This Sunday's outreach service was
wonderful for several reasons. First of
all my wife and I haven't been able to be with our "home people" for
several weeks now. Also, The Scott
Sumner family was with us.
But one of the main reasons was because Brother
Earl Wayne, Brother Robbie Reed, Brother Art Hartman and others made a
calculated decision about 6 months ago to change the target audience and the
way we were handling them and we knew that we would take a big hit for it. As right as we knew we were for changing
things up, it was obvious that the numbers were going to drop significantly and
they did. But we also believed that
because it was for all the right reasons that God were bless us for it....and
He has. The quality AND the numbers are
coming up. As far as I know we had 87 in
service and 50 were homeless people.
As the service began a man slipped back into the kitchen area and ask one of our
ladies for a cup. She gave him one and
he informed her that it was for "spitting". He was chewing tobacco. The sisters then let
me know what was going
on. Now I want you to know that normally
I am one of the hardest on people for wearing their hats, talking, drinking pop
and eating snacks in service. But I
thought and prayed about what to do for just a moment and I felt an
overwhelming feeling to leave the young man alone. So I did.
(yes I am admitting to you that I let a young homeless man chew tobacco
in our service) Brother Sumner preached
a short, precise and powerful sermon. He
had me checking my own heart and wanting to pray before he was ever
finished. When he gave the altar call 11
people came to the altar and cried and prayed and many others prayed in their
seats. I watched the young man with the
cup. He squirmed and fidgeted. He finally stoop up and turned away as if to
leave. All of a sudden he grabbed up his
cup, spit out all of his tobacco, handed it to his friend and hurried to the
altar. He wept and prayed for a long
time. Several ministers prayed with him,
talked to him and encouraged him. He was
the last one to get up from the altar and he went all around the room talking
to staffers and ministers with a big smile on his face. He threw his cup away and sat down to the
meal that was provided for him. I was
busy dealing with others and I never did get to speak with him. Whenever these things happen I always ask
myself. Who was he? What was his past? Where are his parents and his people? Where will he spend eternity? Did we help?
Pray for this work and please support it. God bless. 
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