Unlikely Fighter by Greg Stier

Author:Greg Stier [Stier, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Living / Personal Memoirs, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Religious
ISBN: 9781496451576
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2021-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

THE ROAD TRIP

“WELCOME TO YOUTH RANCH!” Yankee said in his backwoods Georgia accent before leading the crowd in a hillbilly version of “I’ll Fly Away.”

Backing him up was “The Firehouse Five.” Bob Daly, the guy who had stayed in the car when Yankee was sharing Jesus with my uncle Jack, was on the electric guitar. The other band members were mostly teenagers. One played the bongos while others played acoustic guitars. There was even a bass made from an old washtub turned upside down and connected to a string and a stick.

What an anomaly. Here was a man nicknamed Yankee who spoke with a Southern accent leading a bunch of suburban and urban kids from metro Denver in singing country-western-sounding Christian songs. But it worked.

The place was packed with hundreds of loud, crazy, hot, smelly teenagers. There was a one-hundred-foot banana split melting in a long gutter trough. “Sometimes they order pizzas by the truckload,” Doug informed me as we dug in and did our part to devour the ice cream.

The meeting was peppered with testimonies and skits, as well. But the highlight was when the Word was opened and Yankee unpacked Scripture.

My first meeting, like every other meeting I ever attended, culminated in a clear explanation of the gospel and a passionate, bow-your-heads, close-your-eyes, raise-your-hand appeal to respond to Christ. The best I can remember, from the first time I went to Youth Ranch as a pre-junior-higher until I graduated from high school, at least one person trusted in Jesus every meeting. Usually there were several new believers.

Witnessing so many teens respond to the gospel moved me, and I soon began to invite others to Youth Ranch too.

But I wasn’t content with just a weekly meeting. I wanted more. This same gospel that had infused Uncle Jack and Uncle Bob with passion and purpose was starting to stir something down deep inside of me.

But it was more than that. For the first time, I was part of a secure community of believers who were on mission and had a purpose, consumed with love for God and with his love for us. There was something there I hadn’t felt in my grandparents’ little Baptist church. It was a love that was beckoning me, calling me to God on a deeper level. I could almost taste it, and I wanted more.

One night, one of the youth leaders announced, “This August, we’ll be taking a group of junior and senior highers to Hollywood, Florida, for a weeklong camp at Florida Bible College.”

At that time, junior high consisted of seventh and eighth grades. I’d just finished fifth grade. I wasn’t even supposed to be attending Youth Ranch (Doug sneaked me in), so I was way too young to be considered as a candidate for the FBC Camp. Still, I was desperate to go and learn more about Jesus and about reaching others for him. And I had enough Mathias blood in me that once I locked in on something, I wouldn’t give up.

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