Over 3000 people gathered on Sunday morning for Worship in the City at the Southeast Event Center in Steinbach. Worship in the City is part of the annual festival, Summer in the City, which celebrates and highlights the culture of Southeastern Manitoba. Worship in the City is a collaboration of 14 local churches that come together to put on the service. A new part of this year was the community choir that was open to members of the community to join. This year was the first year the service was held indoors. This year's decision to move inside was necessitated by a need to increase capacity for more worshippers. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CHVN 95.1 FM (@chvn951) The theme of the morning was 'New life in Christ' and attendees heard from local speaker Udylz Upeshova, about her journey to Christ. Originally from Kazakhstan, Upeshova, spoke about her joy learning about Christ in the Muslim-majority country. "I felt like I found a treasure and I wanted to learn more," said Upeshova. She also spoke about the fear of persecution she faced before calling Steinbach her home. RELATED STORIES: The prodigal son returns: Steinbach Olympian calls people back to the heart of God Worship in the City gets new home for 2026 A life of tragedy and trauma CHVN Content Director, Mike Thom was the keynote speaker for the morning. He shared a powerful testimony of how Christ called him into His Kingdom, after living a lifestyle of addiction and trauma. "20 years ago, my life was spiraling out of control. I had experienced trauma and tragedy over and over again, and it all caused me to reject God," said Thom. Thom said that his experience with loss and suffering led him down a path of rejecting God. "By the time I was almost 25, I lost over 10 friends in tragic ways, so I rejected God. I grabbed onto anything that I thought might help numb the pain," said Thom. "By the time I was 24, almost 25, I was a full-blown drug addict." Encountering Jesus in the middle of darkness Thom said that in the middle of his despondency God met him after crying out to Him. "One Sunday morning, June 25, 2006, I met Jesus on my bedroom floor. I cried out on that bedroom floor, 'God if You're real show Yourself to me', recalled Thom. Thom shared how Bible verses Jeremiah 29:11-12, about how God promised to reveal Himself to His people in exile if they sought Him, ministered to him. "That became so real to me. I called on Him [God], I prayed, and Jesus met me there," said Thom. He continued that he encountered Jesus in the midst of darkness, "Jesus met me, not when I became respectable, He met me on that floor in the mess, in the middle of my own exile and He began the process of bringing me home." View this post on Instagram A post shared by CHVN 95.1 FM (@chvn951) Ambassadors of Christ's kingdom Thom reflected that not only did Jesus save him, but He also invited him to be a part of His kingdom. "Jesus didn't just rescue me from something that day, He invited me into something. Jesus invited me into a new life. centered on Him, and that life is a life in the Kingdom of God," said Thom. Thom concluded his message by encouraging attendees to be ambassadors of Christ's Kingdom and be part of Christ's mission of reconciliation. "We are ambassadors of Christ's reconciliation. People who refuse to write others off no matter how far gone they are. People who see the image of God in those around them," said Thom.