Tonight as all the other nights has been very powerful. The youth marched around the building with occasional old people (LOL!!!). Brother Paul Hagen had been telling us each night how much money they needed for the services and tonight he said that he was not taking up an offering. So while Witness (Witness did another awesome job tonight!) was singing a man approached Paul and gave him $50 and challenged 100 people to give $50. When Witness stopped singing, Paul stood up and told the challenge and he had some men start walking up and down the aisles, just in case someone wanted to give money to them at that time. Well I think before Paul had the men to go off the stage, Marcus (Paul's grandson) came up with a check someone had wrote to give to his dad (Ryan Hagen) for a $1000. Paul had Witness to sing some more while the men ran to each person to collect money. Paul had emptied his pockets and people started coming putting money in his pockets. It was so great!!! What blessed me the most was some of the missionaries that had come to the states gave money to Paul, I know God will bless them in a special way. Before it was said and done, Paul stood up on the stage and said that there were two preachers who had preached about a double portion in their messages and Paul said we have a double portion in offering. He told us that they were taking what they needed for the camp's expenses and they were giving the rest to the youth camp (I believe they gave the youth camp around $4000).
Tonight Bro. Delmar Rogers preached, he preached from Luke 13:1-5 and he also read Acts 17:30. He preached about repentance, he said that many preachers don't preach repentance anymore, because no one likes to be told that they are sinners. He told the definition for the word repent, which means to feel regret, to change one's mind, to make change for the better, to reject or refuse sins. He read Isaiah 55:7 and 8, this is scripture that defines repentance. We had people come to the altar, but we haven't seen anyone saved (please pray we will see some people saved).
Also I forgot to mention that we missed a lot of things that happened during the night on Tuesday. I guess after church was over and everyone was in there rooms. Some of the youth (I believe it was the girls) got together and had a little meeting, some of the girls were giving up their nose rings and tongue rings and giving up CDs (Delmar said that if they had had tattoos they would probably have tried to get rid of them). I guess that there was some conflict and my friend Dawn jumped up on a bed and started saying that it was from the devil and that it should not be this way. From what I heard it sounded like she was giving them a sermon or something, because the youth started doing some repenting. (Even though I am years older than Dawn she gives me advice like this all the time when I am feeling down. She is a good kid, God bless her.)
2 comments:
That kind of giving is unheard of these days. It's beautiful when folks reach down into the bottom of the barrel to give to the Lord's work.
It's also good that there are folks that are still being a voice out in the wilderness calling people to repentance. Realizing your sin and changing your thoughts and ways are something people don't want to hear about. Haven't since the Bible days. Too many preachers are fixated on health, wealth, and prosperity. We need to hear more people being called to picking up crosses, suffering, and shame for the cause of Christ.
I enjoyed hearing about the giving missionaries. They are truly people who live on faith and yet the most giving.
~Kristi
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