‘I could see the Gospel going into his heart’

Linz Alexander is a leader of New Life Church – a small church with a big heart in the poorer end of Warwick.

She especially has a calling for children and youth, and puts on a regular social event which includes presentations of the Gospel.

“We never know how people will respond to the God slot,” she said. “We just know that we need something really effective.”

She had become very concerned that some of the young people in her area had, as she puts it, ‘gone hard’. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Regional Coordinator Tracy Simpson had given her a copy of the film ‘The Cross’, and she was wondering whether to use it in the God slot.

“One day I decided on the spur of the moment to give it a go. I sent a text to Tracy asking her and her group to pray for us.

“The young people had invited their friends, and one 12-year-old boy was there who had no church background. His Mum is definitely not a Christian.

“As the film played, I could see the Gospel going into his heart. At the end I invited people to put up their hands if they had prayed along with Billy Graham, and he responded. I then led him through a second prayer.”

The boy has carried on coming to the group. “He’s at the God slot every week,” said Linz, “and he’s even brought friends.”

A few weeks ago Linz showed The Cross to another group, which included a boy called Jenson, who is in Year 11.

“I gave my life to Jesus at the end of the film,” said Jenson. “Since becoming a Christian I feel a stronger person. I feel I have hope that my life will amount to something. I had been behaving really badly and I had done things that I am not proud of, but since then I have started to change and I want to accomplish better things. Before I didn’t really care what was going to happen to me, but now I want a better life. I want to learn and get a job. I try and communicate with God, I talk to him every night before going to bed.”

One of the girls who watched the film said: “What had impacted me was that if Lacey had of been successful in killing herself her child would never have been born.” Another girl commented: “I thought this part of the film was amazing – it made me see that God knows about me and how I’m feeling.” This then led to one of the girls admitting that she had been having suicidal thoughts.

Another girl said: “I felt inspired how bold the girl (Lacey) was about her faith. You expect pastors to be bold about their faith and people who have grew up with Christianity, but she wasn’t a pastor or long-time Christian. It has inspired me to become more bold.”

Linz writes: “After the film was played there was a wonderful sense of the Holy Spirit and it helped the gifts of the Spirit to flow. One of the leaders gave a Word of Wisdom that spoke to the girl who had been having suicidal thoughts, and a prophetic Word was given by another leader that spoke into the lives of two of the young people.”