September 9, 2002
Traffic violation sparks Borger revival with bang-up results
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___BORGER--A traffic violation turned into a heavenly invitation in the Panhandle town of Borger.
___Strangely enough, the invitation that ultimately resulted in 450 professions of faith in Jesus Christ came from the nearby rival town of Pampa.
___Mickey Blackmon, a community college defensive driving instructor in Borger, remembers how the idea began. One evening as he flipped through the registration cards of his students, he noticed a Pampa address and decided to have a bit of fun with the good-natured football rivalry between the two communities.
___"I don't like Pampa," he told the class.
___"I don't like Borger," Bill Caswell responded.
___While banter went back and forth for a few moments, Blackmon had a problem getting a read on Caswell. He couldn't tell whether he was serious about his dislike for Borger or not. After the class, Caswell waited until the other students left and engaged Blackmon in a conversation.
___The Pampa resident told Blackmon he really didn't like Borger and had tried unsuccessfully to take the defensive driving class elsewhere.
___"I had a sense he had something else to say, but he just left," Blackmon recalled.
___The next day, Caswell returned for the last part of the two-day course. He again waited for the other students to leave, then he spoke to Blackmon.
___"You've been on my heart," he told the instructor. "I can tell you're a Christian, and the Lord has laid it on my heart that we need to try to bring our two communities together."
___Caswell described how an area-wide revival in Wheeler County had helped unify the towns of Wheeler and Shamrock. A similar thing could be done in Borger, he suggested.
___Blackmon, a member of First Baptist Church in Borger and executive director of the Borger Chamber of Commerce, invited Caswell back to talk with the community's ministerial council.
___Caswell told the ministers how evangelist Rick Gage had a great impact in Wheeler County. Pastors soon contacted Gage, since they had been praying for a revival in the community for many months before Caswell came to speak to them.
___Gage came to Borger's Bulldog Stadium Aug. 25-28. The result of the crusade was 877 spiritual decisions, including more than 450 professions of faith in Jesus Christ.
___"One of the greatest things for me as a pastor was to see people that we had been working with making decisions for Christ and coming back to God," said Chad Chaddick, pastor of Fairlanes Baptist Church in Borger.
___Fairlanes and the other 50 churches that participated now have a monumental task of following up on all those who made decisions. In the wide-open Panhandle, the churches extend out from Borger to about a 45-mile radius.
___Attendance was high all four nights of the crusade, Chaddick said, and the stadium was full Sunday and Wednesday nights.
___"This is not really something we put together," Chaddick said. "God brought this together."
___The event also brought Chaddick's church and neighboring St. Andrew's United Methodist Church together on mission. The churches met for dinner on two Friday evenings and then to work together to pass out crusade invitations.
___"To me, that has been one of the really great blessings of this whole thing," he said.
___Orville Rogers, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stinnett, said the crusade may be the biggest thing to touch the community in the 12 years he has ministered there.
___"Every church around here is going to see growth through people joining by statement and baptisms," Rogers said.
___He and his congregation are excited about the opportunity to follow-up on many of those who made decisions at the crusade.
___"Our church had been praying for a long time for a God-sized movement of God so that we couldn't take any credit. Now that it's happened we're praying for the stamina to follow up on all God's done," he said.
___"It's a big job, but it's a good job. I couldn't be happier doing anything else."
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