Dorothy was sitting, crying, on
the back of a U-haul moving van when Susie, one of our ministry team members,
spotted her during our mission trip in Gainesville, GA. Once the team assembled at the complex,
an amazing move of God began to unfold for a multi-generational family
regarding their journey to Salvation. Multiple events played an integral role in impacting four generations by
bringing three generations within one family to salvation – all in one hour
during the evening complex event.
Seventeen people from the
CrossPoint Alliance Church mission team, in Lewiston, ID, traveled to
Gainesville, GA to work with Adventures In Missions (AIM). During our time in Gainesville, a
portion of our trip was devoted to providing food, interacting, ministering,
serving and be a witness for Christ at a couple of the apartment complexes in
one of the poorer sections of town. This particular complex was known as a rougher neighborhood where lots
of shootings and murders had occurred.
Dorothy, and her family, had only
lived in the complex for one month, and were already moving out of a dangerous
situation into another part of the complex since they couldn’t move out of the
complex due to lease obligations. During this one month, they had grown to hate their living situation
since the family had received threats, cursed at, and had drinks and other
items constantly thrown at them.
Once settled in, Susie and Jodi
went to meet Dorothy to see if they could help her. Meanwhile, Susie’s grandson, Ryder, had hurt himself while
playing football with the children living within the complex. Barbie, wanting to notify Susie of her
grandson’s situation, asked me to accompany her so that she would not break
agency policy by walking anywhere alone.
Barbie and I arrived at the
moving van and found Susie and Jodi listening and ministering to the elderly
woman. Susie, after she was
notified of the situation, peeked out from behind the moving van to see that her
grandson had returned to playing with the other children, apparently none the
worse for wear.
Dorothy had mentioned that she
had seen us approaching the moving van and had thought of running away, but
didn’t. Her attitude, while
talking with us, was that of anger, hostility and bitterness. She had stated that she was 70-years
old had hated her parents since she was born, that she was told that she was
never wanted, and that she hated her life to the point that she just wanted to
put a gun to her chin and pull the trigger. She also stated that she had been sexually abused by her
father for years, had seen her sister killed by her father, and that when her
parents died, she didn’t go to their funeral and that she would never forgive
them. She also stated emphatically
that she would never go to a church again because the pastor spoke only of
himself and his children, nothing more!
It is noteworthy to mention that
both Barbara and my voices were non-existent or mostly a whisper from a recent
virus, but my voice was just enough to speak with the family. At this point, Dorothy seemed to
challenge us by stating that we wouldn’t believe her life story, that we
couldn’t begin to compare our live hardships to hers and that we didn’t want to
hear about her life. I quickly
whispered, “Try me! I just might
surprise you!”
While we were speaking with
Dorothy, her daughter, Linda and grandson, Jeremy, exited the apartment with
arms loaded with personal belongings to load into the van. Linda then stated that she “couldn’t
wait to get out of here! Those
people up there just threw a soda can at me!” Susie then said that we could help them move. Linda looked at us as if to say, “yeah,
right! Y’all?” Jodi then stated that there were 17 of
us and that we had big, strong men that could help. Linda asked, “You would do that for us?” Jodi answered, “Yeah!” Barbie and Jodi then left to
retrieve the men, while Susie and I continued to listen and minister to Dorothy.
Within a few minutes, several men
arrived and began hauling out furniture and belongings to load into the moving
van. Shawn M., a former semi-truck
driver, jumped into the moving van and quickly organized everything in the van
to make room for the remaining items. The men completed moving out all the belongings and finished loading the
van within 10 minutes. We noticed
that the hearts of the family were immediately softened, enabling the Holy
Spirit to bring Dorothy, Linda and Jeremy to a point of willingness to hear the
Gospel. We had explained that
Jesus loved them so much that he sent 17 people from the opposite side of the
country to be there at that specific time to help them move and show them how
much Jesus loved them. That seemed
to get their attention to listen more to their new friends.
Linda then sat down and listened
as Susie, Jodi, Barbie and I were listening to Dorothy. I shared about the events of my life and
that of my family history, particularly my mother and the same abuses and
parallel tragedies that had happened within my family. Dorothy seemed surprised that I
actually understood, and related, to the hardships in her life. Her heart then seemed to soften even
more as her guard continued to come down. I asked if she had ever known Jesus or had accepted Him as Lord and
Savior. She said that she knew she
was going to Hell, that Hell was where she belonged and that God wouldn’t ever
accept her.
I asked her if she wanted Christ
back in her life and she said, “Yes, I would but I am afraid to trust Him.” We all understood her trust issues, and I asked if we could
pray with her to re-establish her relationship with Christ. Dorothy said yes. Susie prayed for Dorothy as Linda and
Jeremy watched.
After praying, I asked Linda
about where she was with Christ. Linda responded that she had tried but had always failed and
backslid. I explained the
difference between trying to measure up to God’s standards through our own
works vs. a covenant relationship through Grace with Jesus. I also explained that sin separated us from
God and that we are all sinners and fall short of the Glory of God, and that we
can’t get to Christ through our works, only through the death and resurrection
of Christ on the Cross. We asked
her the same questions about whether she wanted Christ back in her life. Linda also said yes and Susie quickly
prayed with Linda to receive Christ.
I then asked Jeremy the same
questions and asked him if he would like for us to pray with him to receive
Christ. He also said yes and I
prayed with him to receive Christ. At this time, we asked Dorothy if she had eaten anything
today and she said no. We escorted
Dorothy, Linda and Jeremy to the area where the food was being served.
Once arriving, Dorothy’s other
daughter, Joy, ran up to us and asked if she could get saved too. We said yes and prayed for her as
well. Joy then sent for her two
daughters, Lela and XXXX also ran up to us. They were asked if they wanted any food, and Joy stated,
“No! They want to get saved
first!” I asked them if this was
true and they both stated that they both wanted to get saved. I prayed for both of them,
individually, to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. Both Lela and XXXX had brought their small children with
them, providing the impact to the fourth generation that everyone’s newly found
salvation would have on these two small children.
We were able to pass this newly
born again family into the hands of several men and women belonging to a local
church we were working with and had moved into the complex to be a light. It was very encouraging to see the Holy
Spirit work in what was accomplished through a multitude of actions,
orchestrated by God. The actions
of a group of women intent to encourage and minister, a “co-incidental” and “temporary” 9-yearl old boy – a
mission team participant, a wife bringing her husband to accompany her (a mission team rule to
not venture anywhere alone) to notify the child’s grandmother, and several men
helping a family to move out of an apartment. What started as a hostile and angry grandmother ended with
multiple generations of a family receiving Christ, hearts hardened becoming
softened by the Holy Spirit working through the hearts and actions of a mission
team from across the country being placed in their lives for that day. When I asked Dorothy if she could tell
how much Jesus loved her, she said,”Yes, I can feel him now” as a tear ran down
her cheek.
As we left the complex and said
our goodbyes, Linda stated that they were now glad that they were in that dangerous
situation for that one month for God to meet them that day, and that all of the
troubles were worth it for that to happen. Linda then stated that she no longer hated the people in,
and hated living, in the complex and that she now understood why they were
there because she “realized that all of them needed Jesus just like they did!”
