Last night was one of the most exciting nights that I have experienced in a long, long time. We had a fundraiser in Down Town Tulsa. It was held just blocks away from where HMA's original outreach to the homeless was started. It brought back many fond memories and caused me to reminisce and wonder where many of the souls that we have worked with are today.
The event was a fundraiser for an HMA affiliate, Martha's Heart Women and Children's home. It was a uniquely classy and deep evening. I do not have any final totals but I have been involved with many such happenings and I am certain that the fundraising went very well. It was extra precious to me because several members of my family were involved in putting it on, several members of my home church were involved also, as well as some of my staff and even a few of our converts. 
To watch some of our young men and women shine and excel in doing the very hands on work of Christ gave me incredible joy. The evening was intended all along to be a concert/benefit/fundraiser but I don't think any one of us realized, going in, that it was going to be the benefit/fundraiser/a whole lot of church up in here event that it turned out to be. We listened and enjoyed. We watched and were awestruck. We gave and were blessed. We wept and praised and prayed and shouted and........mmmmmmmmmm!!! You just had to be there!
But even as wonderful as all of that was, it was just the tip of the iceberg of what God was REALLY doing. I have heard people preach, teach and talk my whole life about how they are not prejudice against whites or not prejudice against blacks. Or how we as pentecostals should be able to come together with Baptists to do the work of God or how, etc. etc. But the longer that I live on this earth, the more I see that things are going in the opposite direction.
When I have preached at churches that have whites in them, they are 99.9% white. When I have preached in churches that have blacks in them, then are 99.9% black. When I have preached at churches that have hispanics in them, they are mostly all hispanic. If I listen to Pentecostals preach, they inevitably get around to preaching against Catholics. When I listen to Baptists preach, they will almost always get around to preaching against Charismatics.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh but last night brothers and sisters!!! The Lord used the needs of some broken young women and some family-less small babies and HE made a statement! We had a bunch of people pulling together, giving for a Godly cause, coming together for Christ, praising God, worshipping OUR King, praying with each other, loving each other and finding common ground in Christ Jesus.
We had a fundraiser-turned church service at a PRESBYTIRIAN church with some FREE HOLINESS singers and some PENTECOSTAL singers and some CHARISMATIC worshipers and a BAPTIST choir and I don't know what all. It didn't seem to bother anybody that there were blacks, whites, hispanics, Guatemalans and who knows who all that were all there pulling for less rapes, less abortions, less corruption of society, better social programs and MORE JESUS!
I always hear preachers say that this is "how it should be" but they never seem to get around to being able to DO IT. And if someone else DOES IT, there must be something wrong with it. Well, I for one, am here to tell you that there was everything right with what happened last night. My wife saw it, my children saw it, my friends saw it, my ministry team saw it and I believe with all my heart that God designed it, foreordained it and smiled upon it. May God get the glory and may we all learn form it.
Your humble servant,
Rev. D. Todd Sloggett
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