This summer we took all three kids to VBS at our new church here in the Woodlands. I was there with them each day because I was helping in the 4th grade Bible study room.
Each morning, all ages of the VBS kids would meet in the sanctuary and the teachers would head up to a 9:00 meeting/prayer time. Well, on Wednesday morning, I took them into the sanctuary like normal and then completely forgot about my 9:00 meeting. I have no idea why, but that prayer time didn’t even cross my mind.
I ended up staying in the sanctuary, along the wall, to secretly check on how the kids were doing.
First let me say that Ethan is our quiet guy. He is on the shyer side and while he feels emotions very deeply, he doesn’t show them often. He is reserved in most settings and sometimes it even takes a nudge from us to “get him out there”.
As I searched for each of our three kids, I found Ethan first and I couldn’t believe what I saw. I stood there. Watching. Staring. Wait. Was that really E? Thankfully, I had enough where-with-all to grab my phone so I could snap a quick video to send to B.
B responded “I’m so glad you got a video of that because if you had tried to explain that to me, I would have never actually envisioned the reality of what Ethan was doing.”
Ethan was dancing. The other boys were standing beside him singing, but Ethan, our quiet, shy guy had his eyes on the worship leader and he was singing, moving his body with all the motions, and sometimes jumping up and down.
I find it hard to explain how extraordinary this is for Ethan.
As I sent the video out to our family, each member commented on how uncommon it was to see him so extroverted. He didn’t notice anyone beside him and had zero barriers in his worship.
The next day was Thursday, “evangelism day” at VBS. The church asked all the Bible teachers to be in the sanctuary while Dr. Bruce gave a presentation of the gospel. While sitting there listening to him I had a fleeting thought, “What if Ethan walks down today?” Then I brushed it off and knew that Ethan, being the introvert that he is, would probably never do that. He would wait until he got home and then talk to us privately, should he need to ask us anything spiritually.
At the end of the gospel presentation, Dr. Bruce asked the kids if anyone felt like they wanted to accept Jesus.
Ethan, being the oldest at VBS was at the very back of the sanctuary with his group. But as Dr. Bruce asked this question, I saw him almost sprint from the rear of the church down the aisle, his face glowing. Was I imagining this? Did he actually just race down to the front of the church in the presence of all these hundreds of kids?
They took the students to a back room where the Bible teachers could chat with them. I could see Ethan with another teacher across the room. My heart was racing to question him.
When we were finished and all the kids were heading back into the sanctuary, I scrambled over to him and threw my arms around him. I had a surge of questions running my mind, but all that came out was, “Well hey E!”
He smiled up at me. His face permeated with a supernatural shining.
“Hey”, he responded.
“What made you walk down this morning?”
“I’m not sure, but I just knew I really wanted to go. I really wanted to walk down. So I did.”
“Well, this is very exciting E.”
“Yes!”
He was still glowing brilliantly.
“I can’t wait to get home so we can call your dad and talk to him about it also.”
“Me too.”
When we got home, we called B. Towards the end of the call B asked Ethan, “How do you feel about all of this?” Ethan responded, “I feel amazing.”
For some of you, that might be a word your children use daily. Not E. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him use that word at all in the last 8 months of living here.
This was the first time.
We hung up with B. B and I decided to sit on it and pray for a few days. We wanted to make sure this was really E’s salvation and not just a small high from VBS camp.
As we went through the next few days I had an unrest about staying quiet about this. Unbeknownst to me, B had the same unrest.
I called my mom and talked to her. I had forgotten her salvation story, but it was very similar to Ethan’s. She said she was sitting in church and something made her get out of her seat to go forward. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she got up and walked down. She knows now that it was the Spirit. I don’t think the similarities in these stories are a coincidence.
We came back to E later and said, “Listen, we really believe you heard God that day. That is what made you get out of your seat…Something drew you…Someone drew you…you sensed it, and you responded. It is something you can’t really explain, but it moved you. When you prayed that day, we believe the Holy Spirit entered your heart.”
There were no qualms about it. E looked at us with confirmation on his face, “Yes.” We hugged him and celebrated. We called the grandparents and they celebrated too.
Later on that night at bedtime, B and I had tucked him in and as we were heading out the door, another small conversation occurred.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“I just feel so good.”
B walked back over to his bed. “I’m so glad E.”
“You told me to ask God to speak to me. And he did. And it just feels so good.”
“We are so excited for you E.”
“Goodnight, dad.”
“Goodnight, E. ”
We celebrate one more name written and sealed in the Book of Life: Ethan James Blaschke. We praise the name of the one who saves!
