Climbing out on a limb’ with Jesus pays dividends for West Texas church

After weeks of prayer and preparation, 31 volunteers from Victory Life Baptist Church in Lubbock asked this key question to thousands at the South Plains Fair. During the eight days of the fair, 67 people made professions of faith at the church’s booth. Volunteers passed out thousands of tracts and church information while sharing the gospel with those who stopped by.

“There was no doubt that the Holy Spirit was at work in that fair,” said Victory Life member Skeet Workman, one of several people who were quick to credit the Lord for the event’s success.

“It’s not of our doing. We were just an instrument the Lord used,” said Pricilla Norris, another volunteer.

“We want to give God all the glory. It wasn’t the volunteers or the church, it was the Holy Spirit that did this,” Workman said.

In July, Workman said she felt impressed in prayer that there were going to be many lost people at the fair, and that the church needed to have a booth.

Herb Higgs, general manger of the South Plains Fair, said 196,988 is the official count of fair attendees. The Victory Life booth was in the first building as attendees entered the fairgrounds, a prime location for meeting people.

This was the second year for the church to have a presence at the fair.

“We wanted to be informative about the church, but we wanted to be engaging as well,” said Pastor Brad Jurkovich.

With their booth being in an exhibit hall it seemed natural to have a give-away and a demonstration, volunteers said.

Visitors signed up to win free office supplies or a children’s Bible, and watched a gospel presentation that consisted of two cups of water?one with red liquid, the other with black.

Church volunteers asked patrons questions like, “Have you ever lied?” as a visual demonstration of what Christ does in our heart, the red liquid would be poured into the black, and immediately the black would turn crystal clear.

“It is such a visual demonstration of what Christ does,” Workman said.

Volunteers asked those watching if they knew for certain that they would spend eternity in heaven, and were overwhelmed by the number of people who were not certain, or who had never heard the gospel before.

“We decided to talk to them about the Lord and give them an opportunity to accept the Lord and that made all of the difference.” Workman continued, “We tend to think that people around us are saved. They aren’t. It shocked me. Nobody had shared with them the gospel.”

“We didn’t have anyone walk off in the middle of the gospel presentation. It was amazing to see what the Holy Spirit can do in the midst of all the noise and distractions [at the fair]” Norris said. “People are starved for the Word and unsure of salvation.”

The booth had a generous number of divine appointments as children, teenagers, families, singles, and elderly alike bowed their heads in prayer to accept the Lord.

One of the appointments occurred on the second day of the fair. A woman came to the booth after recognizing the church name and logo on the banner. She had seen the name and logo on NBC’s “Today Show” only a few months earlier when a group from the church attended the show during a mission trip to New York.

She and her sone both accepted the Lord at the booth, Workman said.

“God had quickened her heart there in July. It was a divine appointment–most people would not have made professions of faith, or filled out registration forms.

“Now we have the big job of following up, but it’s a job of joy!” Workman exclaimed. Jurkovich agreed. “Follow up is very important; we’re not going to do anything [outreach] unless we’re going to follow up.”

“I want to encourage others to go where there are crowds of people, go out there and share the gospel. If you climb out on a limb for Jesus, it’s the most exciting thing there is,” Workman said.