John 3:3 English Standard Version (ESV)
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
We had been in church for 6 hours.
(fastest, hottest, most beautiful 6 hours of the week, by the way)
We had listened to 12 young men give testimony of what God had done in their lives.
One of the young men had a missing front tooth and scars on his face, you could tell his young life had been rough.
He talked about how he hated Christians and hated church and now all that had changed.
He was standing in church and telling everyone what God had done in his life that very week.
He was shaking his own head in awe of the changes in his life.
Pastor Tucker had invited a group of young men to go to a “camp” with him at the farm.
He invited these boys from a nearby slum.
They were each talking about how they had no idea what a “camp” would be like. They had never been invited to anything like that. They figured it must be a party of some sort.
They all agreed to go, there were 21 who attended the camp.
When they were giving testimony, one young man said he tried to sleep super still so he wouldn’t wake up the pastor, only to find out that Pastor Tucker had been up all night praying.
About 2am he couldn’t take it anymore and woke the boys up to pray pray pray with him.
They each talked about how they didn’t come to pray and they didn’t really know how or what to do, but they decided to try it, because the pastor seemed pretty passionate about it, and he had brought them all the way there. They said it was hard at first because they wanted to sleep, but once they got started they couldn’t stop.
One young man asked Pastor Tucker during his testimony if he would also teach him to fast.
After 6 hours of praise, worship, teaching, and testimony we were sitting around visiting and people were cleaning up and all of a sudden you could hear loud excited praying again. I couldn’t understand their language so I looked at Irene for an explanation and one of the young men that were at the camp, but not at church that day, was being “born again” and all who stood in the doorway of the church were ushering him in, with prayers and encouragement.
The sound and excitement reminded me of the birthing room at a hospital. I had seen this young man walk in. He seemed nervous and urgent about something, then when he was leaving he was full of joy and peace. It doesn’t always happen like that, but that day it did.
That was his birth story, and I got to witness it.
The boys went to camp to party they thought, nobody told them that, but that is what they thought. They found out they went to pray and learn who Jesus is, and they came back changed.
They also played football and ate and did all the things young men like to do, but they hardly talked about that...they all talked about what they learned, and how Pastor Tucker had taken the time to talk to them like a father and how they prayed and learned about God.
I can't get over the simplicity of what happened and how they told their testimony.
The boys were invited, and they were told the Good News of Jesus Christ and they believed and are saved!
1 Corinthians 3:6-7 English Standard Version (ESV)
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
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