Can I confess that Loren and I have never been a huge fan of big evangelistic series?
It still may not be our absolute favorite way to get to talk to people about God, but our perspective has certainly changed lately.
Guam-Micronesia Mission has just completed a 3-week, 5-nights-a-week evangelistic series called "All the Islands of the Sea." They had over 100 locations throughout the islands, each with someone presenting the series in person (as opposed to a downlink or a video). On Guam alone, there were at least 9 or 10 locations. We were fortunate enough to be within walking distance of one of them.
Overall, they were very well attended. I don't know the official stats, but I in talking with friends who went to different churches, I was very impressed. One of the meetings was a girls-only event, led by an 8th-grader, held in her home. One church had about 40 adults and 15-20 kids attending (both Seventh-day Adventists and guests). Another church seemed to be ministering mostly to the children: there were around 25-40 kids attending, most of whom were not Adventist, but only 5 adult guests coming. This apparently is the result of a teacher's relationship with the community. From what I understand, he has worked in the public school there for a long time -- he taught many of the parents of these kids. So when the kids see their teacher's big white van driving by, they just run out and hop in, and their parents are fine with it, because they trust him. So he picked up about 15 kids every night.
In contrast, the meeting we attended had almost no children coming. There were only our kids and another helper's two children. But there were many adults attending. At our location alone, there were 5 or 6 people who decided to be baptized! It was so amazing to watch them come back, night after night (much more faithfully than I attended!), hungry for the Scripture and the truth being shared. Our presenter did a great job. Having come to know God herself only about 5 years ago, she was able to identify with their struggles. She was a good speaker, too. Everyone was engaged--listening, watching, looking up the Bible verses... About 10 people began to stay after the meetings, too, to learn more. That must have made it at least a 2 hour event almost every night for three weeks!
My favorite part, though, was watching the transformation of one particular lady. At first, she was only staying because she worked in the building and had to be there. (That's what I heard, at least.) She was pretty quiet and did not seem very excited to be there. She was very helpful, though.
But by the last meeting, she was totally different. She was praying with the team in the hallway before the meeting started. She sang up front with the other song leaders at the beginning and end. She sat in the front row and spoke up several times during the meeting. Even more amazing, her face was shining. She was just beaming! It was like the clouds had parted and the sun had come out. She smiled almost the entire time, laughing and interacting... Her face just shone.
At the beginning, when the speaker was asking general questions, "How are you? How was your day?", this lady answered, "Better now that I got to come here and pray!"
This is not an isolated incident. At the church we've decided to attend, there have been baptisms every week! We have been there 4 weeks now, I think, and every time, there was at least one person baptised, usually two.
Last week, the pastor said, "I'm being kind of mean today. I've got someone up here to give a testimony, and he's pretty nervous, because he has never even been here before! This is his first time to be here for the church service."
The guy is probably in his early 20s. His testimony was short but thankful. Basically, he said, "You have been praying for me for a little over a year now, that my boss would let me have Sabbath off. Several people at work told me it would never happen. But we all kept praying, and here I am today! So if you are praying for something, don't give up."
I have never seen anyone so exited to be at church! It was like he was doing his best not to jump up and down! (ok, not during the testimony--he was nervous then.) :) But after church, he was just so thrilled to meet everyone, to stay for lunch, to say, "See you next week!" He couldn't wipe the grin off his face.
Last weekend was the final weekend in the evangelistic series. Every SDA church on Guam met at the University of Guam, in their gym. After church, there was a baptism at the beach (that's where they do it every week, I guess, but it's the first beach baptism I've ever been to!). It was raining on and off throughout the event, but there were still a lot of people there. (It did make it harder to see, since we had to kind of peek past the umbrellas!) There were 35 people baptized!!! THIRTY-FIVE! And so many more people are thinking about Christ and choosing Jesus to be their Savior, even if they haven't been baptized yet. (Two of the 35 were the father and step-mother of the guy who finally got Sabbaths off.)
It truly is powerful to see lives transformed as people come to know Christ. Their enthusiasm is inspiring.
