Everything for One Thing

It’s the night of Thursday, July 16th. I’ve just finished leading my second largest mission trip, a team of 47 people from Mississippi, Illinois, and Maryland; three churches who came together for a week of ministry in the communities of Orange, Chatham, and Somerton Jamaica. The week went surprisingly well. I was nervous going into it because of complicated plans the fact that three different teams were coming together for the ministry during the week. It was a mountain that I was preparing to climb and something I was anxious for, but also tentative. All three teams had a great week. They all did VBS’s (at three different churches) and we worked on a construction project at the Bethtephil Baptist Church in Chatham. The project was pouring a cement floor for the new addition of a handful of classrooms. Our team worked with a church member named Mr. Thorpe during the week, who was a great guy. Josh Ruiter headed up the construction groups and did a phenomenal job in his leadership. During the week we were able to attend a few crusade service at the Sudbury Baptist Church. (A crusade in Jamaica for the Baptist churches is a one week concentrated effort of evangelism in the community centered around evening church services. They bring in guest speakers and do a lot of advertising and promoting of the events.) On the final night we attended one of the services, Tuesday, a pastor by the name of Lloyd Richards spoke. He oversees the Roe-Hampton circuit of Baptist Churches, near Anchovy, Jamaica. He delivered a powerful message from Luke 18 about the rich young ruler. The focal point of the sermon was this: In order to gain the one thing we need, we must give up everything for the ONE THING. He entitled his sermon, “Let go and let God rule.” At the end of the service, about 15 people responded to the altar call and gave their lives to Christ. But there was one young man that touched me that night. There was a guy on our team from Illinois named Brian. During the altar call I could tell he was deep in prayer, and he was sweating and shaking ferociously. Suddenly, I watched him step forward and literally climb over three rows of pews to get to a young Jamaican, probably about my age. Brian put his arm around the young man and spoke with him for a good three minutes. I was praying the entire time because I knew Brian felt led by God to speak with that guy about the status of his eternity. After a few minutes, the young Jamaican took off both of his looped earrings and sat them on the pew in front of him. He then proceeded to walk to the altar and dedicate his life to Christ. I don’t know the man’s name and I never even talked to him. The important thing is that he heard the message that night and that Brian followed God’s lead to witness and assist the Holy Spirit’s work. The young Jamaican let go of his old life, with a significant step of faith he dropped not only his earrings (something that is a symbol of worldliness in Jamaica) but he also laid down his life of sin on that pew. He let go and let God rule over his life. Reverend Brooks, our host pastor for the week, will institute the follow up work for that young man to get involved in the church and grow in his faith. The whole scenario was very encouraging for me personally. I don’t see the fruits of my labor as often as I wish I could. The situation reminded me why I do what I do: because it is saving souls and changing lives. We do a lot of things on mission trips, but there’s nothing that compares to seeing someone become a glorious child of God.