messages of hopefulness.
“Allow healing to come into our heart. Heal before you can be right. Admit your heart is broken and tell your true story.” – Dr. Anita Phillips
“We are so excited to finally be in your city,” Jakes Roberts said as she walked out on stage to a rousing round of applause. “We have been waiting to see what God is gonna do in this place. I don’t know about you, but I feel like there’s a special anointing on tonight. I feel like it’s because you’re in the room. I feel like God has a special assignment for your city. What kind of women are in St. Louis? Are there some world changers here? Are there some women in here that are gonna take everything the enemy meant for evil and turn it around for good?”
Jakes Roberts told the crowd the purpose behind the tour was to drive the ideal that hope isn’t hoping that you get the car or the house you want, there’s a deeper meaning to it.
“I think if you would’ve taken me back to one of my most challenging seasons of life that if you would’ve asked me honestly what I’m hoping for, I would’ve said something like I hope I’m still worthy, I hope I’m gonna make it through this,” she said.
Known for her down-to-earth homegirl vibe, she transitioned to a Q&A session where she went around the room asking women in the crowd questions about what gives them hope. Some of the answers were hilarious and didn’t quite fit the responses Jakes Roberts was looking for. But for the ones that did answer the questions properly they were given monetary prizes including $500, a Sephora gift card, a Nordstrom gift card, and more.
After asking for someone who feels hopeful when they have their face beat (makeup nicely done), she came across an audience member who said she has to wear makeup everywhere she goes.
“I used to work the overnight shift at work and they were like why is she wearing makeup at nighttime,” the supporter said. “I don’t care where I go, I gotta put my makeup on.” Jakes Roberts gave her a Sephora gift card to reup on new products.
Jakes Roberts blessed an audience member with $500 who said she’s hopeful for an unexpected blessing opposed to having a lower bill.
“Let me tell yall today how God blessed me with an unexpected blessing,” the woman said. “My muffler needed to be fixed in my car. All I had was $500. I needed two mufflers fixed in my car, she fixed it for the price of one. I had an unexpected blessing of $250 that I did not have in the first place, that’s God. Thank God he’s still in the blessing business.”
The last question Jakes Roberts asked before bringing out Phillips was what gives you hope, someone asking you for forgiveness or finally being able to forgive yourself?
The woman responded that she’s struggled with forgiving herself for childhood trauma.
Expanding on the woman’s sentiments Phillips approached the stage and said, “The story you write about yourself has a generational impact.”
“It’s the narrative that I believe is the movie of my life that I’m writing,” Phillips said. “I’m telling that story to my children. The way I speak about myself, the way I dress and who I spend time with I’m telling my children a story about me. Generational trauma does not pass on hope, generational trauma is the enemy of generational praise.”
As a follow up question, Jakes Roberts asked Phillips, ‘How do you tell the truth about your story with the trauma in it and there be generational hope connected to it?’
“Get in touch with where we almost should’ve gone,” Phillips said. “Allow healing to come into our heart. Heal before you can be right. Admit your heart is broken and tell your true story.”
East St. Louis native Antwoinette Ayers was awarded the WE Drive Dreams Community Grant
in the amount of $1,500 on behalf of Jakes Roberts’ company Woman Evolve, ToyotaUSA, and Dream Project USA. Ayers is an entrepreneur with 14 years of experience. Her mission is to bring technology and financial literacy to communities and high school students, in particular.
Ayers thanked Jakes Roberts for the grant and prayed for every woman in the woman.
“As we enter into this place the kingdom of God is shifting,” Ayers said. “God is trying to tell us we can have it. You can be the multi-millionaire, you can be the dreamer that activates. I wanna pray over every woman that has a vision. That vision you had ten years ago, the one that you left behind, the one you put the kids in front of, I’m gonna ask God that he come into your life and that he resurrect that vision. That vision is gonna be the one that breaks generational curses over the family.”
“Faith is I believe that it is possible, but hope is that I believe it is possible for me,” Jakes Roberts said.
Here’s a photo gallery of the the event: The Hope Revival Tour with Sarah Jakes Roberts