22 people said they prayed the salvation response prayer after I spoke at Jubilee Community Church, East Grinstead this morning. And an additional 7, who did not pray the prayer, said they’d like to explore Christianity further. So although these are ponds that will need to be fished to find out exactly who’s who and what’s what, this was a hugely encouraging finale to a great Easter Sunday baptismal service. The first thing to say is that the venue was absolutely full. I’ve spoken at East Grinstead regularly over the past 21 years. The first time was back in February 1998 before I was even married. In fact I’ve probably been a guest service speaker there more often than anywhere else, but this was the first time that I’ve seen the vast sports hall absolutely full, with people wandering around looking for seats or sitting on the floor. Then five people told us their story and were baptised by Dan Baptist, who is about to become the new lead elder at the church. The morning was hosted by Simon Elliott, who has led the church for many years but is now along with his wife Gwen, becoming part of Everyday Church, where I am based. I delivered a new evangelistic message which incorporated a new video from Reasonable Faith, and it was great to meet several friends of those baptised who’d never been to the church before. One guy came up to me who’d been in the building for community events many times but never attended a church service before, and he was so positive, I was quite taken aback. However the highlight of the morning was chatting to a woman in the coffee area afterwards who told me that she’d been part of the church for 25 years. She told me that she’d become a Christian 37 years ago, and for all that time she had been praying that her Dad would come to church at least once before he died. For 37 years, she’d been inviting him to evangelistic events, but he’d never come to anything, until this morning. She was so pleased that he’d come and heard the gospel in church for the very first time at the age of 83. This is exactly the sort of thing I’d been praying for! Praise God!