This was our first week of the 2020 tour and our third time at Victory Baptist Church in Baytown, TX with Pastor David Cripps. His new Youth Pastor, Trevon Kemp, was saved as a teen in his home country of the Bahamas. This was his first exposure to The War. It was a meeting full of answered prayer and exceeded expectations.

Our week didn’t start out that way, however. Our goal is normally to get 300 recruits, but we ended the first day with 67—a terrible start. The second day of recruiting brought some deliverance: we were allowed to invite several JROTC classrooms in an area high school. However, halfway through the day, they asked us to stop getting names and numbers—a major setback. From school dismissal until supper, we only got 9 recruits. We were in desperate straights. In the evening, I decided to get out there myself and recruit as well. Between my recruits, the team members, and some sharp young people from the church, we got 56 recruits in a two hour period! But even with that deliverances, we still only had 172 recruits—far fewer than the 300 we were aiming for. We needed a greater deliverance.

As we met for prayer on Saturday morning, I told the team that statistically we were in trouble. From a human standpoint, we were going to have a very low crowd unless the Lord intervened. As we prayed, God laid on our hearts to pray that we would exceed 40 that night—an impossibility from a statistical standpoint. Yet we sensed liberty to ask for it.

That night, God not only answered our prayer and brought us 45 teens, the spirit of the night was tremendous, the guys performed their duties flawlessly, and we had 14 trust Christ in the invitation! It was the best start to a tour that I can remember!

One team captain talked to a young lady outside of Chick-Fil-A. He wasn’t sure if she really wanted to come, but she signed up anyway. When he contacted her to see if she was coming, she said she was and that she was bringing her brother. On the first night, both of them trusted Christ and came all three nights.

One of the team captains was leaving the local high school and saw a young man walking out of the bath house. He invited him to come and he signed up. He ended up coming out on the first night and brought a friend. They both responded in the invitation and trusted Christ.

Another young man was invited at the JROTC classes. The team wasn’t able to get his information because of the restrictions of the commander, but he came anyway. He came out on the first night, trusted Christ, and began to invite his friends so they could trust Christ. He brought one young lady who rejected the gospel and texted his team captain asking if he could bring her again. He desperately wanted to see her get saved!

Another young man came from the JROTC. He responded in the invitation on the first night, but had some confusion about the decision. He came back on the second night and brought his three sisters. Not only did he get his decision nailed down, several of those he brought trusted Christ as well. He returned on the final night and his sisters brought a friend too.

One team captain was trying to invite a young man and his mother at Walmart. The young man spoke perfect English, but his mother has having a hard time following. The teen from the church piped up and began speaking to the mother in Spanish and the mother warmed instantly. The young man came on the second night, trusted Christ, and returned with his mother on the final night. They said they would be in church on Wednesday.

Also, the teens in the church did a tremendous job inviting. Between all of the teens, they independently recruited over 30 teens on their own. One teen brought out an entire family from Haiti, one of which trusted Christ. The teens had a sweet spirit and a willingness to serve, which was such a breath of fresh air and a testament to what God is doing at Victory Baptist Church.

When everything had finished on Monday night, we had 73 teens attend the meeting, which was an unbelievable percentage considering how few recruits we were able to get. 22 of those young people trusted Christ as their Savior and 30 stood to their feet to declare their desire to completely surrender their lives to Christ. Many of those young people told us they planned to be back in church on Wednesday night.