Nearly 200 volunteers attended the multiday state fair earlier this month, with the ministry having been at the event every year since 2021.
Mississippi Baptist Convention Board spokesperson Linda Burris said they had 195 volunteers evangelizing at the state fair. She told The Christian Post, “We made a record of 2,824 Gospel conversations with 373 of those praying to receive Christ.”
Burris also said that while they probably had about the same number of Gospel conversations each year, they have seen the number of professions of faith increase annually. Volunteers are also selected to follow up with the new converts.
Burris described the overall state fair experience as “exciting and scary at the same time,” believing that it was “a confidence builder for those who haven’t shared their faith much.”
She added, “They discover that they can do it and it’s not that hard. It is rewarding to hear the stories of other believers at the fair and to share with someone hungry to hear the good news of hope.”
In recent years, several mass gatherings have been held in places like college campuses and the Pacific Coast where large numbers of people publicly professed their Christian faith.