We had a good week at Fellowship Baptist Church in Portland, IN. Many years ago, Jim Van Gelderen led a team here while Mike Manor was the Pastor. Now, Pastor Hugh Kelly is leading the church, asking God to send a revival to Portland. We were expecting a harvest.
Though we had several challenges with recruiting as well as conflicting events going on in the community, God blessed us with a good crowd considering the circumstances. The first night, a football game had rescheduled in conflict with our event. The second night, two local concerts conflicted with our event. The third night, several other events were in conflict with our event. We had a total of 53 teens attend the week. Though our crowd was smaller, the competition was fierce. The Army team was down in numbers, but they dominated the first night, winning almost everything and ending the night with a 4,000 point lead. However, the Navy team made a come back the second and third nights, winning the week 52,400 to 37,100.
God worked in the preaching. Our first night, at the conclusion of the gospel message, 12 teenagers went back in the invitation and trusted Christ as their Savior. One young man who got saved that night has continued to text the Army team captain after we left and was sharing what God was teaching him in his Bible reading. Praise God for a hunger for and an understanding of the Word of God! The second night, 2 teens trusted Christ. One of the teens stayed and talked for almost two hours before trusting Christ. His hang up was his agnosticism and that no one could really “know” anything. At the conclusion of the conversation, he bowed his head and placed his faith on Jesus whom he had never seen! I was reminded of John 20:29, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” The final night, we had one young man trust Christ. All in all, 15 teens depended on Christ to save them. Praise the Lord for the plenteous harvest!
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