Back in 2018, our team had a last-minute cancellation, and due to some common friends in the ministry, we ended up doing a War for the first time in Brownsboro, TX (west of Tyler) with Darrell and Kacy Burns. It was one of the meetings where immediately our hearts were knit with this precious couple, and God’s blessing was clearly upon the meeting. Ever since, it has been a pleasure to return to Faith Baptist Church. God’s hand is on this church, several families are in the church because of The War in the past, and the young people in the community are ripe to hear the gospel!
One of the things that distinguishes this church from many others is that not only are the high school and junior high a stone’s throw away from the church building, but it also has a great relationship with the public schools and works to keep those relationships strong. Because of this, we had access to both the high school lunch room and the junior high lunch room to invite the young people. We were able to invite around 275 teens to come!
When Saturday night came around, considering the fact that we were competing against the high school prom, we were thrilled with a crowd in the 40’s. Not only were we glad for the crowd that God gave us, but when the preaching began, God gave us a holy hush, clear Holy-Spirit conviction, and an outstanding response in the invitation. 27 young people stood up and came down to the gym because they wanted to receive Christ, and 19 of them ended up clearly getting saved!
We had some many teens come back and so few counselors (maybe half a dozen counselors), we had to have 3-4 teens per counselor. One young man was clearly moved to tears, but was getting sidetracked by several tough situations from his past. I was waiting to follow up with the rest of the crowd, but this young man wanted to share his life story with me. I was conflicted. He told me that he had trusted God to get him through a difficult home situation and God gave me wisdom on the spot. I asked him, “So you relied upon God to help you through that tough time, but have you relied on Jesus to rescue you from hell yet?” He looked at me blankly for a moment, then I could see realization dawn on him. He said, “No, sir I have not. I see what you’re saying.” I had him step aside and talk to Christ while I spoke to the other young people. When I was able to follow up with him, he testified through tears that he had clearly trusted Christ alone to save him from his greatest danger: the consequences of his sin!
Another young man on the final night had left lost, but came back in to say goodbye to the Army team captain, Luke. Though he had only come back in to say goodbye, the Spirit of God was indeed moving on his heart. Luke, sensing the opportunity, turned his attention back to the message. After some more clarification, God’s conviction was evident and the young man trusted Christ!
There were many more great decisions over the three nights of our evangelistic rallies. By the time we had concluded on Monday night, 29 young people had received Christ as their Savior! Darrell and Kacy plan to do a week-long “Boot Camp” discipleship course with those who had gotten saved. We are praying that God will yield abundant remaining fruit through their efforts and His blessing!
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