Answered Prayer

The meeting last week with Pastor Dave Rogers in Willmar, MN, was a good meeting.  Pastor Rogers has been faithful for many years there in Willmar.  Somewhere along the line, someone forgot to tell his people that old-fashioned revival meetings no longer work in the 21st Century.  They just kept on bringing their unsaved friends and relatives as if preaching still worked!  Not surprisingly, we saw two trust Christ as Savior on Thursday night of the meeting.

The dynamic at work in Bro. Rogers church is an often repeated one.  Whenever lost people sit under the sound of the Gospel for consecutive nights, they often trust Christ or leave angry.  Such is the nature of an extended meeting.  After reading stories of days gone by, some today are decrying the use of evangelists because we are no longer seeing the numbers of people attend the services as we once did.  Consider the facts of the Scripture.  The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes it (Romans 1:16).  Satan is powerless to prevent the Gospel from doing its work.  If he is to prevent men and women from trusting Christ, he must resort to other tactics.  His tactic of choice today seems to be keeping men and women from hearing the Gospel.

Why do so many invitations to come and hear an evangelist preach go unheeded by lost men and women?  The answer is that a simple invitation for a sinner hear to the Gospel represents an attack on Satan’s domain.  It is spiritual warfare.  The good news is, Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.  Still, every Christian needs to bathe invitations in prayer and understand that God’s power is desperately needed on something as simple as an invitation.

When we do reach out and get lost people to sit under the sound of the Gospel, the result will often be conversion.

As we traveled across SD last Saturday, I was nervous, given our experience with wind the week before.  We prayed that God would control the wind and keep us and the borrowed trailer safe.  He answered every prayer.  In over 500 miles of driving, the trailer did not so much as sway one time due to wind.  A couple of hours after we arrived in SD, the winds picked up again and have been gusting and blowing ever since.  In fact, I think I just saw a downwind chicken lay the same egg three times!

Windblown

Since we began, April has traditionally been a busy month for us.  Accordingly, we find ourselves in a cycle of traveling and preaching for several days on end.  Our first trip took us from IN to Willmar, MN.

We are currently traveling with a borrowed trailer from a family in our church.  The unit is a 30-foot bumper pull trailer in which the children sleep on two different beds, one a couch fold out and the other a dinette fold down.  While much smaller than what we were used to, this trailer is a great blessing from the Lord. 

As we traveled through IL, we faced some tremendous cross winds.  Yesterday, we passed a tractor and trailer that had blown over in the wind.  As we drove, a particularly strong gust of wind struck the truck and trailer.  The trailer fishtailed and whipped violently in the wind.  At one point, both tires on the one side were off the ground.  Despite all the excitement, we were able to make it safely to Willmar, arriving this afternoon. 

As for our search for a trailer in northern IN, we were disappointed by the lack of options that we have available to us.  Today, there are far fewer companies that make a unit that will work for us than there were when we first started in evangelism.  When we had nearly despaired of finding a trailer that would serve us well, we were introduced to a new company that has been in business for only a couple years.  They make a unit that will work for us.

Please pray that God will give us wisdom as we continue our search.  Please also pray that the Lord will bring in the finances that we need to pay for the unit.  So far, we have a little over half of what is needed to purchase the trailer outright.

Above all, though, please pray for souls to be saved.  Pray that Satan will be hindered as he tries to distract men and women from hearing the Word of God.  Pray that God’s power would be on us as we minister in every church.  Pray that the Word of the Lord would have free course and be glorified. 

And, as always, thank you for your prayers.