People Stories

When we were asked for a show of hands at church, our James raised his to say he had been born again because someone on the street had shared Jesus with him. But 99% of us had come to salvation in a church. Of course. This is Mississippi.

It is time for that to change, though, because more and more people out on the streets are confused and hopeless and lost, even in Mississippi. The Russian girl holding her baby, next to me in the parking lot hates it here and wants to run back to New York because she has no purpose in her life and it is "too conservative here."

I wonder if she will find her Purpose in New York. Or will she like so many everywhere never find out what to believe, and just chase after emptiness or flow with whatever foolishness she is told or sees in the latest movie? Simply because no one has told her any better?

They are like sheep with no shepherd, wandering around, and so lost, like another girl said to me, "I have never really been introduced to the real Jesus."

Yesterday, when I started out, I had no idea He was doing it, but Jesus went with me to the streets to meet and encourage a few, even some who are already aware that He saves lost people.

As I drove up to Curves an aggitated young woman in a red shirt with G.A.P was poking under the hood of her car. She said she didn't need a boost, that it was just the devil giving her a hard time, and that she had also just lost her job.

When I suggested we pray, she immediately slammed her hands down on the fender and said, "YES! PRAY!" So the two of us rebuked that devil and commanded the car to work as a good servant in God's Kingdom. She pushed the tears away, smiled and went around to start it. As she did I noticed that her shirt read God Answers Prayer. She waved and smiled as she drove away.

That was a good way to start my day because after that, there was the man in the photo studio at Wal Mart who looked so desperately empty and sad, that I just had to lead him in the 'sinner's prayer' for salvation. His marriage in Las Vegas had just broken up, but he had recently found his father here in Mississippi after 20 years and this Easter his mother got him to go to church. He told me he very much wanted to know Jesus and God. Well, now he does.

Well, after that it was just as if the angels, who were 'rejoicing over one sinner that repented', followed me through the fish department where the butcher beamed ear to ear and told me he talks with Jesus all the way to work and back each day, wouldn't leave home without Him.

Then the burdened down, little black girl in the meat department broke into a big grin and said she knows Jesus is real. The man from Cuba at the checkout stood very still and serious as I put my hand on his chest and asked Jesus to heal his heart that has remained broken seven years since his wife died.

Then the carry out man who was 'terribly bored' with life nearly cried when I encouraged him to read his Bible and talk with the Lord when the nights are lonely. "I WILL! he said, and bowed his head in the parking lot, as we prayed for Jesus to draw him back to Himself and heal his hurts.

They are waiting out there, whether it is in a dimly lit old orphanage building in a former Soviet nation that still has a ton of darkness in it, or in our blessed nation, where the same darkness is pressing down on the lonely, hurting people here who just need a touch from Jesus.

Jesus commands us to Go! and then he comes too and that is what makes it so fun. It is He who make them smile.