This fall, the team was scheduled to be in California for the first two months of the tour. When I began to realize that weeks might cancel due to the coronavirus situation, I began to consider other places the team could go. I thought of Pleasantville, IA and called Pastor Potter. He was open to the idea so when the first California church/school cancelled, I called back and they scheduled the team. Wow! It was a Divine appointment. God worked all week in the Christian school, and we were thrilled with the opportunity to minister there.

Our team came into the week knowing about one young lady who would be in chapel all week that wasn’t saved. We were praying for her salvation all that week. It came to Friday night at the campfire, when she finally responded to the invitation and went inside for counseling. Rhonda went through the gospel with her until she finally understood, and she was gloriously saved! 

A young lady in the Christian school responded after the message on bitterness and admitted that she was struggling with her relationship with a parent. Because of situations that had happened, she had really put up a wall. Ultimately she admitted that she was bitter at God, and realized that blaming others was not a way to cope with circumstances in her life. She realized that she needed to depend on God completely!

Another young lady responded on Friday at chapel and admitted she had been struggling with bitterness. She was able to take some steps towards trusting God and said in her testimony: 

“I made a decision just this week about bitterness and attitude….And I was able to talk to my parents about it, and they were very just thankful I came to them and…I wanted to be honest with them.”

Another young lady gave a testimony on Friday: 

“…through a chapel service that Dr. Van Gelderen preached in the afternoon, I—you talked about getting right, and getting right with God and people you’ve lied or cheated on things with…so actually last week in school—you know on the laptop, it’s really easy to cheat—and last week I cheated on a quiz. And so after that chapel service, I left and went to that teacher and I got it right with them and I got it right with God.” 

One young man in the Christian school responded on Wednesday and had a long talk with the youth pastor. He shared in a testimony: 

“God really broke me about reading my Bible and stuff and it was right before school started.…and the past three weeks have been pretty good. It was four weeks ago. And then this week it really just died off, and I wondered why…I was wondering why. And then this morning, Brother Van Gelderen was preaching on doing stuff in your own strength, in the flesh, and that’s the way I was doing it. I wasn’t putting my trust in God. And right here, I was sitting here…wrestling with God whether I should come up here or not. And then God said, “Well if you can’t trust me to come up there, you’re not going to be able to keep the decision to read your Bible.” So…put your faith in God and trust Him.”

Well because of this young man’s testimony at the campfire, a young man who came out that night to the rally raised his hand at the invitation. Pastor Potter was able to pull him aside and go through the gospel with him. He said that when he heard the testimony, he decided that if the young man could give a testimony, then he could get saved. He was saved that night!

Our team left on a Thursday, and we got a call from the youth pastor while we were driving down the road. Apparently the next day as he was teaching Bible class, he knew something needed to change. So all the guys got in a circle, started reading Bible passages, talking and getting honest with each other. The young man (who gave the testimony) asked one of the guys who hadn’t responded all week why he wasn’t being honest. He broke down at that point, and got open with the guys. They all prayed together. Our team saw the difference in this young man (who broke after we left) when the church came up to the Thee Generation Youth Summit. How thrilling to see that all the students were touched with revival that week! We praise the Lord for the lasting work that He is doing in Pleasantville, Iowa!