MOUNT VERNON — Quiet Love is not the average Christian ministry. Before a concert, the performers wander around wearing glow-in-the-dark face paint, black clothes and white gloves. They pray together in preparation.
Founder Nickolas Williams tells them, “We don’t know what the harvest is going to be, but we are going to plant seeds tonight, and plant seeds and plant seeds.”
There’s a buzz of anticipation in the air, and most audience members seem to know what it’s all about. The few who don’t, will get goosebumps and chills up their spines when the auditorium lights go out and the black lights come on.
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The Quiet Love performers blend into the darkness, except for their faces and hands glowing white under the lights.
They sign in sync to modern Christian music, hands and arms moving to the energetic beat. A large cross glows on the curtain behind them.
The audience is immediately captivated and can’t contain itself for more than a few minutes. They rise to their feet, swaying and clapping. Many are wearing gloves too, their hands raised and waving rhythmically in the air.
As the songs progress, they take props out of boxes. There are glow-in-the-dark flags, ribbons, balls, Frisbees, Slinkies ... all flying through the air, some into the audience, which throws them back. There’s light and movement to catch the eye all over the stage, with the beat of the music and the Christian lyrics pounding out the rhythm.
Make no mistake, however, Quiet Love isn’t about special effects, per se. Their message is salvation, plain and simple, and the props, the face paint, the gloves ... well, those are for driving home the insistence and importance of their point: “Ye must be born again.”
Nickolas Williams, founder of the group, is 29 years old, an artist and native of Coshocton County, and teaches sign language and interprets for a deaf student at a Richland County elementary school. He’s self-taught in American Sign Language and has been working in the field four years.
“We have a ministry that has probably reached more hearing people than deaf people,” Williams said. “We take signing to a new level.”
He founded the group in 2005, first performing alone. As more audiences viewed the dramatic, emotional productions, more volunteers wanted to participate. The ministry has grown quickly, and a Quiet Love Foundation has been formed to apply for nonprofit status and put together a board of directors. Everyone involved is a volunteer.
The goal for the future is to “plant” the ministry all over the country in churches, which will then manage their own Quiet Love ministries.
“We’re always seeking people who have a heart for signing and for ministry,” Williams said.
He explained that the drama of the production gets people’s attention and makes them really “hear” the Christian message. He said that when the lighting in a room is controlled, viewers are able to look at only one spot at a time.
“It’s an attention-grabber,” he said. “I prefer the black light because it has a much more powerful effect. It makes the songs and the message come alive.”
The group gets together for practice twice a week, at the Utica First Baptist Church and at the Bellville New Life Church of Christ. They travel three or four times a month and have performed all over Ohio.
Tanya Lindsley drives in from Dresden for practices and performances. Her daughters, Nicole, 8, and Kailey, 5, perform too. Lindsley attended a “deaf camp” a few months ago near Zanesville and saw Quiet Love perform.
“They were really, really moving,” she said, “and I asked them if I could join. I’ve always had a desire for sign language, so when God put Quiet Love in my path, that did it. You hear amens, cheers, see hands go up in the audience, and you know God is moving.”
At Colonial City Baptist Church in Bangs on Monday evening, 7-year-old Tate Blunt, who attends Bellville Elementary and is the son of Nikki and Carl Blunt, performed for the first time on stage. When he was ready to begin signing his first song, he called out, “Hit it, deejay!” Blunt wants to be an interpreter when he grows up and explained that he thinks God wants him to.
Quiet Love performer Jeff Osborn of Mount Vernon, said, “It was a calling from God, I honestly believe. It was something I needed to do. And I didn’t like mimes or clowns or make-up before this.”
Williams becomes deeply emotional during the performances as he explains to the crowd the way to salvation and its importance.
A very moving segment of the performance presents a man on his knees at the front of the stage, at the foot of the cross, wrapped in chains and being pummeled by demons.
Williams, dressed in eerily glowing white robes, represents the figure of Christ, who casts away the demons, removes the chains, helps the man stand and keeps him from falling down again. The signing for the words “freedom” and “joy” are obvious even to those unacquainted with American Sign Language.
Williams’ voice breaks with emotion as he tells the audience how he got involved with Quiet Love, “I am a broken person made whole, saved by the grace of God. You can be made whole too.”
To get involved with Quiet Love call Williams at 504-1426. To check out the ministry’s schedule, visit www.quietlove.us.
