This week I am in Nashville with my wonderful friend Katrina. Tonight we are engaged in our usual routine of sitting on our computers studying, putting together presentations, and finishing discussion board postings, and I am remembering the last time I was here and we were doing just this. There was a knock on her door, and after looking through the peephole (it was almost 10), she got an interested look on her face. It turned out to be one of her neighbors, and he wanted to sell her a vacuum cleaner because he needed money. Since her vacuum was broken and I was tired of hauling mine to her house, I thought we should look into it. Also, I felt led to help him out. He told us he wasn't a criminal and we went to go look at the vacuum.
I got the feeling that he was not being honest with us (he couldn't take a check and only wanted $10) but felt reasonably safe in the situation and Katrina seemed to know him. The only cash we had between us was a 20 out in my car, so I went to get it and we invited him in. When I came back in, he was sitting on the couch, and began pouring out a story; how he had been lying to us about not being a criminal, and was facing eviction for prostitution and drug trafficking, and needed the money to get his truck back. We talked with him about how he'd gotten where he was, how ready he was to quit, and then shared the Gospel with him. He said he had maybe heard it before, but he was sixty years old and at the end of his rope. Katrina asked him if he would come to church with her. He said maybe, since he didn't know what else to do. We prayed with him, for God to open his heart and heal his life. He promised to come to church with her, and almost left without his money.
I felt like maybe he was serious about wanting to give his life to God, since he admitted he was in despair with seeing what a mess he was making of it himself, but I also know addicts will tell you what you want to hear, so I prayed earnestly for him but wasn't surprised when he wasn't in his apartment when Katrina went to get him the next Sunday. However, a few weeks later he knocked on her door and told her he'd been in jail, sorry that's why he couldn't go to church, he had just gotten out, the locks had been changed on his apartment, and could she please buy him a ticket to Memphis. She invited him in gave him breakfast while trying to help him figure out what would really be the best choice for him (rehab, a mission, Memphis where he had a history of trouble in the past). He didn't really know what to do, and fell asleep. Then my sweet, innocent, homeschooled roommate loaded him into her car and drove him to a mission she was familiar with, and gave him a ride later to pay off his crack dealer. He called her a few days after she dropped him off to tell her he had been meeting with a pastor there, been going to Bible study, and prayed to give his life to Jesus! He attended church with her on Easter Sunday, shared his testimony with the rest of the mission on Wednesday, and moved to a more rehabilitating situation in KY the end of last week.
This story touches my heart on so many levels.
God loves EVERYONE.
Even sixty-year old crack addicts/dealers who run prostitution rings in the apartment where they have a picture of their twenty-something daughter hanging on the wall.
Luke 15:7 says there is more joy in heaven over this repentance than 99 righteous people who don't need repentance. (Of course, there is none righteous... seem to be a lot of people who think they are though.) Also, we didn't have to do anything. God literally lead him right to our door, asking for help. Katrina went well out of her comfort zone when the need arose, which was NOT at a time that was at all convenient for her, but we didn't seek him out, we weren't on a missions trip, we were just sitting and studying. He knew Katrina because he had met her at the mailboxes the week she moved in, and thought that she seemed the type of person that he could ask for food when he had used all of his money to buy alcohol and was hungry. He has limited phone access as part of his new living arrangement, but is still keeping in touch. Please be encouraged by this story of redemption not driven by human hands, and remember Russell in your prayers... he has come so far, but will be under incredible spiritual attack in the coming weeks.
