I couldn't make this stuff up...

9!  Nine people gave their lives to Jesus last night.

For those of you that don’t know, that number is unheard of.  I could count on my hands the number of students we have seen come to Jesus in our 13 1/2 years of ministry here.

The stories are multiple and crazy miraculous, so I will try to condense them into one reading.

Edward…

I met Edward before we started.  He explained that he grew up in a different religion and then left.  After that, he tried Christianity for a little bit, and then he tried atheism for about three years. He particularly didn’t like the lack of community in atheism.

He explained that he currently didn’t know what to believe, but this was the third time in the last couple years he has been invited to a Chi Alpha event (via tabling on campus) and because of the traumatizing week he decided he should just come.

As I preached about the simple gospel in which salvation is free, I could see the tears streaming down his face as if this was actual “good news” to him and he had never heard it before, and so he gave his life to the one that paid all of it for him.

Jacob and Jen…

I didn’t get to meet them before it started, but they answered the salvation call while sitting in the front row.  Later, I learned that they were at the vigil that was held on campus and they spotted one of our invitation cards on the floor of the ginormous UCCU center, picked it up, and decided to head over for a little more comfort.  They didn’t realize that their lives would be forever changed as they gave their hearts to Him.

We had prayed earlier in staff meeting that the invitations would land in the right places and people would see them.

Unknown teenagers…

There were two teenage boys walking about 100 feet away.  They were there for quinceañera practice, but Pastor Lorenzo, youth pastor from one of our churches up north spotted them.  He walked over to them, told them about Jesus and asked them if they wanted to accept him.  With tears running down their faces, they said yes, and he prayed with them.

Beth…

We never met this woman, but when we were tearing down and putting stuff away, we got an Instagram message on our Chi Alph instagram.

Here is that message:

“Hello, I am so sorry to bother you. I took my daughter to the scera park tonight to play, and seen your guys service. I must say it was very touching? Is this for uvu students only? I overheard something about different churches, but unfortunately didn’t catch it all. I’m interested in joining a church, but not sure which one is the correct one. Thank you”

Clinton and Jayln, our pastors at Free River church, who have been begging God for families for our church are reaching out to her.

I have no adequate descriptive adjectives to describe it to you.  All of your prayers for the last 13 1/2 years have brought this about.

Before we moved here, Daran was given this word when thinking of the daunting task before us:

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

And with that verse stuck in our minds playing on repeat for the past many years, we have tilled this soil - sometimes it felt like with a rusty old teaspoon…in this land in which many have never met a Christian…expecting God to demonstrate His power here…and he has done it…