As In His Steps wraps up summer activities, we reflect on all that the Lord has done through this ministry in the past three months. Isaiah 55:11 says, “So My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do,” and we believe wholeheartedly that the work done this summer will not return void in the lives of the children and families that were impacted.
One of the foundational ministries of In His Steps is our detention center ministry in Hinds, Rankin, and Yazoo counties. Through our youth detention center ministry, we have been able to share the gospel fully and clearly with several young men and women and seen many of them enter into a relationship with the Lord. Even with the victories, ministry can be tiring and there are often several issues pulling at your attention at once.
On August 1st, Reverend Bacon took Isaiah 55 to heart at his weekly visit to the Rankin County Youth Detention Center as he shared God’s Word with a rather skeptical listener. Initially, he says, “I didn’t want to go. There was so much to do here at our main campus, it was raining, and the detention center had called ahead to let me know there would only be one youth to work with. I questioned whether it would be a good use of the time I had to drive all the way out to Rankin County for the one child. I questioned God.” With so many other things demanding his attention from the upcoming 25 years of ministry celebration, Rev. Bacon found it hard to justify driving out to the detention center, but he felt the Lord asking him to be obedient and faithful.
So he went.
When he got there, the guard that was working explained to Reverend Bacon that the child he would be working with was thirteen, and that he had gotten mixed up in gang activity which had landed him in the detention center. “He also doesn’t believe in God,” the guard shared. Rev. Bacon saw that the boy was defensive and outspoken about his lack of faith, which he knew was a sign that the Lord had begun planting seeds in this child’s life and that he was fighting the love that was being offered to him.
Once Reverend Bacon was with the boy, he asked him simply, “What did you have to do to get in the gang?” The boy began sharing his story, saying, “I had to fight five people. I told them no head shots though, only body shots so my mama couldn’t tell I had been fighting when I got home.” This prompted Rev. Bacon to ask when the boy had joined the gang, as he was obviously still living at home at the time, and as the boy looked at Reverend Bacon, he said, “Three years ago. I was ten.”
It seemed clear that the child had been looking for something to believe in, someone to look up to, and after talking some more about why he had joined the gang, God opened a door for Rev. Bacon to then ask, “So what is it that makes you not believe in God? I can tell you’re an intelligent young man, so tell me what you’ve got working in your mind about God.” The boy said something that took Rev. Bacon aback: “Why would I believe in someone who walked the earth just like I do?”
His statement led Rev. Bacon to share the gospel, telling this broken thirteen year old boy who had made mistakes while searching for something to believe in how much God loves him as he is. He explained that while Jesus did walk the earth just like we do, He did so much more than that, including dying on the cross so that we can live with Him for the rest of eternity.
Telling this story back, Reverend Bacon says, “He didn’t accept Christ that day, but I’ll tell you what he did do. He listened.”
At In His Steps, we hold fast to Isaiah 55, trusting that God’s word, when spoken in faith will never return empty. We know that even if this young man did not accept Christ right then in the detention center, God’s Word will continue with him until he is ready to accept the grace that has been extended to him. It is because of this belief that we follow Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” We are trusting today that God’s gospel will bring salvation to the young boy who heard the gospel Thursday, and that in God’s timing he will come to understand it!