By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
HINESTON – Prayer proved to be the catalyst for a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit during a crusade at the Hineston rodeo arena, the key organizer shared with the Baptist Message.
Over the three-day period, April 10-12, 30 people made spiritual decisions, including six who made first-time public professions of faith in Jesus and another 24 who restored fellowship with the Lord through repentance. The harvest resulted from prayerful planning and preparation by many for the Hineston Crusade, said Brandon Smith, also pastor of Dixie Baptist Church in Sieper.
Glenn Price, worship minister for the Philadelphia Baptist Church, Deville, accompanied by his praise team members, led music and evangelist Bill Britt brought the message each night.
“You could sense the Holy Spirit moving all through the arena,” Smith offered. “It gave me goose bumps.
“It was a special moment when I looked into the eyes of those who finally came to the realization they are lost or needed to restore their lives with Christ,” he continued. “The youth, especially, had this glow on their faces when they came forward to declare their decisions for Jesus. I’m praying they continue with that same excitement and become on fire for God in their homes, schools and community.”
The crusade was a multi-denominational, community-wide effort.
Dixie Baptist Church provided most of the volunteers, Smith said, and New Sunrise Baptist Church in Otis, Hineston Tabernacle (a full Gospel church), Amiable Baptist Church in Glenmora and Mount Olive Baptist Association helped with financial and equipment support.
“It was good to see the community come together like that,” Smith declared. “The vision was given to us a year ago about this, and to see it come to fruition was amazing.
“To see multiple churches and denominations worshipping together under one rodeo arena roof was hard to put into words,” he said. “And to see God move in a small crowd like this was amazing.”
Without prayer, Smith believes the number of decisions would have been much fewer and attendance would not have reached the average of 75 nightly.
“Prayer was a big reason for what we saw happen over the three nights of our crusade,” he said. “God was working behind the scenes in ways we may never know until we get to heaven. Going forward, we may see this community come together even stronger and change this area for Christ even in ways we can’t imagine.”
