- Baptist Press - https://www.baptistpress.com -

World missions conference helps 2 teens find Christ

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ASHLAND, Ky. (BP)–Bob Bartram dropped a couple of “Four Spiritual Laws” tracts into his shirt pocket. “At the time, I wasn’t sure why,” said the pastor of Liberty Missionary Baptist Church, Ashland, Ky.
Bartram headed to church and helped set up a display of international flags for a world missions conference scheduled for the next day.
During a break, Bartram sat on a pew next to Nathan Hampton.
Hampton, 18, had come to help set up flags for the missions conference with his girlfriend, a Liberty member.
“When I asked Nathan about his salvation, and he said he didn’t have a relationship with Jesus, then I knew why I had put the tracts in my pocket,” Bartram said.
A few minutes later, Hampton was on his knees, asking for forgiveness and committing his life to Christ. He joined Liberty the next day and was baptized the following Sunday.
The missions conference ended four days later with a Wednesday evening service. But God was still at work.
David Miles, 18, had been attending Liberty Baptist — and the conference — but was not a Christian. When Bartram tried to ask Miles about becoming a Christian, the young man left the building.
As members were taking down the flags, Miles came back in and helped. Medford Hudson, a former missionary to Utah who had spoken that evening, confronted Miles about becoming a Christian.

“He asked me if I would go to heaven if I died, and I said I didn’t think so,” Miles said. “Then Mr. Hudson led me to Jesus and I prayed to receive him.”
The world missions conferences held every year by thousands of Southern Baptist churches sometimes result in church members becoming missionaries.
“But in the providence of God, he used the missionary spirit of the conference — and the simple acts of helping with the flags — to lead two young men to new life in Christ,” Bartram said.