Just Keep Inviting

A coworker’s invitation changed the course of Sarah Barrientos’s life. Twenty years ago, Sarah was a single mom navigating life on her own. She had not grown up deeply rooted in the church. “I wasn’t living for the Lord. I wanted to satisfy my worldly desires,” she said. 

Hollea, Sarah’s boss, invited her to come to First Baptist Dallas again and again. Sarah recalled thinking, “If I go once, maybe she’ll stop asking me.” Thankfully, Hollea didn’t stop. She was patient and persistent. “I loved and respected her,” Sarah said. “I could see how God was working in her life.”

After yet another invitation from Hollea, Sarah finally agreed to come. Sarah didn’t realize at the time that this reluctant “yes” would become a turning point for her faith. She remembers walking into the service and thinking, “The worship felt like home. The music, and everything about it, made me feel like I belonged there.”

For a season, Sarah continued to attend from time to time. Then one afternoon, her young daughter fell from a second-story window onto concrete. In that terrifying moment, Sarah cried out, “Lord, please don’t take her.” Her daughter was immediately rushed to the hospital. After a full range of tests, doctors couldn’t find a single injury. “That’s how He got my attention,” Sarah said. “I knew children are a gift, and I realized I needed to understand my purpose as a mom and in this life.”

Two weeks later, Hollea gave Sarah a Bible. On the way to church one Sunday, Sarah prayed out loud in her car, “Lord, if they sing ‘Amazing Grace,’ I’ll go forward and make a decision for You.” That morning, our church sang the hymn. Though she was nervous to walk in front of the congregation, Sarah said, “I felt like He lifted me up there.”

Years later, Sarah invited her now-husband, David, to church. On his very first visit to First Dallas, he made a decision to trust in Christ. He was later baptized at our church. Over time, their children and stepchildren also came to know the Lord here. 

Sarah looks back now at the power of Hollea’s invitations to her. “Just from her one invite, it changed not only my life, but my husband’s, our children’s—everything.” Today, Sarah is excited to be able to invest in the faith of others. “We are planting the seeds to trees that will bear fruit we will never meet.” Sarah and David are the first generation in their families to be firmly planted in the church, and now they’re raising their kids here. 

Sarah’s experience holds an important lesson—just keep inviting. “If she had taken my ‘no’ as a final answer, my life would have been very different.” As Palm Sunday and Easter approach, Sarah’s story is a powerful reminder that a simple invitation, offered consistently and lovingly, can make an eternal difference. Who is your One?