Life Saved

from Caleb Roe and some of my comments at the end.

How to save a life...

Caleb:

Between yesterday and today, a new restaurant in the area has donated about 300 meals to us to give to those in need. Two times a day they practice making their meals and box them up for us to go do good. Good we go and do sharing the good news of the Kingdom to the poor and hungry at bus stops, parks, homeless shelters, and in the allies. This was day two of three and the stories have become more evident of God's mercy, power, and guidance.

Here is an encounter I had yesterday. Twenty feet from where a man had been stabbed the night before, I met Dennis. "If Jesus was standing here what would you ask Him for?" ... Pause... "I'd be too ashamed to ask for anything." After a minute of sharing with him about the kindness of God, "true happiness" he said, with tears running down his face, is what he wanted in his life. Dennis received God and his happiness.

I find it incredible how you can miss the perfect time to do the very thing you set out to do but end up being at the right place at the right time. Psalm 23:3 (NLT) says, "He guides me along the right paths, to bring honor to His name". This verse was on my mind as we went tonight, when we set off I didn't have a clue I was going to really see it in action on the streets of downtown Dayton.

Tonight, Steve Bowen, Doug Roe, Randy Stout, and I set off to find those in need with 120 meals. After visiting the bus station and the Third and Main bus stop we still had about 60 meals left to give away. If we made it there two minutes earlier we would have been completely out of food. Discouraged that we could not give it away in one shot we all felt that there was still people to bless. Therefore, on we went. Driving from park to park and up one street and down the other, we found no signs of life. Finally, the idea came to check around a local homeless shelter and that is where we found God's plan for the evening.

As we pulled up with a carload of food, we met Wendell and realized that our food relief mission suddenly turned into a life rescue mission. Wendell was sitting on the street corner with a knife in his hand getting ready to commit suicide. Instinctively we got out of the truck and pleaded with Wendell that there was more for him in this life than what he thought. After a few minutes in conversation we learned Wendell was a well paid district manager for a local restaurant chain and had suffered brain damage after a serious car accident which ultimately turned his life upside and placed him into the destitute street life that led him to wanting to end his life. We shared the gospel with him, prayed with him, and was able to give him the help and hope he needed to live to see another day.

I thank God we were guided there tonight, being able to give hope to the hopeless and showing love to the outcast. I know it was God who made sure we were not completely successful as we would have liked in our first two locations, which would cause us to be right where He and Wendell needed us - to save Wendell's life.

Do you know how to save a life? Be right where God wants you to be, when there be seeking out who it is the He has guided you to, and bring honor to His name by being the person He has made you to be.

Steve:
Yesterday was one of those days where there is a sense of guidance through out the whole day. ...my wife's car was making a bumping noise...so I drive car...evident i needed to get car to shop quickly...no longer bumping but grinding...after delivering food to homeless...i go to CarX...inside is Kelly, a single parent that we have helped, she was getting her oil changed using one of the coupons we gave out at the last single parent meal, i get to talk to her and encouraged her to get involved with this weekends kindness to go...Car...the brake caliper was falling off the car, the last guys who fixed the car left a bolt loose...glad we didn't take that car on a trip to Birmingham... next we wait for Doug and Randy to arrive so we can deliver meals, timing as Caleb mentioned was everything...had my friend Robb taken the meals out, had we given all meals out at one place, had we given up, a guy would most probably be dead this morning, just another homeless man statistic ... we did call 911 and he was taken to a local hospital...a life spared. We are learning...Prov 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

We are learning to notice the unnoticeable, to have eyes that see, ears that hear and a mind that understands...to slow down even when moving fast...a life saved.