God, the homeless and the woods

Wow, what a night. It was a very intense night of ministry in the woods of Dothan, Ala. Martha and I spent the entire afternoon at the LIA warehouse working. Our good friend Franklin Moore came over and Franklin and I started building a wall that we need while Martha was busy sorting through clothes and other items.

We made it home around 7 p.m. and were playing with our dog Gibbs when my phone rang. It was a homeless man we've been working with for a week. He had some bad things that happened to him the past few days, including today, and he was ready to end it all. We talked for a while a couple of different times. I told him that he may not care if he lives or die but Martha and I do because we love and care about him. He said he knows that and he is thankful for everything we have done. I then told him that we were coming to see him. He paused for a moment and said, "you're coming tonight? I sure wish you would. Would you pray with me?"

Martha and I got in the truck, picked up a couple of pizzas, and went to where he camps in the woods. He calls it "Camp Frostbite." Right now it needs to be called "Camp Mosquito Bite." :-)

From 9-11 p.m. Martha and I sat with him at his campsite and mainly listened to him. We did talk some and shared the love of God with him, not in a preaching way, but as a friend would talk to another friend about God. My sweet wife, who has the sweetest voice in the world, share some powerful truths with him.

Some amazing things happened tonight. While he was pouring his heart out, without any prompting on our part, he just cried out to God saying, "God, if you have any forgiveness left please forgive me." Wow! That was awesome! We didn't have to lead him in a prayer. He cried out on his own.

We tried to talk him into leaving the woods tonight, but he said he would tomorrow. When we left tonight he was laughing and talking about how he was going to let God change his life one step at a time, and then go back into the woods to help us reach more of the homeless.

He has many issues, but with God he can overcome all of them. We won't push him or preach hard to him. We're going to continue to listen to him, then give godly advice and keep showing him the love of Jesus. That's been our approach with him and that's the way we will continue. That's the way he wants to be reached. He is beginning to open up more and more to us. That means he's beginning to trust us. I won't share what those things are. That's between us, him and God.

God is working in his life. Despite a couple of setbacks this week he has made progress. God is doing a work in his life. Please pray for him. God knows his name. Just please keep him in your prayers.

I want to thank our good brothers Brian Turner and Richard Jackson for praying tonight. We called them as we were going to the woods and asked for prayer. It's great knowing that people are praying for you when facing a situation like we did tonight.

Most of all I want to thank God for His tender mercies and for answering our prayers tonight. We serve a wonderful and awesome God!