Shortly after school started in 1983 it was announced that Jerry Johnston was coming to our church to hold a week long city wide crusade. We were beside ourselves with excitement. Usually when Jerry went to a city he would hold LIFE school assemblies in every high school in town to talk about suicide and share his hope in Jesus Christ. We were enthralled that he would be speaking at Manzano High! But as Albuquerque, New Mexico is not in the Bible belt and not used to such things, Jerry was denied entrance into all of the schools in Albuquerque. So Jerry sat down with my brother and me and said very intently, “If I can’t go into the schools, I want you two and your Bible club to bring the schools to me!” We said, “Tell us what to do!” He gave us boxes and boxes of tickets, brochures, and posters and on them were printed Jerry Johnston Ministries presents PIZZA BLAST. Come here about LIFE and get all of the free pizza you can eat. And it gave the date, time, and location. He looked us in the eyes and said, “I want all of these tickets and posters and brochures scattered all over Albuquerque and I want you guys to have 1000 teens here on Friday night!” (This was on the preceding Sunday). We told Jerry, “Don’t worry sir, we will have them here; you can count on us!” We left that meeting excited and scared to death! What had we just said?! We went to school the next morning and sat our Bible club down and said very intently, “If the schools won’t let Jerry come then we need to…” well you get the picture. We started praying, fasting, and talking to everyone about the PIZZA BLAST on Friday night. We gave everyone of the 4000 students in our school at least one ticket that week and we went to other high schools and mingled with the crowds as if we belonged there and handed out tickets. We attended the crusade each night that week and heard Jerry preach which further inflamed us for Christ. We gave Jerry updates of how it was going. It was so exciting. One night after the service we took the posters to several high schools and put them up all over the place. We had prayer meetings late at night. By now you see our parents, friends, teachers, etc. were scared to even question what craziness we were up to. They knew that God was driving us because they could see the fruit and the transformations taking place.
Friday night finally came. We ran the vans to pick people up. When we got to the 2 thousand seat auditorium it was packed out with teens and adults. I could see classmates everywhere and I knew that God had answered ours and Jerry’s prayers. The place was so packed that I had to sit in the aisle at the back which was great because I could see everyone in front of me. When Jerry started to preach I felt a wave of the the Holy Spirit sweep across the room and I knew God was going to do something big for our city and for our school. I also felt a deep burning, churning, warfare type urge to pray. I started praying like I had never prayed before. I started begging God to give us souls for our labors. I prayed so hard that I got physically ill and had to step out for a moment and get some air. My youth pastor came to see if I was ok and I remember saying, “I just want to die if God doesn’t give me souls.” We went back in and I continued to pray. When Jerry gave the invitation, hundreds of people flooded to the altars to receive Christ. It was the greatest thing I had ever seen. I saw some of the worst kids in our school getting saved that night. I was awed by the power of God and His goodness. I can’t remember how many young people from Manzano trusted Christ that night but it was over 100. We were given the decision cards (which had a space for which high school you attended) from all of the students at Manzano that came forward that night and we began to follow up and work at discipleship. We rejoiced with Jerry, our church, and our Bible club that God had done beyond what we had hoped.
We quickly realized that we needed more than Bible club each day and youth group on Sunday to disciple these kids and the rest that were still being saved in the Bible club each day so we started a Monday night teen church and called it Youth On Fire. We met in the gymnasium of our church which was providential because the gym, called the Dennis Elliott Memorial Youth Center, was built in memory of my uncle who was killed by a drunk teenager in 1970. My uncle who was 18 lived across the street from me. He was a sold out Christian young man and my hero. He’s the first person I ever remember telling me about Jesus. He died when I was 5. There were over 1000 people at his funeral and the church built the gym in the hopes that it would help get young people off the street and that is exactly what Youth On Fire was about. We would meet every Monday night from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. The first hour we would play games and have sports and then the second hour we would have worship and preaching. It was an awesome ministry. My brother and I would trade off preaching each week and later when we had some preachers boys rise up out of our group of converts that we were discipling they would alternate preaching with us. We had people saved (adults and teens), we counseled, fed homeless people, had all night prayer meetings, and so on. We were going going going and God was blessing our youthful fire and devotion with growth and great results.
As the school year came to a close I began to think about my future and I began to pray that God would allow me to attend Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. Many of my uncles and cousins had attended there and I wanted to go there so bad. I had a little money from working with my dad in construction but I needed more finances and a way to get there. My brother and I shared a car but I needed to leave it behind so that he could continue Manzano Bible Club and Youth On Fire while I was at college. Not long after I started praying my pastor called me in and told me that some one had decided to anonymously support me $100 a month while I was at BBC. Praise God! I also found out that two teens from our church and a street girl that had been saved there wanted to go also and I could ride to college with them! I’ll never forget how excited I was getting ready to go and what a surreal feeling it was when I hugged and kissed my family goodbye and headed east for Bible College. I didn’t know what the future held but I sensed that it was going to be amazing and I was not mistaken… Aflame For God 6 – God’s Knighthood For The Soldier-Preacher
We quickly realized that we needed more than Bible club each day and youth group on Sunday to disciple these kids and the rest that were still being saved in the Bible club each day so we started a Monday night teen church and called it Youth On Fire. We met in the gymnasium of our church which was providential because the gym, called the Dennis Elliott Memorial Youth Center, was built in memory of my uncle who was killed by a drunk teenager in 1970. My uncle who was 18 lived across the street from me. He was a sold out Christian young man and my hero. He’s the first person I ever remember telling me about Jesus. He died when I was 5. There were over 1000 people at his funeral and the church built the gym in the hopes that it would help get young people off the street and that is exactly what Youth On Fire was about. We would meet every Monday night from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. The first hour we would play games and have sports and then the second hour we would have worship and preaching. It was an awesome ministry. My brother and I would trade off preaching each week and later when we had some preachers boys rise up out of our group of converts that we were discipling they would alternate preaching with us. We had people saved (adults and teens), we counseled, fed homeless people, had all night prayer meetings, and so on. We were going going going and God was blessing our youthful fire and devotion with growth and great results.