Over a year ago, Pastor Aaron Rodgerson from Kirksville, MO asked me to come to his church for a meeting. My schedule was full so I had to tell him it was not going to work out. Well, then came COVID and some meetings cancelled in the fall. I saw Pastor Rodgerson in August and told him that I might be able to come after all. The Lord worked it out, and we ended up coming to Southside Baptist Church in late October. When we got there, Pastor Rodgerson told me that he was puzzled when I was initially not able to come since he was sure the Lord had laid our coming on his heart. That was such a blessing to hear! The week was a Divine appointment.
Last year John Pound came to Southside Baptist Church and conducted War Blitz. Pastor Rodgerson asked us to conduct another War Blitz to build on what happened a year ago. Wow! Did that ever happen! We had an increase in attendance and several “veterans” from last year came. There were 15 salvation decisions. Amazingly that was just under half of the amount of teens that came from the community.
The church has a great outreach to kids in the community through Patch Club. Some teens that came out this week to the rally nights were formerly involved in Patch Club. One of these girls came out each night, bringing friends with her each night. Her friends responded to the invitation and were saved, but although this girl raised her hand, she never responded. Finally on the last night, one of the team members approached her directly and asked if she wanted to talk to someone. She said that she would only if she could bring a friend, which of course was fine. Both of these young ladies accepted Christ that night. It was incredible to see this girl get saved herself after being a part of bringing quite a few others to know the Lord!
One young man that came out to the rally nights used to ride the bus to church but hadn’t come for years. He didn’t respond the first night, but on the second night he responded at the invitation. Mateo took him aside to talk to him. The young man admitted that he was scared and didn’t want to go to hell. As he finished praying, he looked up smiling and said he was no longer scared about going to hell.
One girl that came out was a connection from someone at the church. She and two friends were there on Saturday night. At the invitation, she got up right away to respond and was saved. It was great to see that she didn’t let friends hold her back from making a decision. Another young lady came on Sunday night, responded to the invitation, and had tears in her eyes as she came out from getting saved.
A young man who came out to all three rally nights was actually a college student that Ryan recruited in Walmart. He responded to the invitation on Thursday night. As he prayed to trust Christ as his Savior, he told the Lord that He knew all he had been through and that he had never been accepted before. He then recognized that Jesus was accepting him. Praise the Lord for this young man’s salvation!
It was a great week and one of the marks of the week was the clear change that was taking place as teens got saved. I believe God is going to continue to work there!
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