The past month has been a wonderful for our ministry. For the first time ever, the Crow family has
been a part of the Victory Gospel Crusade, this time meeting in Western
Ohio. For an entire year, the pastors
involved prayed for God to do great things.
The plan was to meet for three weeks in three separate places: St. Mary’s,
Lima, and Troy. Due to COVID-19, all of
the plans we had made for meeting places fell through, and we ended up meeting
in three churches, Celina Baptist Temple, Anchored Hope Baptist Church, and
Calvary Baptist Church. After three
weeks, it was evident that the Lord wanted us to go a fourth week.
Several prayers were specifically answered during this meeting. As the COVID-19 situation began to dominate
the minds of all Americans, we feared that we might not be able to meet at
all. When it became known that we could
meet, we prayed that God would use the virus scare to bring people to
Jesus. Wallace had lost his job and was worrying
about life and the future that his two boys might face when he received an
invitation to the meeting. He had never
been in church before in his life, but when he came and heard the Gospel for
the first time, he got saved. He has
since been baptized and is faithful to church.
Chad sat on his porch under house arrest, like everyone else
during the virus regulations. As one
team member approached Chad, he explained, “I am not from around here, but I am
a Gospel preacher looking for someone who doesn’t know where they will go when
they die and is interested in knowing. Can
you point me to someone like that?” Chad
answered simply, “Yeah. Me.” He was saved and has been integrated into one
of the churches.
China is the daughter of an atheist whom we were targeting
with the Gospel, but the man was not home.
After explaining to China that we were with the Victory Gospel Crusade,
I asked her if she knew what the Gospel was.
She said that she did not. After having
it explained to her, she prayed to trust Christ as Savior.
In all, 26 people have trusted Christ during the four weeks
of the meeting. After going four weeks,
it was determined that we should take one week off and then move the tent to
Lima and begin again. As I write this,
we have begun again in Lima, Ohio.
Our prayer is that the story of generations would be changed
as a result of the Gospel. Many have accepted
Christ and we are hungry for more to come as well.
One of the great realities of this meeting has been a
seeming bubble that God has brought to this area. While the rest of America tries to go forward
from the virus, and certain cities burn from riots, it was as if there was
nothing going on in this area, but the work of God.
All of this meeting has cemented in our minds the truth that
the Gospel must be preached. It seems
that so many ministries want to talk about the Gospel, have conferences about
the Gospel, get together for the Gospel, assume the Gospel, have ministries
based upon the Gospel, but never get around to preaching the Gospel to lost
people. This month has been unusual, but
not because of particularly innovative or new ideas or programs. We simply pray, we witness, and preach the Gospel;
and God gives the increase.
One of the converts that came to Christ in the last month was
first met at a protest rally in Sydney, Ohio.
All around us are needy people, some of them in protests of which we are
sometimes afraid. The power of the
Gospel is greater than any other force that might be brought to bear. Just preach it.
