First Baptist Church of Clute, TX and I have had an interesting history together. Without going into all of the details, every time we have ministered there, it has been with a different set of pastors. This time was no exception. Though the church has been through its challenges along the way, with more no doubt ahead, I am confident that its new pastor, Josh McGee, is going to lead them the right direction in it all.
One thing that was unusual about the week was our schedule. We adjusted our rally dates to Friday through Sunday nights so that we could avoid a significant scheduling conflict. Thankfully, our schedule allowed for us to arrive on Tuesday and to begin recruiting on Tuesday night.
After the challenges of the previous week, I was burdened that the guys get desperate with the Lord and find breakthroughs in their faith. Thankfully, the Lord gave us some encouraging results.
For one, I was able to speak to the JROTC commander about his cadets at a nearby high school. One of the benefits we have as a ministry is that since we use a military theme, JROTC leaders and their students are very much “into” what we are doing. Not only was I able to recruit a classroom of Seniors, the commander let me use a projector to show them the competitions. These cadets were not just any cadets, they were the leaders of their various squads. I “commissioned” them to recruit their squads and to get them to sign up. We had a good number attend from this opportunity.
The guys in their recruiting didn’t do too bad either. After two and a half days of recruiting, they recruited a total of 203 young people. Definitely better than the week prior.
The first rally wasn’t huge—we had 37 young people—but it was ripe. At the invitation, I counted 16 young people who came back to talk about salvation. When all was said and done, 12 had trusted Christ!
There was one young man, though who refused to get saved on the first night. He clearly understood but was unwilling. We don’t force young people to make “a decision”, so I challenged the young man before he left and prayed that the Spirit of God wouldn’t leave him alone until he trusted Christ. He returned the next night and was one of the first ones back at the invitation. When I talked with him afterward, he told me that he couldn’t get it off of his mind. Amen!
Another group of six or so guys got saved on the first night. During the preaching on the second night, they got a text that their Uncle had unexpectedly died. They wept through the rest of the sermon and they all came back in the invitation to talk to us about it—they were hurting but confident in their salvation. God used the death to bring one more from their group to salvation who had refused to get saved on the first night. On the final night they came back in the invitation again, but this time to pray that the rest of their family would be saved. God was deepening their burden for others!
One young lady who attended all three nights shared with me that she was in a mental institution three years prior because she had tried to commit suicide. She would have tried to do it again except the Lord brought a Bible into her hands and she stumbled upon a passage from Psalm 143 that began to stabilize her mind. God preserved her life so that she could hear the gospel and trust Christ on Sunday night. She was thrilled and unashamed!
But even with all of the reports of God’s goodness and His working, the week wasn’t without challenges of its own. Just hours before our first rally, a woman from the city came to inform me that it was illegal for us to live in our trailer within city limits. She said we needed to move out immediately or face a $200 fine. After some explanation and appeals, she told me that her shift was over at 5pm and she would be back on Monday at 8am. I immediately recognized it for what it was—a spiritual attack and a satanic distraction. I resisted the devil in my heart and pressed forward. The pastor’s wife was later able to contact some city officials who confirmed that we were fine until Monday.
Also, on Saturday night we had a woman who was watching suddenly drop to the ground in a seizure. Thankfully we had someone present who knew how to keep her safe until the paramedics arrived. Yet even so, I had to keep momentum going during spoke tackle while an ambulance and paramedics were competing for everyone’s attention. Thankfully, she was fine and returned home from the hospital that evening.
But even with the battles we faced, after all was said and done in Clute, we preached the gospel to 67 young people and 24 trusted Christ. God deserves the glory, because He did it!
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