God must be very eager to save the unsaved. Just about any excuse would do to throw open His door of Salvation, believe me!
So, last month I sent a letter to this school requesting permission for my team to come play with the kids on October 1, Nigeria’s National Independence Day. Permission was granted. On the given date, after ministering with our band at a church service in a different part of Jos City, I drove us off to the TCNN school in Bukuru where an excited crowd of young folks awaited us. Determined to keep to allotted time, we set up our stuff as quickly as we could. By 3.15 pm we were ready, and the Band took the stage.
No, they didn’t sound great to me. Maybe partly because they were hungry. I couldn’t afford to buy us all lunch today – I had some honorarium from the morning’s ministration, but I needed to hold tight to that for transportation and other needs – so we just pushed on. And then an amplifier that repeatedly tripped off and back on did not help matters either. But our musicians – Mayowa, Patrick, Breakthrough and Kennedy – played, and the trio of Grace, Favor and Abraham sang a few songs and did their best to engage the kids massed into the expansive hall. And then we had a ‘Charade’ game it seemed the kids enjoyed somewhat, after which the band sang a few more songs, followed by a drama sketch we had stripped and re-stripped to suit a 2-cast team. Tunde and Evelyn did their best to project through the sketch, but with the far-from-perfect sound situation, I did wonder if those students actually followed the story.
And then I picked up a mic and rambled briefly about how and why we all need Jesus Christ as our lord and savior – to make us strong and able to keep from souring up our life-soups like the girl in the short sketch they just watched. And if anyone wanted to come over to Jesus, to receive him as lord and savior, I told them to be fast about it. No, nobody was going to shut their eyes to make it easy for the shy or the self-conscious. “If you’re too shy to declare publicly for the Lord Jesus, you may stay where you are,” I announced.
One brave little fellow was the first to head out. And then they began to stream out.
We were done by 5.00 pm, and we had 69 precious decision slips filled and returned – 54 boys and girls saying Yes to Christ for the first time, and 15 others who came out to rededicate themselves to the Lord.
Just how many other young souls are out there waiting to be let in?
And God, He seems more than eager to use any opportunity we are willing to generate or seize, as an excuse to get someone saved!