The weather may have kept the attendance down, but it couldn’t prevent the small army of volunteers from doing God’s work.
ALEXANDRIA – The weather may have kept the attendance down, but it couldn’t prevent the small army of volunteers from doing God’s work.
Over the three-day weekend, hundreds of volunteers, many from local churches, took to the sidewalks, the streets, the parks, and the playgrounds to pass out Bibles, tracts and plans of salvation to all those who attended.
And while the numbers are still being crunched, Kevin Roberts, associate pastor of Philadelphia Baptist Deville, said early estimates are 300 plus people made professions of faith at the various events.
“I was a little disappointed in the weather, because we had to cancel the block party in Pineville on Saturday, and the Freedom Fest ended on a wet note this evening. But despite the rain, spirits are still high because of the number of decisions made this weekend.”
There were 167 professions of faith (the most of any event over the weekend) at Real Encounter, where motorcyclists and skateboarders performed some breathtaking stunts before a large, appreciative audience in a packed parking lot at the Rapides Parish Coliseum.
A NAMB-sponsored ICE (Inner City Evangelism) team out of Atlanta walked the streets around the Bolton Community Center near one of four area Block Parties and finished up with 75-plus decisions of faith.
A jam-packed arena at the LSU AG Center next to the LSU-A drew almost 700 people, who heard cowboy Max Austin’s share the Gospel along with his testimony in between the bull riding.
Dr. David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, said he thought the weekend was “tremendous success.”
“We won’t get the final report until tomorrow, but I believe it is going to be a very positive, uplifting one. In spite of the rain Saturday and Sunday, this was a wonderful weekend – one in which God was truly at work,” Hankins said.
“I would like to compliment the CrossOver committee and our convention Evangelism and Outreach team for a job well done,” Hankins said. “We saw a tremendous amount of cooperation, which I believe will carry over to our annual convention.”
Even though, the number of people making professions of faith did not meet the expectations of the CrossOver committee, Roberts said he saw God working long before the weekend.
“I believe a revival took place amongst our churches,” Roberts said. “They worked together to help pull this event together. It was almost like it was an Act 1:8 challenge where they stopped working for themselves and worked for the Kingdom of God and His glory.
“Everyone involved in this event did such a great job,” said Roberts. “I really have to give a lot of credit to the chairmen of the seven different events. I went to Korea for two weeks, and didn’t get back until the day before it started.
“They – Kevin Boles, Cody Cadewood, Wayne Jenkins, Philip Robertson, Josh Tanner and Dewayne Rogers — were the ones that finished pulling this thing together,” Roberts said.
The three-day-event, only the second one held in Louisiana, began with Real Encounter featuring motorcyclist and skateboarders performing before a large audience in the parking lot of the Rapides Parish Coliseum.