Power Team member Todd Keene tears a 2,000-page book in half with his bare hands.
Power Team member Matt Reed bends an iron bar with his hands.
Power Team member Todd Keene successfully tears a 2,000-page book in half with his bare hands.
Power Team member Matt Reed breaks bricks with his forearms.
Power Team members Matt Reed, Todd Keene and Crissy Dopson with Pastor Steve Dame of the Saipan Community Church.
Power Team member Matt Reed bends a frying pan.
OVER 1,000 community members witnessed the extraordinary strength of Power Team, a group of Christian evangelists who incorporate their preaching with displays of strength and martial arts skills, at American Memorial Park on Feb. 22-25, 2023.
Founded in the late 1970’s by John Jacobs, the Power Team’s performances are free for everyone who wants to hear the Gospel.
“The turnout was good — I was surprised with the number of people who came,” Saipan Community Church Pastor Steve Dame told Variety in an interview.
Dame said the show was a great opportunity for community members to find hope “where hope should be truly found — in Jesus.”
In the U.S., the Power Team’s performances are shown at megachurches or broadcast on Christian television stations.
On Thursday at American Memorial Park, Power Team members broke bricks and hollow blocks, bent steel bars and frying pans, tore a 2,000-page book with their bare hands, among other amazing feats of strength.
Todd Keene’s life story
During the show, Todd Keene, one of the Power Team members, recounted how he found a new life in Jesus.
Growing up in a house full of fear with an alcoholic father who physically abused Keene, his mother and his siblings, he said his heart and spirit were broken.
When Keene was sent to a Christian Camp, he said he was able to memorize more than 100 Bible verses but, pointing to his head, although “this was full, my heart was empty.”
When his parents divorced, Keene said he was forced to live with his alcoholic father.
He said he never wanted to stay home and would spend most of his time playing sports.
Eventually, he graduated from college, obtained a degree, and was offered a good position in a good company.
He said he heard how proud his father was of his achievements from the other customers of the bar his father patronized.
“I was shocked that my father was proud of me,” he added. He decided to go to the bar and drink with his father.
“Everybody was celebrating. I was ready to be like my father. I was in the bar, and I started to sip my beer and then I felt it,” he said, referring to a piercing pain in his heart. He blacked out and had to be brought to the hospital.
No one was with him in the ambulance, and he feared that he would die alone “while everybody continued to party.”
At the hospital, he learned that years of using steroids so he could excel in sports had taken a toll on his body.
“That’s when I realized I was hopeless,” he said. “I needed Jesus. I did not know who Jesus was, but I needed him and I wanted to surrender my life to him.”
He said he asked Jesus to heal him. That very day, he added, he no longer felt physical pain, and his hatred and anger were gone.
Prayer works
The Power Team’s show at American Memorial Park ended with audience members expressing their willingness to surrender their lives to God while the Power Team prayed for them.
