Spark in the Park
I would like to Praise the Lord for how he has worked to form and fit us together in the body of Christ—equipped to Go out to our community and effectively reach the lost with the love of the gospel of Christ! On Thursday, July 4th, 2024, It was apparent to all of Harrisonville MO, and surrounding communities, that Heartland Baptist Fellowship was alive and well and ready to express its God-given role of sharing the gospel of Christ to all who were ready to hear—oh, and BTW, there were MANY!!
Although it was one of the hottest days of the year—that didn’t detour any from coming out early in the evening to enjoy the annual festivities. From early evening on the water lines were long, and in return, the giving of “Living Waters” was easily transitioned to! As HBF’s role was to set the mood and start the show—so did Vicki Slyster sing the national anthem and followed it up with a very moving personal testimony of her own. Our Pastor (as usual) was a huge hit with most all of the younger crowd with trivia questions and (gift card) giveaways! The second time through the cycle we had Brian Rinker give his all to the Lord in a very heart-felt testimony that was a huge witness to the Lord’s mercy and grace that the Lord offers to us all!
As the crowd began to draw closer and bigger, once again Pastor Brian entertained and drew more people towards the Trivia questions, giveaways, and more gifts. There was more to draw in the youth with face painting as Jeff Trude and his team of young evangelists are so gifted at painting young faces and witnessing to young hearts the amazing love of Christ! On the west side of the tables that held the water, giveaways of flags and Glow-in-the-dark bracelets as icebreakers and John & Romans with 4th of July festive covers. Looking westward toward the sun going down, we had a stand where we interviewed people with a questionnaire to determine their spiritual standing in life and offer living waters to anyone who had not yet drank from it. It was a perfect backdrop for recording each witnessing interview with the sun going down in the west behind the lake and the curious onlookers watching as they walked by. We also asked our interviewees if they would mind being recorded on camera and all agreed. It was the greatest outreach that I had ever been a part of in many years—there were 5 sincere prayers for salvation and 6 others who either wanted to make sure or grow more in their salvation—11 total interviewers with a constant line for hours from when we started to when we quit!
Finally, around 9 PM Brian drew the large crowd present nearer and did more Trivia questions and giveaways right before we had our final testimony with Sherry Walker and the Grand finale of the best fireworks show in the entire state! Sherry gave another heart-felt tear-jerker testimony of what the Lord has done to change her heart and life around—which in turn, helped to soften other hearts that were present to receive the good news of the gospel personally and have their lives changed! At this year’s “Spark in the Park” outreach event to Harrisonville and the surrounding community, we saw one of the most productive outreaches ever in sharing the gospel. It was one the greatest team-supported outreach efforts at Heartland with everyone getting involved either directly or indirectly and we want to shout out a BIG PRAISE to THE LORD FOR ALL HE HAS DONE to ALLOW US to BE A PART of HIS GREAT COMMISSION—right here in our little part of the WORLD—THANK YOU JESUS!!!