The Start of Revival

Last night, we had a MAJOR wind storm that took down trees, power lines, and knocked out electricity across our area. Needless to say, today's service was interesting. Some lights, no air conditioning, etc. Believe it or not, the sound system worked and so did God's Spirit. I preached on "Holiness" and the altar response was so good, that I'm thinking about turning off the A/C again next week.

During this past week, our teenagers were running a VBS for a church that we are helping to start in Clover, SC. While our teens thought they were going to minister to others, it was our group that would experience God's moving. The VBS was a great success and there were 10 salvations among those who participated, BUT there were 6 salvations among our team of teenagers that were on the mission team. Included in that number were my middle daughter (17 years old) and our Youth Pastor's wife (age undisclosed for my own safety). On the night that they were both saved, the scene is described as our teenagers scattered across the lawn and through the buildings praying into the wee hours of the morning.

The Sunday after the team returned, we started our Worship Service with the Youth Pastor admitting to the church that he had been a hypocrite, because he had been performing many of our baptisms, but had not personally been baptized after his salvation. He asked the church's forgiveness and then I stepped into the baptistry and baptized him. Immediately following, I had the privilege of baptizing my daughter, Bethany! WOW... what a great feeling for a dad!

After starting our service by baptizing the Youth Pastor and then the Pastor's daughter -- I knew it was going to be a good day. At the close of the service, we had one of Christian School teachers come for salvation. Justin's testimony also touched another lady who grew up in our church and she came for baptism. Two came for church membership and the altar was lined with people rededicating their lives to Christ. It was a GREAT day!