The Moberly church recently concluded a 22-part evangelistic series. There were a variety of guests in attendance including spouses of members, some who had recently begun to attend church, some who had already attended previous evangelistic meetings, and some who were already strong Christians from other denominations and were on a quest to learn more. The majority of these guests attended every session.
Leading up to the meetings, church members studied Spirit Baptism and Earth’s Final Events, a book by Dennis Smith that describes the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives as well as our own role in relating to others in their spiritual journeys.
During the opening portion of each meeting, a volunteer was pre-selected to choose a word from Strong’s Concordance and share their thoughts. Several concordances were given away as door prizes, and this exercise helped show people how to use one. We were amazed in our nightly debriefing sessions at the parallel reinforcement of the randomly chosen word to the message of the day.
Several notable incidents occurred during the series that confirmed the power of the Holy Spirit was at work.
On the first night we learned that one of our guests had an urgent prayer request regarding their 5-year-old nephew, who had fallen off a tractor and was run over. He had been rushed to the hospital in Columbia that afternoon, where the doctors found he had broken ribs and punctured both lungs, his spleen and liver. He was later transported by helicopter to a children’s hospital in Kansas City. We continued praying for him throughout the series and learned that he had surprised the medical community with a miraculous recovery. He became a symbol of hope for all of those in attendance. What a wonderful outcome, and what a marvelous opportunity for the Holy Spirit to show all of us what He can accomplish!
In addition to battling cancer and starting treatments during the series, our pastor, Jody Dickhaut, ended up having emergency eye surgery on what was supposed to be the final night of the series. We pushed that session into the next week and, as it turned out, the timing of the make-up session gave us an opportunity to meet the boy we’d been praying for. Not only had the Holy Spirit given Pastor Jody the strength to share messages night after night during his treatments and protected him during eye surgery, but He also blessed us with seeing the power of our prayers in person. What a glorious addition to the concluding session!
Following the series, several guests have requested baptism and others are interested in further study. One guest said he is considering ways to share what he has learned with fellow Christians at his church while still wrestling with how to handle his own spiritual journey.
Study is continuing with a specially designed Sabbath school class that will be going through the 26-part Thunder in the Holy Land video series. We recently had our first class, and everyone enjoyed the opportunity to get to know one another and strengthen relationships with their Savior and with others.
One of the best outcomes of the series was the truly beautiful experience of working together with other church members, getting to know them and bringing a new sense of unity to our local church. The Holy Spirit is definitely hard at work in the Moberly church.
