We spent the entire month of March in Louisiana. We had two great meetings in the northern part of the state. The first was Occupy #1 Baptist Church in Pitkin, Louisiana. I do not have time to explain the name of the church, but I do have time to explain that God is doing a great work in the hearts of a small congregation in this out-of-the-way area. Pastor Whitener and his church have seen a revival lately, with many young people and adults being saved and added to the church! The result of this revival blossomed into an excited congregation consisting of a majority of new Christians. I was privileged to present our ministry and preach here. From there we moved on to Shreveport, Louisiana, to present our work at Shreveport Baptist Temple.
Whereas we had a great month, not all went as I expected it to go. A meeting and a conference we were counting on ended up getting canceled, so our month was a little more open than I would have planned for. However, the openings gave us some unique opportunities that I wasn’t expecting. After the meetings we had in North Louisiana were finished, we made the prophet’s chamber set-up at our sending church, St. Amant Baptist Church, our home base for a while. We made use of our open time to be a blessing to our sending church and to meet other pastors in Louisiana we hadn’t previously met before in order to sow seeds for future meetings.
One of the ways we tried to be a blessing was by going out soul winning in the area, inviting both potential bus riders and families alike. I felt really burdened to go to my old neighborhood where I started riding the bus as a kid. This desire brought us to Bryan Avenue in Gonzales, Louisiana! (On an interesting side note, my old bus workers used to call me “Brian on Bryan Street.”) My emotions ran high as I knocked on doors in this area. We spent a few hours knocking on doors and meeting people, who were surprisingly happy to see us. Sadly, we saw no one saved, but we got out many Gospel tracts and made several good seed-sowing appointments. On another occasion, Liz and I knocked on doors near St. Amant Baptist in an area still trying to recover from the flood that happened many months ago. Here we were able to make a lot of contacts for the bus route. I’m also much burdened to see this ministry get off the ground once again in my home/sending church. What I haven’t told you is that the flood also wiped out their entire Bus Ministry at St. Amant Baptist, and it’s only been recently that they have been able to get a new bus. They are battling now to get the paperwork figured out, which has proven itself to be quite the difficult process. Pray that this ministry is revived again soon; other “Brians on Bryan Street” are waiting!
To top things off, we also got to join a church in Baton Rouge in their college campus ministry at LSU. Get this! The place where we set up the table to engage the students was called “Free Speech Alley”! Here we were able to hand out tracts, witness, and invite the students to an evening Bible study on campus. How cool is it that I got to go soul winning on the campus of my favorite college football team! We were privileged indeed to serve this month. Please pray for the seed sown to take root and blossom into precious souls being saved in Southeast Louisiana. I’m a product of this region, and I long for them to know my Jesus. Will you pray for them?
Pressing toward the mark,
Brian Hebert
