5who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.
Vacation Bible School Report! I am reminded again this morning to affirm what the Scripture, the Bible – The Living Word of God – states about God wanting all men to be saved. I will always be so thankful to Teresa Godwin and her fine staff of volunteers who sacrifice each year to tell boys and girls about Jesus. This year’s experience was no different. We enrolled 411, high attendance of 351 on Wednesday, had over 450 last night at the celebration, and had the chance to see 12 young people give their lives to the guidance of Christ as they became believers in Christ. It was awesome for this preacher to start the celebration baptizing Ms. English. She comes every year to Vacation Bible School with friends and this year was a different year for her. All the preparation of former years bore fruit as she responded as a 9 year old to the gospel message. She asked if she could be baptized here at Southside and I will admit that I did not have to pray about that one. 
Yes!, was my answer.
We long to see folk saved. We ask them deliberately to make a decision to follow Christ. This week’s focus was on Peter a follower of Jesus. He had not always followed Christ. One day while he was attending to his very viable and fruitful fishing business, Jesus came along and asked him to follow Him. Peter dropped his nets, left it all and began a three year process that changed his life forever. He chose to become a follower of Christ. On Wednesday, I had the joy of joining the rest of the volunteers who were teaching and carefully confronting the people with the gospel in making an appeal for them to follow Christ just as Peter did. By the end of the week I had a chance to witness 12 that gave their lives to Christ at Vacation Bible School, a dad who carried me out to lunch and had is daughter explain to me how she accepted Christ as Lord at home as dad led her in a prayer of commitment to Christ and then had a young student tell me how she went home and led her friend to Christ following Vacation Bible School.
Mandy Godwin has been attending Vacation Bible School since she was four. Her 22nd birthday was yesterday and she has only missed one Vacation Bible School in those years. That one year was when she was on summer mission assignment with the South Carolina Baptist Convention with a focus on Children’s Missions. Her mother is our Minister to Families who have Children and she has watched her mother minister for years. I have the joy of watching a second generation Children’s Minister being released right before my very eyes. She is to be married in September and will be moving to the Augusta – Aiken area where I am more than certain she will be involved in Children’s Ministry. She and Rick Estes (our Minister of Worship and Arts – and the set designer for Vacation Bible School) were our worship leaders for the week. They had a missions offering competition going on. The money collected would go to local mission efforts and missions education. Of course, Mandy represented the girls and Rick the boys. The group that collected the most would have the joy of watching the other representative being tarred and feathered and do the chicken dance during the Friday evening Celebration. As it worked out the girls won and rick ended up with the delight of being tarred with chocolate pudding and feathered – and I understand he did a superb chicken dance. The children collected over $1,700.00 to go toward these missions projects.
THEN as if that wasn’t a blessing from heaven, another one came my way. I got a call from Romania. Tim Spurling, the medical doctor on the medical trip, told me that they had seen in all the clinics that week 950 people. He had seen 95 of those folk give their lifes to Christ after being confronted with the Good News of Christ’s love for them. It may have been midnight in Romania when he called, his back may have been killing him after standing and dealing with people all week, his voice weak from the labor there, but you could tell the joy in his heart as he explained what he had seen God do this past week. One tenth of the people they saw made a commitment to Christ.
All the effort, the travel, the money – all of it – is worth it when we get to heaven and see in its fullness all we can and cannot see now of how God worked to see folk’s lives change.
Latest from India as of the last Facebook post: Ryan and Chris write:
Orphanage in India where Ryan and Chris labored
Dearest brothers and sisters we send you greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ and also our brothers and sisters here in India. Here is what has been happening and what we need prayer for. Yesterday we were on a retreat with the Bible college teachers and it was good. One of the teachers caught fever and was very sick. Ryan and I got to lay hands on him and he recovered that very night praise God. Be in prayer for us for this next eight days Ryan and I will be teaching English to the orphans. We leave Madurai the twenty sixth and we will arrive in Hanamkonda on the twentyeighth early in the morning to work with Dr. Wilson and the Banjara people. In a sense we will be starting over again and will be here for God willing two weeks to a month. Here is some things we need prayer for: discouragement, patience, and being bold in why we are here not to forget the gospel. Specifically for myself it has been the hardest thing to get into the presence of God but be encouraged last night God definitely met with me. Pray that we will stay strong in seeking His face. We also have some other things on our heart in the future that need serious prayer and discernment for. Ryan and I both have found it in our heart to try and go to the state of Manipur which borders Myanmar also known as Berma. We need prayer and discernment for there is a lot of fighting going on in this place over drugs and a lot of underground and military violence. So be in prayer and if you have any prophetic words or words of knowledge or encouragement or praise reports please email them to us or write them on the wall of the Love India group. Keep also in mind that we have our eyes set to boldly proclaim the gospel in Varanasi Lord willing. This is the Hindu holy city or mecca and known as the most religious city in the world. What better place for the gospel to come and the Spirit of God to come in power? Thanks brothers and sisters for your prayers and encouragement. We miss you all and love you all very much!
Ryan and Chris
