This week was an incredible example of how God can use you to call His sheep to Himself by initiative witnessing.

On Monday morning I set out in the foggy cold armed with prayer and the Word of God with Shafter Bible Club member Katie to tell people about Jesus, not knowing at all how it would turn out.  And God sent us two consecutive students with open and ready hearts and minds to hear and respond to His Word.  A girl came first. She is a really sweet girl who had been searching for something more in life than what she had.  She’d tried a couple churches but felt guilty because she didn’t attend regularly.  She’d heard of Jesus but hadn’t heard of His unconditional love for her.  After hearing about Jesus’ sacrifice for her, she responded by praying with Katie to commit her life to Him and will be attending church with Katie next week.  Then we talked to a guy who hadn’t heard anything at all about Jesus.  He said he’d been to church once or twice before with his grandmother but couldn’t remember what he’d heard.  He knew there was a God out there and was ready to meet Him and give his life to Him.  He’ll also be attending church with Katie next week.

This was Katie’s first time praying with anyone to accept Christ… and it wasn’t her last!  That day, many people in her classes saw her red shirt that read, “I found true love. Ask me how you can find it,” and asked.  She was able to share Christ’s love with over 20 classmates and friends who wanted to hear and prayed to accept Christ that day!  God is using Katie in big ways at Shafter…

I guess the biggest thing I’ve learned through these (and other) witnessing experiences throughout the week is how little control I have over the outcome of the conversation.  Persistence, honesty, friendliness and love above all during conversations help, but the overall depth and responsiveness of the conversation is always entirely up to God.  As I heard the individual stories of the students who began new relationships with God this week, I was struck by how God had orchestrated every student’s personal experiences to lead up to this moment of recognizing a need for Him and accepting Him as Lord and Savior and Friend.  And even that moment is for them only the beginning of a lifetime of following Christ and an eternity of being a worshipping Him.

“To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”        – Jude 1:25

-Alanna

Witnessing

While witnessing at BHS one Tuesday afternoon…

We had broken up into groups just after arriving on campus and praying.  As we all started walking away my partner and I noticed two boys standing alone in the middle of the quad; for some reason these two men stood out of the crowd, it was like they had placed there. Zack, my partner, and I went off and headed straight for them and began to witness them.  We found out that one was an Atheist and the other was a nominal Christian who rarely attended church.

At the beginning of our conversation the nominal Christian was heckling my partner and I and the Atheist was extremely standoffish and had no real interest in God. After we found out why he had been this way. You see this guy had both nearly died once and actually did die on the operating table before being revived as well as seeing several friends die. After understanding what was going on in his life we began to share and explain the Gospel along with sharing a brief segment of my own testimony. In the course of this the one friend stopped heckling us and actually paid close attention and the Atheist, Dan, went from apathy/ anger toward God to saying he was indifferent to saying that he believed God existed.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was 45 minutes late for class, and had to go, I believe that he would have made a decision to give his life to Christ, but as is we could tell that he was seriously thinking about it. The other friend is another story. Even though he left I saw him two days later attending one of the rallies. Afterward I found out that he had dedicated his life to Christ. If seeing is believing then what I witnessed was the Holy Spirit changing the hearts of men. Taking one from a place of hostility toward God and opening him up to Him, and the other being moving from treating God with apathy to dedicating his life to following Christ.

-Mike

It was another foggy morning and I saw two girls approaching the school, and I started a conversation with them. By this time I was already aware of the fact that so much of the world have no idea who Christ really is. So many of these students think that he was just a mere example to follow; or another religious teacher preaching that we ought to be good people in order to earn our way into heaven. These two girls thought exactly that. Until I told them that what the Bible actually teaches is that no one could ever be good enough for heaven. Their faces looked bewildered. They never knew what Jesus really came here for. In their confusion, they asked me then how they could get into heaven. I told them the Gospel, that Christ came so that they can be reunited with God again, and that salvation comes by grace, through faith alone, in Him as their Lord and Savior.

As I was telling them the Gospel, something happens. A beautiful sight that occurs time and time again.  Their faces soon turned from bewilderment to excitement. A frown turns into a smile. A smile turns into laughter. Eyes that were once blank were filled. Right in front of me, I saw the grace of God working in a person’s heart, and it was wonderful. “I was never taught that. That is amazing.” Right then and there they asked how they could receive Christ as their Savior.

Responses like these are what I live for, and it is what gets me up so early in the morning every day in this trip. To see God receiving the praise He deserves, and man receiving the salvation that he does not deserve. Tory was one of these kids. His face literally lit up, a frown turned into a joyous smile, his eyes revealed something that was once not there. With great excitement he said to me: “I never knew Jesus did that for me. I want that.” Holding back my tears I prayed for him and I gave him a Bible. This is what is worth living for. All the frustration, fatigue, and work come down to responses like these. Sheer manifestations of the grace of God working in a person’s life. It is absolutely wonderful. And I thank God that He has put me in this trip. It’s been a momentous, glorious, and humbling experience!

-Gray

Witnessing at Shafter High School on a foggy morning

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 it says “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”. This passage encompasses my experience throughout the whole CSP Hometown Bakersfield trip. Prior to coming to coming on the CSP trip, during my winter break, I encountered some of the heaviest warfare I’ve ever experienced as a Christian. Everything thing from doubt, to fear, to insecurity, had seemingly crept back up in my life, which were things I really struggled with before I seriously gave my life to Christ 2 and a half years ago. Feelings that felt foreign to me, suddenly plagued my thoughts and emotions constantly. However, despite the state of my spiritual walk, God gave me the strength to persevere. Not only did He encourage me greatly through my brothers and sisters in Christ and through reading Scripture, but He even used my greatly for His kingdom even when I felt so weak. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I was able to lead two young girls to Christ this week. I was so astonished that even in the state of my weakness, God used my story to lead a girl from Shafter High and a girl from Bakersfield High to Him. The experience was so touching; I asked them if a relationship with Christ was something they desired to have in their life, they just looked so ready. I remember just feeling so joyful when they nodded to receive Him and when we prayed the sinner’s prayer together, it just made me so joyful. I’m so awestruck at the fact that not only God uses us in spite of our weakness, but I think the crazier thing is that, broken and weak people are exactly the ones God calls and uses for His glory. The reality is, that we are all just broken people who’ve found Truth and strength through Him, and I’m so glad that all it takes is for us to accept and commit our lives to Him, and He fills in the blanks for everything else!!! Although, I’m still enduring struggle right now, I know it is for the greater purpose for His kingdom, as He continues to mold me into His likeness and make Him the only thing I boast about. I still have a long way to go, and much more to learn and experience through Him, but my prayer is that my life can encompass this song lyric one day, because in the end it is He who deserves all the glory: “I will not boast in anything: no gifts, no power, no wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ; his death and resurrection.”

-Natalie

Theme verse

Originally, the purpose of the hometown trip blog was to inform people of what was happening throughout the week and how everyone could be praying for us. This blog didn’t quite work out that way. This will be more of a reflection on the week and what God has been teaching us through the work we have been doing.

One of the most interesting things about this week has been the fact that the rallies have not been quite as…impactful/red-letter/mind-blowing as the witnessing has been. As I look through the stories that all the team members have written, most are about witnessing. God has blessed our personal interactions with the students beyond what we ever could have imagined. He has proven that He will work beyond our expectations if we rely on him.

However…someone has to at least mention the rallies since they were a big part of this week…

Bakersfield High School (BHS) had rallies on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Both days the rallies were held in the gym which means we got to share the good news of what Jesus has done for us! The first day a college pastor came and spoke. I was a little bit discouraged at first because some of the first period lunch students started leaving when they realized that the rally was all about Jesus. However, by the end, many had stayed (we think about 200 hundred per lunch) and after both lunches, the response cards indicated that 80 students had accepted Christ into their lives. On Thursday, two students from the Christian club gave their testimonies and again there were about 200 students per lunch present. The most exciting thing about the BHS rallies was the amount of literature handed out. The first day we passed out dozens of Bibles, over a hundred tracts, and completely ran out of gospels of John. I am encouraged by the thought that even after the rallies are over the students have an opportunity to seek God out in His word. Today (Saturday), team leader Ollie and team member Marissa met with the BHS Christian club to talk about how to follow-up with those who have made a decision for Christ. Because we had response cards (cards with the contact info of the student and what sort of impact the rally had on the student), the club members will be able to personally reach to many of the students who attended the rally.

Shafter also had rallies on Wednesday and Thursday. They were held in a grassy area in a corner of campus. Even though they were outside, they were considered free-will assembly rallies since the students generally didn’t eat lunch in that part of campus. However, there were a lot of students gathered there who heard the message and received Christian literature. We think that over 200 students were present both days.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning our team and the club members had been out witnessing before school and it was exciting to see the students we had been witnessing to show up at the rallies.

More to come about other outreach week happenings!

-Betsy Yee

Praying the Sinners' Prayer

Handing out the pizza at Shafter

Shafter Rally Pizza!

Students at the Shafter Rally

Literature distribution