This is the fourth time the team has been to Hudson View Baptist Church in Yonkers, NY. Yonkers is just north of the Bronx in New York City. As the name suggests you can stand on the front porch and see the Hudson River. Although we enjoyed the week immensely, we missed Pastor Bill Dierking who was the pastor the last three visits. Right now the church is without a pastor. We enjoyed working with Mark Benedict and Bob Wynn, who work with the school.
Because of the nature of the church property, the three-way games will not work. Last time we were here, we moved to two teams and were able to do the whole event on the church property. This is what we did this time as well. The Navy Seals and Marine Recon squared off for a great week of competition. (Sorry, Army Rangers!)
The team did a wonderful job recruiting and many teens were invited. Over the three nights we had over 60 teens show up. On Wednesday night we had several visitors and when the invitation was given four young men responded. One was from the school and he dealt with the important issue of assurance. I ended up dealing with two young men. After presenting the Gospel, I invited them to pray. When one of the boys prayed, he wept as he confessed many different sin issues in his life. I found out later that he had been suspended that very day. His great grandmother had brought him that night. When he was done, I had him hold my Bible and encouraged him to claim the promise of salvation based on John 3:36. He did and I could tell it clicked with him. The other young man also claimed God’s promise of salvation with tears in his eyes. When I took the one young man to his great grandmother and he told her what he had done, she had tears in her eyes. There is nothing like seeing the Lord work.
On the second night some new recruits came. When the invitation was given, you could tell God was working, but there was little response. Later when I came downstairs I saw one team captain dealing with two and another dealing with one. The team captains had been “fishing the parking lot.” What a joy when these teens came to Christ! One young man was out of High School. When I asked about his salvation, I wish you could have seen the confidence he answered about his surety of sins forgiven and eternal life.
Although the students in the school were definitely into the week, our team could tell there was resistance to God’s working in their hearts. There was very little visible response to God’s working. On Friday during chapel, I sensed the need to preach from Proverbs 29:25 on the “fear of man”. I was thrilled when most of the students responded to the invitation indicating they had been guilty of the “fear of man” and wanted to be done with it. I asked them if the “fear of man” was a private sin or a public one. They responded that it was public. I then invited them to pray if they sensed the Lord wanted them to do so. Many prayed broken prayers confessing to God their lack of courage and need of Him. It was a time of heaven on earth.
On Friday evening, there were over 50 teens who attended. The competition was intense and the Navy Seals ended up winning the week on the final trivia question. It was a nail biter. More importantly though, several teens responded to the invitation to get saved. Also, several teens gave testimony of God’s working in their hearts. It was a great week.
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