Forty years ago in 1979 I was 21 years old. And in my spirit I felt God was leading me to go to Michigan for the summer. My church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Gracemont Baptist, was sending a group on a 10 day mission trip that summer to Port Huron, Michigan to strengthen a small church and help them to find prospective members. The Lord led me to ask my church if I could go for the entire summer and be there to prepare for when the group came and then to be there to follow up after they left. The church leaders approved of my desire and the church committed to support me with a $100 a week to cover my expenses.
After all the plans had been set, our church discovered that the few families in Port Huron that were trying to establish a church had lost interest and there was no one there to work with when we arrived. But our church was committed to the mission and determined that I should go anyway.
A young pastor and his wife who lived about 25 miles away agreed that I could stay with them for the summer and attend their church while I was working in the area of Port Huron. Upon arriving and looking around the area, I felt led of the Lord to start anew in the small bedroom community of Marysville, which was adjacent to Port Huron.
The other like minded churches in Michigan had a large tent they had purchased. So the state leaders there suggested a plan to find a place to set up the tent to hold our Vacation Bible School when the mission group from Oklahoma came. So my first objective upon arrival was to secure a place for the tent to be set up. I saw an empty lot in the center of town between two buildings that had some large shading trees that looked like an ideal spot. Next to this open land was a small building that had a “For Rent” sign out front. One business was in the building but the other half of the building was currently empty and available to lease.
I contacted the owner of the building and asked if we could rent the empty rooms and use their restrooms in the building for the week the group was coming. They approved. I then asked the owners of the property next door, who owned the vacant lot if we could use the property for a week. They agreed. In the process, I found out that I would need approval by way of a permit from the city of Marysville to set up the tent.
I was a little intimidated at 21 years of age, to go before the city council in a formal monthly meeting to ask permission to set up this tent and hold our Vacation Bible School. But when God is working in your life, I have found He helps you overcome obstacles that previously would have been too daunting.
By the middle of July when the group was scheduled to arrive, it appeared that things were ready. The group arrived on a Thursday night, set up the tent on Friday, and spent all day Saturday passing out flyers in the community about the upcoming VBS. No one in Marysville knew who we were nor had we met anyone there before this week. When the group went door to door passing out the flyers they also offered to pick up any children that needed a ride. A few families signed up for a ride.
When Monday came and the VBS was to start, we were all in great anticipation to find out if any children would come. This group had spent months preparing for this trip. They had met weekly to prepare the materials and lessons and had spent time in prayer each week. They had learned songs as a group so they could sing as a choir. They had spent their own money to pay for this trip. This was not a trip for pleasure; there would be no sight seeing along the way or entertainment venues to stop at. They had come to serve the Lord. There were 17 people in the group and ages varied from older teenagers to older adults.
That first day over 40 children attended. Everyone was esctatic. The size of the group grew through the week until it reached over 60 children. The Thursday night of the week, the mission group split up into pairs and went to the homes of the children to share Christ and find out if anyone needed a church to attend. Several of the families already had a church home, but three families said they did not have a church to attend, and they were so impressed by the group from Oklahoma, they stated that if a church was started, they would commit to coming. That Thursday night when we gathered together after the visitation in the community, the group members were so amazed at what God had done. He had answered their prayers and blessed their commitments.
The week was completed when on Friday evening, we held a meeting under the tent and invited all the children and parents. The children and the mission team put on a program of singing, scripture recitation, and sharing of testimonies. The next day, Saturday, the team left to return to Oklahoma and I remained to follow up.
But now there was a problem. We had committed to providing a church for the families who did not have a place to worship. But there was no church, no pastor, no place to meet and no hopes or prospects for any of that to happen when I left at the end of the summer. But this was not a problem for God, because He had a plan all along.
Before I had left I had committed to the Lord to becoming a preacher of the gospel. And now God was going to hold me to my commitment and allow me the opportunity to follow through rather quickly. The Lord laid it on my heart to stay in Michigan to help start this new church. This was not an easy decision to make. I had never really lived away from home. Marysville, Michigan was about a 1,000 miles and a 16 hour drive from Oklahoma, so I would not be returning very often. I had never preached a sermon in my life. I enjoyed my home church and living with my parents at home. I did not have a way to support myself in Michigan. But God won the day and I agreed to His plan.
Over the final month of my stay in Michigan, I secured a place to hold meetings, enrolled in a college in the area, worked out a place to live with the pastor I had been staying with, and received further commitments from the families who showed interest. The Church in Tulsa also committed to giving me $100 a week while I was there.
So in the fall, after taking a short trip to Oklahoma to be ordained by my church and pack up my few possessions I settled in Michigan. College classes soon started, we held our first services (in the building we had used that week for VBS), and the families who committed began attending church again.
Since that time, I have seen over and over again what a blessing it is to serve God in your youth. One of the greatest blessings is related to the scriptural principle of reaping and sowing. Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And when you serve God in your youth, you often have an entire lifetime to see the reaping that comes.
To finish our trip, Nathan and I returned to the city of Marysville (forty years to the month I arrived in Michigan) and in a future post I will share what the harvest was from those short years of sowing in my youth.
