October 2008 Monthly Letter

The importance of ONE!

Dorothy Mae is an 89 year old widow who lives in the country near Hillsville, Virginia. (Locals there pronounce it like heels-ville.)

She still drives her '94 Buick (too fast for some) and has a reputation of shootin' snakes off the river bank near her home from the front porch with her .22 rifle.

She attends a small Presbyterian church which is enjoying its first-time-ever-full-time pastor. During the UpBuilding Weekend, the pastor had arranged with a county orphanage for the youth from it to attend the youth session on Sunday afternoon. We were to meet outdoors at a park.

Dorothy Mae drove up with a cloud of dust swirling from the back of her Buick from the gravel road. She was bringing three teenagers with her who were from a family that had just moved into her neighborhood. Their parents had recently moved to this area seeking employment.

As time passed, no other youth came. In spite of the few in attendance, I began to share the A.B.C.'s of Christianity with Melissa who was 17, Andrea who was 15, and thirteen year old Rob. We all (including pastor Tom and Dorothy Mae) had fun repeating each set of letters time and time again.

Near the end of the presentation, I John 5:1 represents the "W" as it states: "Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ (representing the letter "X" from the Greek letter "X") is a child of God." This is followed with the question: "Does this verse describe "Y"ou? Have you ever prayed with "Z"eal (inward sincerity) an A.B.C. prayer. I Admit I'm a sinner, I put my Belief in Jesus as my personal Savior, and I Commit my life to Him?

Melissa, Andrea, and Rob indicated that they had NOT. Each of them chose to do so when asked if they would like to pray! None of them would have done so if Dorothy Mae had not brought them to this "divinely appointment" meeting time.

Dorothy Mae became like Andrew. In John 1 he brought Peter to Jesus; in John 6 he brought the lad with the loaves and fishes to Jesus; and in John 12 he brought the Greeks who said to him, "We would see Jesus." She practiced one of 14 ways of Evangelism that I teach called: "Bringing Others to Christian Events."

Dorothy Mae and Pastor Tom committed to provide further teaching and materials to help them understand their new faith in Jesus. As Pastor Tom and I drove to Dorothy Mae's home to deliver some of these materials, she was sitting on her porch in a rocking chair with a sheepish grin on her face! She said, "Opps! You caught me!" She was puffing on her just-lit Virginia Slims cigarette! I humorously said, "Well Dorothy Mae, maybe this would be called 'holy smoke' since holy means 'set apart' and the Lord has indeed 'set you apart' for His work of Friendship Evangelism!" What a unique character she is! What a blessing to have met her!

Thank you for the blessing you are to me and to those who are recipients of the Holy Spirit's work through UpBuilding Ministries. Every ONE of you is important to the One Who has called us to be fishers of others!