Michael W. Smith Recounts How God Protected Him Amid Danger in Bahrain
By Movieguide® Contributor
When Michael W. Smith signed up to sing at a concert in Bahrain, he faced a threat to his life.
In the midst of danger, all he needed was a reminder that God had his back.
“Bahrain is a predominantly Muslim country, and the church is strong there, but they’re small. I got invited to come and do a concert of peace, of all people they could have invited,” Smith recalled in a 98.5 KTIS interview. “I get invited by a Hindu, a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew and a Catholic.”
“When I got that invite…something leaped in my heart, and [I’m] going, ‘I think I’m supposed to go do that.’ So I had to be approved by the king. Probably the very first ‘Christian concert’ maybe in that country,” he said.
Two hours before his performance, Smith’s security team backed out because they thought there would be a protest.
“So I got security from Bahrain, and I’m in the car, and I keep thinking about the movie TAKEN. Somebody’s gonna pull up, and I’m gonna die tonight,” he explained.
The “Open the Eyes of My Heart” singer felt terrified as he called his wife, Debbie.
“I’m actually shaking. Like my jaws, just kind of everything sort of…you know. I was scared, and I never get scared,” he said.
“Now I just said, ‘I’m scared. I’m like really scared’ and you know she said, ‘You know how many people are praying for you? that’s what she said, “I know, I know, I know. She said ‘Man, you are covered. You’re covered.’”
So Smith got into a “caravan” of bulletproof cars. They drove for 20 minutes before they made it to the basketball arena where he would sing. When Smith arrived, he saw that there were no protesters.
“[I] walked in and just the prince of God was so thick. I cried through the whole show. I couldn’t stop crying because I kept thinking…there’s something happening here,” We’re shifting the atmosphere,” Smith said.
“And it was miraculous how I even got invited and how I ended up there and then, yeah…it was just kind of one of those moment times for me,” he said.
Smith previously said that he should “write a book” about that event.
“It was unbelievable,” he said on “Christopher Closeup.” “There were probably 100 miracles that took place for me to even come. It was very, very shocking when I got the request that I’d been invited to Bahrain and been cleared by the king.”
Movieguide® previously reported Smith’s impact on Christian music:
“I still think [music] is the most powerful universal language in the world,” Smith said. “It’s amazing how a three-and-a-half-minute song can completely change somebody’s life. The fact that I’ve been doing it for now four decades, I’m just so grateful. You get to see transformation, you get to see the music just completely impact people’s lives and for me, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Smith is currently on his “Forever Tour.” This month, he’ll perform two concerts in the Netherlands before heading back to the U.S.
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