My friend Nathan Smith and I were assigned to two sites: one at Waliso and the other at Walkitie; about two hours out of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Our evangelism meetings were held January 26–February 10, 2007.

Nathan had never preached a sermon in his life, but God helping him, he preached the whole series. He started in an open field by our church and church school, but was rained out, so he finished in the church sanctuary. He and I stayed at the same cabin in the resort of Nagesh Lodge and I was able to mentor him as ShareHim had requested. The children just loved him. One day he went with the local pastor to one of his churches about two hours into the mountains by foot and car. Nathan reports that while there they signed up 32 people for Bible studies and arranged for another two to be baptized on the last day of the evangelism meetings. A respectable result for the first time.

At my site in Walkitie, we had many, many youth come to the meetings. The pastor of the district stated that he knew these youth and that they were some of the troublemakers in the town. When we made our appeals they would not budge from their seats or come forward. The two weeks of meetings were soon to end. One night, I had a 15-minute appeal. We got something like 55 responders—but not the town youth.

I met with the workers for my site and asked the church youth if they would be willing to be trained to go back and appeal to these young people, one on one, while I made the appeal from the front. Fifteen of them were willing, so we had them sit scattered in the seats were the street kids usually sat. You guessed it—it was at the far back of the hall. During the appeal for decisions for Christ, the first of the church youth brought one of the town youth. Rejoicing in heaven! Then another church youth brought one, then another. We kept appealing and the Holy Spirit kept working until almost the whole back of the hall was cleared of occupants—they were all standing in front! Oh, I could have cried. That night, nearly 80 youth came forward. Praise the Lord.

Included in that 80 were—unbeknownst to me—two youth from a different religious culture. One lad of 18 simply decided for Christ straight off and was baptized that first weekend. The other was a 15-year-old girl who’d been scheduled to be baptized the previous Saturday morning but did not show up. In the afternoon program, I noticed that the pastor and some of the local church leadership were talking to the girl. They called me over and told me the following story. This girl missed the baptism because her mother said if she was baptized she’d be beaten and turned out of the house. I sympathized with the girl and then I asked her, “Did Jesus die for you?” She said quietly, not looking up, yes. Then I asked her, “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior?” She replied yes. I told her, “You are a Christian!” For the first time, she looked me full in the face and a big smile came on her face. I said, “I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I will pray that you make the right decision.” We prayed right there.

After ten minutes the pastor came to me and said that the girl would like to be baptized. WONDERFUL! I’m rejoicing! I told the pastor, “Well, there is still water in the tank from the baptism this morning, why not baptize her now?” So the girl was questioned by the ordained pastor in front of several local church leaders in the pastor's study and was subsequently baptized. See how powerful the Word of God is? And we are privileged to participate in its dissemination.

Quiet Hour readers and sponsors, this is one story from one site at one effort. Now multiply that by hundreds, yes, even thousands of times, and you will have some idea of the effect of your prayers and financial support. May your tribe increase and God bless you.