It is after midnight and I just got back
to my humble little hotel room. The strangest thing happened here in this
city. A very fine pastor here had scheduled me for tonight, Thursday
(like many it was not a regular service night.) And for the first time in
over 20 years of ministry both he and his wife had forgotten all about
announcing a special meeting with a visiting minister. Now it
just could not happen.
At 5 PM we chatted over a sandwich in
his kitchen. Suddenly he said to his wife, “Why don’t we call together
just the lay workers in the church for Ralph to speak to?” He asked if I
was game and I said even if there were only 4 or 5 I would be thrilled to share
with them. He made only 4 phone calls reaching his 4 top volunteer leaders,
who are leaders of other leaders… to inform them all using phone, Facebook and
Twitter to meet at the church in less than 4 hours. I was astonished to
see 50 adult leaders there with hungry hearts!
I wasn’t well prepared and took a text
and forthwith wandered all over the place trying to tie my comments into
something coherent. The response was outstanding. God was obviously
present.
Some had already left when I remembered
I had brought my camera and yelled to stop some that were already going out the
front door. They got on the platform steps for this picture. After
everyone had hugged my neck and most had gone home I was driving out of the
parking lot. A tall young man in his 20s tapped on my window. I
opened the door. He squeezed my hand and was hardly able to speak through
the tears as he told me how much his heart had been touched!
Isn’t God good? Tomorrow, Friday I
have another service in this same city, but in a different AG church.
Ralph
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