The Saturday before Thanksgiving was supposed to be a wonderful day of college football, extremly fatty food, and hanging out with a new friend. I have to admit that I was looking forward to this Saturday all week. I really hadn’t had a day off for awhile and longed to veg on the couch and watch some good football.
My friend showed up, grabbed a seat and about two minutes after I said, “today is about sitting right here and watching these games all day”, the phone rang. As it’s ringing I turned to my friend and asked, “should I answer this”? I don’t know if I was joking or serious, but I answered the phone. On the other end I heard a lady crying. This lady had been to our church for the past few weeks. She had just had major surgery on Monday and our church had been taking food to her home for her family.
She began to tell me that her husband did not come home last night(I had met him just this week before her surgery). She told me that he had been addicted to drugs, but she thought he had kicked them. Now she thinks that he has been out all night doing them again. As we are talking, her cell phone rings and she asks me to hang on. As I’m waiting I could hear her get very, very emotional and upset. She then got back on our phone and told me that she had spoke to her husband and he had been out doing drugs in a neighboring town and their one vehicle had been stolen. She had no idea what to do. I sat in confused silence. She was looking for me to fix this or at least help and I had no idea what to do. The only thing I could think of was to get over there.
I asked my friend if he would mind going with me and he quickly said “yes”. I felt badly that I was ruining his day off as well, but he didn’t seem to mind.
When we arrived at their home the wife was outside waiting on us (in terrible physical pain). She asked if we could go to the neighboring town and try to find her husband and their vehicle. Well, that was a lot better than the plan I had (yeah, I had nothing).
We then headed to the other town and called their police. They showed up about an hour later and told the wife that they would not be able to file a “stolen vehicle” report. Since the vehicle was stolen or lost from her husband, he would have to file the report, but they would try to find him. After about another hour we were told that her husband had been found. He was in the holding cell and the vehicle had not been stolen, but loaned out for more drugs. We were counciled to leave him in the holding cell until Monday so that he could dry out.
As we were heading back to the wife’s home she was very upset and hurt. She spoke all of the way of her spiritual condition and how her husband had just told her a day earlier that there is no God. She hated hearing this from him. When we pulled into her driveway her cell phone rang. It was her husband. She spoke for a few seconds, but was too emotional to really carry on a conversation. She finally just gave me the phone and said, “you talk to him”. Uhh, remember the part where I said I had nothing. It was extremly difficult to not start the conversation like I do most conversations, “Hey man, how you doing”. After a long pause, and a very quick prayer, I asked him if he would do me and him a favor. He said that he was at rock bottom and was tired of being miserable and would do anything to be healed. I asked him, whether he truly believed in God or not, to begin to talk to God tonight in the holding cell. To tell Him everything that was going on and ask Him for healing and help. He said he would.
A few days later we got the report that he was out of the holding cell and back home. He talked to God for two straight days in the cell. And guess what, God talked back. Our friend has been attending recovery meetings and every service we’ve held since this. He will be baptised later this month!
Thank God that He can use a bumbling rookie to do His work.
Thank God for my friend who journeyed with me through this day. His help was invaluable. Hey, maybe that’s why Jesus sent them “two by two”.(Luke 10:1)ÂÂ
I pray for many crazy Saturdays like this one.
Oh and on a pretty cool sidenote. All of this happened the week after our one church member told her story of drug addiction in our service.(see “A Praise Bigger Then Huge” about that) The “wife” was there that night and she has drawn great encouragement from her story. The two families have gotten close and are ministrying to each other.
(Even in Crisis)
Life is good,
Billy Mitchell
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