As Allan leaned against a wrought-iron fence at a Vermont Street bus stop in Los Angeles, members of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board’s Inner City Evangelism (ICE) team and First Baptist Church-South Los Angeles approached him.
After introducing himself, Darrel Davis, a NAMB ICE team member and full-time evangelist from Garner, N.C., asked, “Allan, if you were to die today, would you be 50, 75 or 100 percent sure you would go to heaven?”
Allan, an 18-year-old African-American, shook his head, unsure how to answer the question. Davis went on to share 1 John 5:13: “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Using his pocket New Testament, the 38-year-old evangelist then shared the plan of salvation with Allan. When Davis asked Allan if there was any reason why he would not want to receive the gift of eternal life, Allan replied, “I can’t think of a reason.”
So on the City of Angels’ busy Vermont Street, at a smoky bus stop, Allan prayed to receive Jesus Christ.
Allan’s story is only one of hundreds that ICE team members from across the United States are telling in the wake of their recent ICE experience in Los Angeles. Six area Los Angeles churches also participated.
During the three-day (Aug. 10-12) ICE project in Los Angeles, 224 members from the six churches combed the city with NAMB’s 22 ICE team members. As a result, more than 260 people made first-time commitments to Christ.