EUBANKS, Ky. — Last Saturday (Feb. 22), a combined men’s study group from Pilot Baptist and Liberty Baptist decided they needed to go to eastern Kentucky and serve in an area hit by devastating flooding earlier this month.

They had no idea what God had in store for them.

The 11 members of the group collected some items, loaded down four trucks and drove into Pike County looking for ways to help anyone who needed it. They let God be their compass.

“We didn’t know where we were going,” said Pilot Pastor Jacob Pelston. “My buddy saw on some social media where Pikeville First Baptist was giving out generators. We figured that would be a good place to start.”

Nobody was at the church when they arrived, he said, so they went to a local dollar store and bought a coffeemaker with the plan of handing out free coffee. While in the store, a woman told them that her church was flooded, so they went to Immanuel Baptist Church, met the pastor and began working in the fellowship hall.

Pelston said the pastor of the church, Wesley Russell, used to be a member of Pilot Baptist. Russell told them of a church member whose house was flooded so they went into the neighborhood with “a lot of nice houses” that already had people working. They did get an address from one of the neighbors of someone who might need help.

“We went to the address, and they had some help, so we went and knocked on the next door,” Pelston said. And sure enough, an elderly man came to the door and welcomed the help.

“We all piled into his basement and began working. We were about done when I asked him if he went to church. He said, ‘No,’ and I asked him if he had a relationship with Jesus and he said, ‘No, but I want to.’”

The gospel door was cracked open, and Pelston did not waste the opportunity, taking him through the Romans Road to salvation. “Everybody came over and listened and about everybody down there (in the basement) was talking to him, encouraging him,” the pastor said. “We had 11 grown men crying when he gave his heart to the Lord.”

The pastor said witnessing a man accepting Jesus as his savior was a moment that none of his crew will ever forget and showed them why they were going on this rescue mission — it was to rescue a lost soul.

“I was telling them at church Sunday, the Bible talks about being in awe,” he said. “We were in awe of what was happening.”

Another member of the men’s group spoke to the gentleman’s wife, and she said that she was a Christian. “We talked about finding a church and kept encouraging him and saying we would help any way we can. We had no idea where we were going and ended up in the basement of a man who didn’t know the Lord. God works in miraculous ways.”

Pelston said he was surprised so many of the group were willing to sacrifice an entire Saturday. But what they witnessed will be forever with them.

“They’ve talked about it every day,” he said.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Mark Maynard is managing editor of Kentucky Today, the news website of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. This article originally appeared in Kentucky Today.)