What a tremendous week at Heritage Baptist Church in Dewitt, MI! Pastor Shawn Smith is no stranger to Minutemen Ministries. Our teams have been through several times in the past years. This time around, we had some unique challenges involving transportation and other logistics. We pressed forwarding believing that God would do a work. After two days of recruiting, we were a bit discouraged about the number of contacts we had made–we were about 90 contacts behind where we needed to be. Though we were tempted to despair, we cried out to the Lord to deliver us for Wednesday evening, and He certainly did!
The first night, God blessed in such a great way, we didn’t have room enough to receive it–literally! We so packed out their buses, that we had to find alternate ways for the teens to get to church the next night. The first night, the Army team swept the night entirely, winning both outside competitions, almost all of trivia, and the cheering contest. The score ended up at 13,300 for Army and 8,000 for Navy. After the preaching, many teens moved in the invitation. One young lady clearly understood the gospel, telling one of our team members that she was choosing to depend on Jesus, not for “going down the right path,” but for her eternity. After everything was finished, 19 teens trusted Christ.
The second night, despite rain throughout the whole competition time, we barely dipped at all in our attendance and everyone had a great spirit. Army won Big Ball Basketball quite easily, but Navy won the Tug O’ War competition in two rounds–unbelievable! Inside, both teams vied for the trivia, but Navy swept the cheering competition and the big bonus question. Just before the final score was announced, one of the Navy team members correctly guessed a digit on the scoreboard, adding 500 points to their score and bumping them up 100 points ahead of Army. They won the night 29,000 to 28,900. As close as it can get!! God worked again in the invitation, and many teens responded. One of team members had two teens in the counseling room. One teen told him that he came from a scientific background and that everything the preacher was saying went opposite of what he had heard and had been taught. He got up and left without Christ. His friend, however, stayed despite the peer pressure of leaving and placed his dependence on Christ. At the end of the night, 10 teens clearly trusted Christ to be their Savior.
The final night it rained even harder, but we still had a great crowd. We modified Human Fooseball a bit to accommodate our crowd. We used three sections instead of four, and shortened the game to three periods. Navy dominated Fooseball, winning 6 to 2. In Spoke Tackle, Navy cleaned up again and nearly won every round. Inside, Navy didn’t stop dominating. They won just about everything inside, which won them the week. The final score for the week ended at 57,400 for Navy and 47,800 for Army. After the final score, we moved on to the preaching. God blessed again in the invitation, and several teens responded. When the night was through, 7 teens placed their faith in Christ.
Over the course of the whole week, we had 110 teens attend our event with a high night of 76. All together, 36 teens trusted Christ this week as well. God is still interested in saving souls! Praise the Lord for the plenteous harvest!!
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