What an intense week to start a tour! The Youth Pastor of First Baptist Church, Joey Quilty, had been trying to get one of our teams to do a teen evangelistic outreach in conjunction with their Vacation Bible School for years. Finally, this summer God opened up the opportunity for us to go down to Florida in the summertime.
Our week was filled not only with intense heat, but an intense schedule as well. Not only did we do our typical evening rallies, but we also did “Wars” every morning. All in all, we had seven rallies complete with big competitions, trivia, skits, and gospel preaching. We had five rallies in the morning and two at night on Wednesday and Thursday night. What a week!
The competition was also very heated during the week. We used about every competition we’ve ever used as a ministry before. The week began with the Army and Navy team neck and neck. The first day, the teams ended with a tie at 8,400 points. After the second day, Navy was ahead by 600 points. After the third, Army was ahead by 400 points. However, after the first evening rally on Wednesday evening, the Army team began to pull ahead. By the conclusion of the week, the Army team won by 37,800 points. After seven rallies and two solid days of recruiting, we are exhausted!
However, the effort was more than worth it. We had a total of 151 teens attend our events over the five days with a high night of 79. After seven gospel messages, 24 teens trusted Christ as their Savior. One young man told a team captain that he knew he needed to get saved, but was too afraid what other people would think. He admitted that it was pride, but left the event without Christ. The next day he came back. God worked in his heart, and when he was confronted by the same team captain, he said that he was depending on his baptism, his prayer, and his experience, not Jesus Christ alone. The team captain was able to lead him to Christ. The next day after the next rally was over, the young man said it was so nice to sit through a gospel sermon knowing he was going to heaven. One young lady said that she didn’t believe the Bible. Nevertheless, she showed up on Thursday night and stayed for the preaching. During the invitation, God worked in her heart. She responded and trusted Christ. Another young man hadn’t respond all week. One of our team members asked him about his salvation after the final rally. The young man admitted that he was depending on Jesus and himself to get to heaven. When he realized that he had to depend on Jesus alone to get to heaven, he readily placed his faith in Jesus. There were also 5 other decisions made during the week as well, ranging from assurance of salvation to dealing with hidden sin. Praise God for the incredible opportunity in the sunny south!
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