Over the years we have had some wonderful weeks here at Beth Haven Baptist Church. We thank God for Pastor Crowell and the people of BHBC. They love the Lord and love souls. It is always a blessing to labor with these folks. This year the week somehow seemed the best one yet!
The week was amazing! First, there were 45 salvation decisions. Below are testimonies of some of the young people who got saved.
“And this week I was saved just yesterday and I truly understood what it means to be with God, what it means to walk beside Him in the light. And let me tell you people, it’s the most amazing feeling you’ll ever feel to be saved by God and understand what it means.”
“I just wanted to tell you guys that I’m happy cause God saved me and took all of my sins away.”
I just got saved this week and…um…my story’s short. I just want you guys all to get saved, too. Um…all you have to is…um…trust Jesus and…um…then you get to go to Heaven!”
“I just got saved this…2 days ago. And like, you might think that’s impossible, put God in your heart, but anything’s possible through the Lord.”
“I don’t come from a religious home. I was invited here by a friend. And I was saved Wednesday and I’m happy!”
After the last night’s service, a young man who had just come that night came up to me and said, “I want to thank you for doing this.” “Are you saved?” I asked. He replied, “No, I’m not. I grew up in a non-religious home. I’ve never heard this before.” I then continued, “Well, the Bible says, ‘The things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.’ There’s a whole realm you can’t see, but it’s real. It’s the spiritual realm and it’s the realm that God is in. Let me ask you a question, is something going on in your heart?” He honestly answered, “Yes, there is.” I replied, “That’s God. Would you like somebody to show you how to be saved?” I asked. “Yes, I would,” he responded. I took him to one of the teens in the youth group and asked him to go through the Gospel with him. It was a thrill to do the follow-up and see the boy with joy in his eyes after he had trusted the Lord!
A young man was brought to me after being counselled for salvation. I routinely asked him, “If you died right now, where would you go?” He replied, “Well, I’ve done a lot of bad stuff so I would go to hell.” I realized he did not have it settled so I said to one of our team captains, “Wyatt, would you talk to him?” Wyatt did and he really got it settled and brought several friends the next two nights.
During the school day the students were very responsive to God’s Word. On Friday we had a wonderful prayer meeting. It was great to hear the students lift their voices to the Lord declaring their need of Him.
There was a message preached this week on strongholds. The idea was that a stronghold is not just a sin that gets someone every day. It could be a sin that one commits every few weeks. The point is that it keeps coming back. One young man testified about that message and then said, “I don’t know why I couldn’t shake it [the sin issue] and I realized I was trying to do it myself. God says the only way you can is through Him. The only way you can is by total surrender, by TOTAL reliance on Him. Umm…I was thinkin’, ‘I’ll be alright. I’ll be fine.’ No, God says, ‘Without Me ye can do nothing.’”
Another young man referred to the message on strongholds as well and then said, “I knew that God personally spoke to me in that and I knew there was stronghold I had to get out of my life and I want to encourage you guys, if there’s a stronghold you guys have given up and you’re still struggling with it, go to your parents. Get right with your parents. Get accountability for your parents, your pastor, or some youth leader. Get it outta your life. Cause I will tell you one thing for sure, if you don’t get it out of your life, it’s still going to be with you and you’re still going to struggle with it and eventually you fall back into it.”
One young lady brought a bag of things to the microphone during the testimony time on Friday evening and began her testimony. “So in this bag…yeah, there are things that have made my life difficult. In my hand there are things that have made my life totally…just horrible. I grew up going to church here . . . and I went to Grattan Academy when I was in 3rd grade and I just had “world” written all over me. And I…I was covered in darkness, I was depressed, I just…I don’t know what happened, then in 4th grade I came back. And my parents…we stopped going to church as a family when I was about 4 or 5 and we just…we were letting the devil wiggle between our family. . . So here I am in 8th grade, holding everything that has made my life difficult: CDs, video games, everything. And I’m…here I stand, totally surrendered and totally dependent in front of the people that I love and people that love me and some of you I’ve never seen before. So, thank you!” At that point she threw all the things in the bag into the fire!
One night after the meeting, I noticed a young lady giving the Gospel to a group of girls in the front of the auditorium. Although some were saved, some rejected. As a result that young lady and a friend of hers in the youth group got together at the front of the church and began to pray for the lost. They wept as they poured out their hearts for a young lady that night, among others, who had rejected the Gospel. A few days later that young lady was saved.
Well, there are a lot of other stories we could tell, but the report would get longer than it is. Suffice it say the team was encouraged. Also, a few weeks after we left several teens were baptized who were saved at the meeting!
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