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Wake Up and Shout!
April 19 2008 / ShareHim in Salvador A, Mar. 14 - Mar. 29 '08 #285by Kathy Jones
Personal Testimony of Kathy Jones.
This was my first time as the speaker in a campaign. I was blessed to have the site for the Las Mercedes, Apopa church. The campaign was held outside on a basketball court in a neighborhood park. God had provided the perfect setting for me. I stood each night with mountains on three sides of me. I watched the sun set behind the mountains each night. Then I had the moon and stars for my ceiling. It made it easy to talk about the heavens opening up and Jesus coming in the clouds of glory. It is hard to put into words just how the whole experience touched me.
The people were beautiful, and I found myself feeling right at home among them. God’s way of using a human never ceases to amaze me. As I spoke each night, I was impressed at certain times to tell something from my own experience or say something in another way (other than how I had planned to present it). I know that it was the Holy Spirit working to reach someone that was in the congregation.
At first, I was concerned about having to make an altar call. In my mind I said, “I’m not qualified to make an altar call. I’m not an ordained minister.” But I was counseled just to speak from my heart. So when I would start to make the call, I was praying for the right words to say. And each time as I began to talk, I would feel a tremendous longing for those attending to make a decision for Christ, not only for those that were visitors, but for the members of the local churches to rededicate their lives or to come back to their first love. By the end of the campaign, I was able to see a 8-or 9-year-old boy with cancer and his mother, a father, mother and two teenage daughters (with their little sister of about 2 or 3 watching), and various others be baptized. Praise the Lord!
One night, after a week and a half of meetings, I was waiting to go up and preach, when I suddenly realized I was in Central America, and I was the speaker in an evangelistic campaign. It was hard to leave. I couldn’t believe that the time passed by so quickly. It seemed that I had just started the campaign. I felt that I was just getting started.
On the airplane ride home, my pastor’s wife and I decided that we were going to hold a series for women when we got back home. We are now planning the series. I am even having dreams about giving these sermons. I feel that I have found a purpose in my life. That purpose is to tell others that Christ is coming soon and that they need to be ready for His coming. They need to make the decision to be on His side NOW and then make that same decision tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, and tomorrow night. It is a decision that we all must make every minute of every day until Christ comes.
We, as Christians, need to wake up out of our Laodicean sleep and shout the message to the world. I will say that every Christian needs to go on a mission trip at least once. And once you have gone on a mission trip, you will be hooked. Within two days after returning home, I was on the ShareHim website checking out what trip I can go on next.
The people were beautiful, and I found myself feeling right at home among them. God’s way of using a human never ceases to amaze me. As I spoke each night, I was impressed at certain times to tell something from my own experience or say something in another way (other than how I had planned to present it). I know that it was the Holy Spirit working to reach someone that was in the congregation.
At first, I was concerned about having to make an altar call. In my mind I said, “I’m not qualified to make an altar call. I’m not an ordained minister.” But I was counseled just to speak from my heart. So when I would start to make the call, I was praying for the right words to say. And each time as I began to talk, I would feel a tremendous longing for those attending to make a decision for Christ, not only for those that were visitors, but for the members of the local churches to rededicate their lives or to come back to their first love. By the end of the campaign, I was able to see a 8-or 9-year-old boy with cancer and his mother, a father, mother and two teenage daughters (with their little sister of about 2 or 3 watching), and various others be baptized. Praise the Lord!
One night, after a week and a half of meetings, I was waiting to go up and preach, when I suddenly realized I was in Central America, and I was the speaker in an evangelistic campaign. It was hard to leave. I couldn’t believe that the time passed by so quickly. It seemed that I had just started the campaign. I felt that I was just getting started.
On the airplane ride home, my pastor’s wife and I decided that we were going to hold a series for women when we got back home. We are now planning the series. I am even having dreams about giving these sermons. I feel that I have found a purpose in my life. That purpose is to tell others that Christ is coming soon and that they need to be ready for His coming. They need to make the decision to be on His side NOW and then make that same decision tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, and tomorrow night. It is a decision that we all must make every minute of every day until Christ comes.
We, as Christians, need to wake up out of our Laodicean sleep and shout the message to the world. I will say that every Christian needs to go on a mission trip at least once. And once you have gone on a mission trip, you will be hooked. Within two days after returning home, I was on the ShareHim website checking out what trip I can go on next.