Lord, Give Us Flint

“Lord, give us Flint!” we prayed at one of our 5:00 a.m. prayer sessions.

First Flint members have been praying for years that God will help them reach the community for Jesus, and God has started answering in a mighty way! Church members, pastors and local medical professionals in the Michigan and Lake Region Conferences are responding to the moving of the Holy Spirit to reach Flint with a major coordinated door-to-door evangelistic effort.

Things took off when Johnny Henderson of Streams of Light International (S.O.L.I.), called me last July. “How would you and the pastors in your district like us to organize a Great Controversy distribution in Flint?” I was very interested and told our pastors. We agreed that this would be a great way to blanket Flint with God’s Word! Pastor Malcom Douglas of First Flint and Clio took the proposal to his First Flint church board, and they graciously agreed to be the host church!

Members and pastors from seven churches in and around the Flint area joined forces with volunteers from around the U.S.A! Eight days later, 29,000 copies of The Great Controversy were in people’s hands or on their door along with a health magazine: The Addiction Battlefield, Which one has you Hooked? with a helpline phone number. Raymond Waller, head elder of the Vasser church, and other local health professionals wrote the articles.

S.O.L.I. youth took on the logistics and training, and 630 people signed up for Bible studies, most through the BibleStudyOffer.com mobile app. Many hearts were warmed and touched by the love of God as the Holy Spirit used these ‘itinerant preachers’! We sensed we were making friends for eternity. Church members and pastors alike testified that this experience was a great awakening of missionary work in their churches and a powerful personal spiritual revival. Testimony times at the end of the day were filled with stories of divine encounters. The Holy Spirit was moving and convicted people of their need of Jesus Christ! Initially, where there was spontaneous rejection, the Lord softened hearts so people took the literature, received prayer and requested Bible studies. We discovered that holding hands while praying in Flint is a thing!                                                                                                           

Biblestudyoffer.com and One Accord have been powerful aids when it came to delivering the Bible Studies. These programs, their apps, and the Conference support personnel, helped organize and divide the contacts between five churches immediately. First Flint and South Flint, for example, had around 180 and 150 interests respectively reassigned overnight with similar numbers for other churches, including Eternal Life and Fairhaven from our Regional Conference. What a great problem to have! Upwards of 45 church members and pastors are working on follow-up right now.

Amazing testimonies continue to come in weekly! More than 25 people have transitioned to in-person Bible studies, some to mail-ins, three have started attending church, while others have been invited to seminars.

Miraculously, rather than seeing many interests falling away, I have seen the opposite. Since Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, Grand Blanc and Holly members have been blessed to gain an additional 198 Bible study requests in three Flint communities!

The Widings, an Adventist family who attend the Holly church, established a charity called Memory Layne Global Missions, in honor of Layne, their 13-year-old son who was tragically killed in a tubing accident on Silver Lake July 2002. The Widings had to lay their beloved son to rest but this inspired them to dedicate their lives to saving those that don’t know Jesus.

On November 11^th last year, Amber Widing texted me and asked if I had any names and addresses of people that needed food for the holidays. “If you could help us out at all, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.” “How many do you want?” I asked. “Shoot high!” Not knowing how many to suggest, I said I could come up with 60 names. A thrill of adrenaline shot through me when Nathan Widing turned up at our meeting spot in his heavy-duty truck and super long trailer with 100 baskets! Over the next two days Memory Layne Global Missions helped us distribute over 300 Thanksgiving baskets including a turkey! I couldn’t believe my ears when Nathan said, “We’re going to do this at Christmas as well!”

One lady said with tears in her eyes, “Churches don’t come out here to our neighborhood. I’ve been praying for years that God would send someone to help us. This is such a blessing!” I have seen fears and barriers crumble, strong friendships made, basic needs met, as God inspires and supplies the means for us to help people. For our Christmas giveaway Memory Layne Global Missions provided a second truck and trailer with 1,500 warm clothing items added to by church members and our children at Adelphian Junior Academy (AJA).

Local apartment managers already gave us permission last year to use designated apartment living rooms and a Community Hall to do Bible studies and Addiction Recovery Seminars! At the time of this writing, we plan to start mid-February/March 2025. The goal is to start a Branch Sabbath School and Church Service at 3:00 p.m. on Sabbaths, and Addiction Recovery Seminars Sunday afternoons. Grand Blanc’s Pentecost 2025 funds from the North American Division are earmarked to help us with this! It has been a joy to see the combined efforts of church members making such an Impact for Christ in the Flint communities.

“So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11