When you are in the middle of the forest, it is difficult to see the overall landscape.
That is how it feels sometimes serving in the mission field of Vermont, especially during the recent flooding event.
After five weeks of walking alongside people who have had their lives turned upside down and asking why people would come and help them for free, I realized the open door God was giving us to share His love to people who would never enter a conversation with us before. I prayed with seven people to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior during the past five weeks, then was able to give five local pastors 32 decision cards from people who wanted a follow up visit from the local church.
Yes, there is much darkness in Vermont. Yes, there is much devastation in Vermont. But YES, there is also much Kingdom opportunity in Vermont.
Churches stepping up to help
After five weeks of non-stop serving through assisting with flood recovery groups, I was able to sit back and praise God for those folks who showed up every morning at 8 a.m. around the flagpole to pray.
We prayed for the opportunities God would bring the teams that day, thanked God for the local pastors who opened their churches to house the teams, praised God for the local pastors with the local contacts that helped build bridges between the Faith Community Recovery Groups and the secular Vermont Organizations.
God reminded me of the church from Georgia who called on day one of the flood and asked what we needed and proceeded to get the word out. They filled a trailer in 2 days, spent 2 days on the road to get it here, unloaded and then went home and said let them know what else we need.
Ministry partners around the country not only called and sent teams to help in the recovery effort, but also sent financial assistance to the churches in need.
I was overwhelmed with how God opened the storehouses of Heaven and flooded us with so many blessings.
Many of the same ministry partners have reached out to help in the rebuild phase, for which we are currently meeting and planning.
‘Something that rocked my world’
On top of all that, God had one more gift for me, something that rocked my world. It was a report from the Association of Religious Data Archives (ARDA) that puts out a report following each US Census.
I have been waiting for over a year for this this report and when I refreshed the site last week — there it was.
Not only did Vermont move from 47 to 42 in the U.S. for evangelicals, which means Vermont leads all New England states with percentage of evangelicals, it shows that the number of evangelicals doubled from 2010–2020, from 3.62% to 7.25%.
God is pouring out His Holy Spirit upon the church in Vermont in a way I can only describe as a type of “Silent Revival”.
As I pondered the impact of this report, my mind thought of the last 60 years of life in Vermont. God led some amazing people to share the gospel here in Vermont.
God always has His faithful remnant who continue to serve the King and His Kingdom.
It was Merwyn Borders who showed Terry (executive director of the Baptist Churches of New England convention) and Kay Dorsett the beautiful little village of Washington, Vermont, in 1993, that captured their hearts and led them to leave the comfort of South Carolina to come and begin their life long adventure of serving God here in New England.
During these years while the moral fabric was deteriorating and the political landscape became progressively liberal, God was silently calling His army to position itself all around this state.
Church planting and state partnerships began to flourish. Slow and steady growth started to happen and we are seeing the results.
To read full article, click here.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Russ Rathier and originally published by Baptist Churches of New England.
