Shindig Skate Outreach – Bakersfield, CA
A kid named Oscar, 15, asked for prayer for his foot and he was completely healed! Oscar then opened up and shared with me (Timothy) that earlier that day he had been told by his parents that they didn’t want him anymore. Because of this traumatic experience, he was not planning on going that night, but he heard a voice tell him, “Go to Shindig.” After hearing Oscar’s heart, I felt the compassion of the Lord to love on Oscar. Another youth and I began to pray and Oscar began to vibrate with God’s presence and began to weep. As I hugged Oscar, Oscar began to say, “What is this, what is this?” I was able to express the heart of the Father and asked if Oscar had ever experienced this. Oscar said, “No.” I asked, “Would you like to experience God’s love everyday?” Oscar said Yes, and gave his heart to Jesus on the spot! It was incredible!
As I left, I walked Oscar to the youth pastor, Mark, so that Oscar could be discipled. What I didn’t know walking away from this outreach was how impactful this moment was for Oscar.
A month later Mark called me and told me the rest of Oscar’s story. Oscar was a gang member and he was a known tagger in the community (a tagger is someone who paints graffiti). He actually had a knife in his sock the night I prayed for him. Oscar not only got saved that night, but he went to a youth retreat that weekend, got baptized in the Pacific Ocean and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He went back to his gang community and began sharing with other gang members what Jesus did for him. Some received his words, and others didn’t. Oscar, being convicted by the Holy Spirit, turned himself into the police for his crimes. He was sentenced to a year and a half of juvenile detention. The awful part is that Oscar had gotten out of his gang. Going to detention without a “covering” from his gang could mean that he could get beat up everyday or even killed.
The churches in the area, including us, began to pray for a miracle. We knew Oscar should not have to pay for his old life since Jesus gave him a new one. Another month went by and Oscar’s sentence went from juvenile detention to work camps, a much better situation. We still continued to pray for breakthrough. Oscar went to the work camps in mid-July. A week later, on my honeymoon, I got a text from Mark saying that after less than a week Oscar was released from his sentece and was clear from his charges!!! Hallelujah! This is a wonderful testimony of God’s saving grace and his blood covers all of our sin and shortcomings before coming to salvation! Today, Oscar is one of the most one fire youth in their church.