From the Desk of Jeff King

Hungry hearts

God touched a generation 10 years ago from a sleepy bedroom community north of Seattle. At the height of revival, youth services at Marysville First Assembly of God drew 600 to 800 teens in one of the most unchurched regions of America. The crowds, which included visitors from out of state, spilled into the aisles, foyer and adjoining fellowship hall. I attended many of those meetings. Although God revealed to me later that elements of the charismatic movement, embraced by this youth church, were false and exploitive, I am convinced that many of the teens had a genuine commitment to Christ. They were desperately, passionately in love with Messiah. Here are re-edited excerpts from a freelance article I did for Charisma magazine in November 1997:

• The signs of surrender are everywhere. Drug needles, hidden in a cigarette pack, are tossed onto the stage from a throng of teenagers flooding the altar. Youth pastor Benny Perez paces and calls on the youth to "get right with God." Soon the carpet is littered with marijuana and secular music CDs.

• Former gang members and drug addicts worship alongside honor students and athletes. . . . Not all the worship is thunderous. During one service the hard-driving band led believers in hushed, sweet chorus of "Jesus loves me, this I know."

• Teens are turning their homes, schools and communities into mission fields. Matt Lybarger, a drummer in the worship band, saw an opportunity when he was confronted by an angry drunk in the church parking lot. Lybarger was punched twice but turned the other cheek. He invited his tormentor into the empty santucary, where he began serenading him with hymns from a piano on stage. The man sat in a pew and wept. Lybarger then took him to dinner and spent several hours sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

• Jammie Bigbey, 21, received Christ on a rare night when no salvation call was made. "I didn't want to die. I thought this might be my last chance," says Bigbey, who almost walked out of the service. "On the inside I asked Jesus to take my life and all this pain. I didn't want to go to hell."

• Colleen Hicks, a mother of two boys, awoke one night to find two strangers standing in her front lawn with flashlights. Jon Frederickson, 20, and his father were searching in the dark for Jon's two front teeth, which were knocked out by a friend in a drunken rage hours earlier. The yard was splattered with blood. Jon, who was nearly beaten to death, needed five hours of surgery to repair a broken jaw. Hicks befriended the family and invited Jon to a Marysville youth service, where Hicks' 9-year-old son had been healed of a back injury a year earlier. Impacted by the meetings, Jon gave his heart to Christ. "I was partying, doing cocaine and heroin," he says. "I was on the wrong path. Marysville put me on the fast track to God. I know I'm still a target for the devil – he says, 'Get that guy before he makes any more good decisions.' " Hicks fills her minivan with teens each week to attend Wednesday youth services, an hour drive from her Federal Way home. Seats in the van are reserved a week in advance.

I found that old magazine buried in my closet. I sat down and thumbed through the pages, recalling the zeal these kids had for Jesus. Some still have it. Lybarger pastors a church in Everett, Wash., and Bigbey is training to be a Navy chaplain. Frederickson married a girl he met in a Christian bookstore. He still is walking with Christ, according to Hicks. Posted by Jeff King at June 8, 2007 02:40 PM