By Lindsey Williams
Staff Writer
Mississippi Baptist volunteers are being recruited for a return engagement to the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB) evangelism tent at the 2023 Mississippi State Fair.
Last year, around 600,000 people from all walks of life, backgrounds, classes, cultures, and ethnicities passed through the Fair. Volunteers at the evangelism tent ask fairgoers for three minutes of their time for a presentation of the Gospel.
Last year, Mississippi Baptist church teams (153 individuals) sowed the Gospel seed with 2,585 people, of whom 209 came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior that week.
The MBCB Evangelism Department is signing up volunteers for shifts beginning October 5 and ending October 15. No specific strategy is required. Rather, individuals are encouraged to utilize witnessing methods they know and with which they feel comfortable (for example, The Romans Road or personal testimony).
No experience is necessary, said Don Lum, MBCB director of evangelism. As a matter of fact, he points out, it’s a unique way to learn how to witness. “The evangelism tent is a great environment to share Christ. You’re surrounded by a supportive team.”
Lum stressed that volunteers have left the fairgrounds strongly encouraged and more aware of the work God is doing in and through them. Individuals realized they could do what they didn’t know they could do — share Jesus with the strangers God places in their path, he said.
Some fairgoers choose to initially enter the tent because of a heavy burden on their hearts, like the mother who steered a stroller into the shade of the tent and asked for prayer for her sick child.
When the evangelism team gathered around the two, everyone in the tent witnessed the extraordinary love and care of Christ through the prayers spoken by the volunteers.
The MBCB evangelism tent is also utilized for sharing the Gospel at the Dixie National Livestock Show and Rodeo at the Fairgrounds in February of each year.
“The goal of evangelism is to share Christ with everyone,” Lum pointed out, “How do we do that? We go where the people are.”
To volunteer and for more information, contact Linda Burris at lburris@mbcb.org. Telephone: (601) 292-3278.
