By Bryan Clay, CBC Church-Planter • Faith Journey Mission
In the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, Faith Journey began to enjoy a few new faces during our weekly meetings. One young man, who has been a part of our mission, invited the young lady that he had begun dating a few months earlier. This young man had told us that his girlfriend had never attended church growing up and was not a follower of Christ. With that knowledge, we began to earnestly pray for this young lady and welcomed her with open hearts whenever we had the opportunity to speak with her. As she began to attend every week, she was quiet and reserved, with a guarded interest in the teachings that we were sharing at Faith Journey. Having never been taught about the Bible or been part of an organized church meeting, we were very aware of how difficult this setting could be for her and continued to pray that God would begin to work on her heart. During this time the young lady began to open up and ask to learn more about what she was hearing.
As I began to prepare for our Easter service at Faith Journey, God began to lay on my heart the importance of this special time in our mission. This was to be our first Easter service, and I was already anticipating God’s hand moving among us. I began to share with our mission that I had witnessed God do some amazing things in years past in the lives of people, especially around the Easter season. I told them about the time, a couple of years before, the Lord convicted me one evening that I needed to share the gospel with my daughter. I knew I needed to follow what God was telling me to do, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not come up with the right words to start the conversation. But God said, “Easter! Tell her about Easter.” Of course, that was the perfect story and God created the opportunity for me to share about His sacrifice and because of that, my daughter was saved!
Two weeks leading up to our mission’s Easter Sunday service, I began to challenge our people to spend time talking with others about the true meaning of Easter. We wanted others to know that Easter is not about a bunny, hiding colorful eggs or a huge dinner after church. All of these things are nice family traditions, but they are not why we, as Christians, celebrate Easter. I encouraged them to share Jesus with others and talk about their salvation with those who may not know Christ.
Resurrection Sunday dawned with so much anticipation to see what the Lord had in store for His people that day. The morning was spent worshiping with a large crowd at our sending church (Celebration, Haskell) and the room was so filled with His spirit you could feel the excitement around you. The young couple from our mission came to the service with us that morning. We could see that the young lady was focused on the worship music and the sermon that was being shared. We knew God’s presence was in that room.
At Faith Journey that evening, our mission had worked hard to invite others to our Easter service. We enjoyed having our highest attendance so far that evening. Again, we could just feel the Spirit of God moving in our presence. Our time of worship with music touched the hearts of those who were there, and I was able to share God’s Word and the true meaning of why we celebrate Easter with everyone that night. As I was bringing the message, I noticed the young lady was listening intently and smiling from ear to ear. I thought to myself, “I think she is ready to be saved.” Afterward, we spent time visiting with each other and it was during this time that our worship leader had a chance to talk with the young lady we had been praying for. He has a gift of being able to just get straight to the point with people in a non-offensive way to ask about their relationship with Jesus, and that is just what he did with her. But, to his surprise, when he asked if she knew Jesus, her response was unexpected as she said, “Yes, I asked Him into my heart this morning at church!” We all began to pray over her and love on her for her decision to follow our Savior on this amazing Resurrection Day! You could see the joy and peace on her face because of her decision. How incredible is our God that this young lady will always be able to share how faithful our Father is because of His sacrifice on that first Easter Sunday some 2,000 years ago!
We serve an amazing God — He is the Resurrection and the Life!