Fixtures and foot traffic, store design and social media have all been part of the Send The Light (STL) Spring Invitational, but yesterday’s events were bookended by two powerful testimonies.

After partaking of a Southern-style buffet breakfast at the Carnegie Hotel in Johnson City, Tenn., where STL is holding the April 25-28 event, Dusty Wells shared his salvation story. His life took a turn for the better when a couple showed up at his home inviting him to Sunday school—and snowmobiling. Wells—who now works in sales and marketing with Word Entertainment/Warner Music Group—has also always loved music, an interest God used to inspire and draw him into a deeper understanding of the gospel.

Raised by a mother who was married seven times in a home where he was taught to steal, Wells played his Southern gospel albums privately even as drug-and alcohol-laced parties were going on at his house.

Music was his respite and his teacher.

“It was permeating the depth of my heart,” he said.

Along his life journey, he eventually found himself working at a Christian retail store. The owner couldn’t pay much, but she gave him CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) magazines to read and 10 music demos a month.

When Billy Ray Hearn asked him to become a music rep, suggesting the job would involve sharing music with “a lot of hurting people,” Wells signed on, knowing in his own life the power of music to bring “great comfort.”

Wells said he prays daily for Christian retailers and assured them that “God still has great plans for our industry.”

The evening’s speaker, R.B. (Rob) Mitchell, also grew up in a dysfunctional environment. His story—told in the 2007 book Castaway Kid (Focus on the Family/Tyndale House Publishers)—mainly took place in a children’s home in Princeton, Ill.

Young Robbie’s father had shot himself, but had not succeeded in ending his life. Instead, for many years until he died, he was a “walking vegetable,” Mitchell said. His mother had her own emotional problems and abandoned Robbie to an orphanage, where he lived for 14 years.

Although there were some good influences there, including a caring Christian woman who prayed for each boy by name and led them in a regular Bible story time, Mitchell grew to resent God for the way his life had turned out. Headed to Bible camp as a teenager, he took an interest in a pastor’s daughter, who challenged him to investigate the Scriptures, through which he got to know the real Jesus, who was betrayed by someone he should have been able to trust. Choosing to follow Christ in his senior year of high school, Mitchell prayed a prayer on his own and eventually was able to forgive those who had hurt him so badly.
Sadly, his mother died a bag lady on the streets of Chicago, but Mitchell found stability in life despite his upbringing. Married for 33 years, he and his wife raised a loving family, and through the stock market, he became a multimillionaire.

Mitchell topped off the evening by sharing and signing his book, which has now been translated into several languages and has more than 100,000 copies in print.

• Prev
• Next