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GRAND SALINE, Texas ? Ten students of Main Street Baptist Church in Grand Saline, participated in the evangelistic Crossover Arizona event, June 11 ? 14, learning how to share their testimonies and reaching out to Phoenix-area residents.
The week-long evangelistic outreach effort, held prior to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, resulted in more than 1,100 professions of faith and 8,500 prospects for local churches. This year, weekend events were added to the schedule with 43 events offered June 13-14 in metropolitan Phoenix and 13 events held June 21.
Main Street Baptist Church was one of nearly 3,000 Southern Baptist volunteers from across the country that participated in the event jointly sponsored by Arizona Southern Baptists and the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Main Street students worked with First Southern Baptist Church of Wellton, a congregation responsible for six different cities within an 85-mile radius of the church.
Abby Hamessley, 19, Main Street summer youth intern, said the students set up for Vacation Bible School, prepared for a block party event and handed out fliers door-to-door inviting communities to attend the church’s summer activities.
Driving into Wellton, Hamessley said students were given gospel tracts distributed by Crossover Arizona organizers.
“We gave them their tracts, and we encouraged them to look up the scripture verses and be familiar with them so that if [they] got in a situation [they’d] know what to do,” Hamessley recounted. “I told them, ‘At the end of the next 30 minutes I want each of you to ask me a question,’ and within 15 minutes hands started to pop up. God started to move through the bus, and we were able to get to know each other and ask questions.”
“Although they didn’t use the tracts very much, a lot of them are very excited about sharing their faith and they were willing to do what they had to do, whether it was painting London Bridge [for VBS], or hanging fliers.”
Along with preparing for church activities, the Crossover event also organized volunteers into teams called Ice Breakers designed to “break the ice” in communities introducing the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ to Arizona communities.
Walking door-to-door in 115-degree heat, Hamessley and another team member shared the gospel with anyone who would listen.
“We had knocked on a lot of doors and had doors slammed in our faces. Unlike Texas, it’s a whole different situation,” she said. “We’ve grown up in the Bible Belt and know the name of Jesus Christ.”
Although faced with rejection from many residents, the team led a teenage boy to the saving knowledge of Jesus.
“We knocked on the door, and a boy that looked to be 16 or 17 was talking on the phone. The guy I was with, Doug Shepherd, asked him ‘If you died today where were you go?'”
When the boy replied, “All over the place,” Hamessley felt compelled to inquire a little more. ” I said, ‘why do you say that?’ He explained that he was Catholic and I could see his doctrine was thrown off. Doug proceeded to tell him Christ died for him. Through it all I was able to come in every once in while and insert input where Doug left out.”
At the end of the conversation, Hamessley asked the boy “if he would like to know who Christ was,” and the group knelt in the doorway as the boy prayed to give his life to Christ.
Moving onto a trailer park, the team was confronted with the great needs that existed in the community.
“We were at this one house. There was no air, the front door was open, there was no electricity. We invited [the family] to Wellton to the Vacation Bible School, and two boys barefoot ran out begging their mom to let them go,” she said, adding that the mother had no way to get the children to the church. “It broke my heart, because they were so poor. But we were able to provide them a way to get there.”
In learning to minister to the local residents as best they could, Hamessley believes the youth of Main
