70+ Salvations in Tarboro, North Carolina

This past weekend, I traveled with my friend John Loewen to Tarboro, North Carolina for the Fresh Outpouring Conference at Word of Life International Church. John was leading prayer sessions during the conference and suggested I come along to assist in an evangelism outreach.

On Saturday afternoon John and I rode in a car with a woman named Louise who's an associate minister at Word of Life. We first stopped at a downtown intersection where I got out of the car to talk to three teenaged boys with skateboards. Two of them already knew the Lord. The other boy thought he was going to heaven for "being good." Emory prayed to receive salvation.

Moments later we drove up to a older woman named Lois who wasn't sure of her eternal destiny. Her daughter said they attended a church and tried to discourage me from talking to Lois. Fortunately I persisted and Lois prayed to get born again. Ironically this incident happened on “Church Street.”

Louise had planned on driving us directly into the worst neighborhood of Tarboro to evangelize. However, Louise “accidentally” drove us across the Tar River into the neighboring town on Princeville. There we ministered to many people telling them about the Prince of Peace. One memorable incident happened as I started talking to a large family about the Lord. A woman driving a car pulled up to me asking, “Can I have one of those, too?” (referring to the tracts I was handing out) Teresa prayed the prayer of salvation along with six kids and their mother.

It was a day of mostly “drive-by salvations" as Louise continued driving us around Tarboro and stopped the car when John and I saw people we felt a leading to talk to. We set a goal for 20 salvations and finished the day with 21. A couple other teams from Word of Life went out evangelizing as well. One of the teams lost count of the number of people they prayed with. The estimated number of total salvations was at least 70.

The next day after the Sunday morning service, I briefly went out the front door to take a brief look at the mall the church is located in. As I glanced at the parking lot, I noticed two Hispanics walking my way. I handed them Spanish tracts and then approached a young man in a McDonald’s uniform coming from the other direction. Jazmine wasn’t sure of his eternal destiny even though he later told me his stepfather was a church deacon. Jazmine got born again.

Later that night before John and I left town, we stopped at Taco Bell for a late dinner. When we walked inside, I immediately approached two employees who appeared to be taking a break. Both Cheri and Unrique prayed to receive salvation. Hallelujah!

"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision." - Joel 3:14