Yesterday's afternoon service at Martin Lakota Chapel was crowned with the salvation of a drunk!
The service concluded the weekend revival services with Larry Poe speaking. The revival had been short and sweet--and blessed. John Bush, lay pastor of the church there, had been worried about the song leading, so Jonathan had offered to help with that. Since there were no singers, we asked if the Bushes would like our family to have some special songs. They said yes. Crystal practiced lots of arrangements for the preludes, and she and Hannah provided piano duets for offertories. Our family spent several evenings practicing various songs including "Jesus Is All I Need/In Times Like These," "Springs of Living Water," and "Though Your Sins Be As Scarlet."
At the last minute, Josh Hooper from Montana had felt strongly drawn to travel all this way to attend. He brought his guitar and Keith Lavery (fill-in pastor) asked him to also contribute a special song each evening which he did. His singing was anointed. When I die, (although Rose told me 3 years ago that I wasn't nearly dead yet), if we are still part of SIM, I would like Josh Hooper to sing something at my wake or funeral.
Just letting everyone know five or ten or twenty years ahead of time.
More people attended than I expected--including a somewhat inebriated man who had responded to Larry Poe's Prayer Station in the middle of town earlier in the day. He came to service and during testimony time kept getting up to say how glad he was to be in church. He said he hadn't been in church since something having to do with his mother. "It feels good," he said. "It feels as if I belong."
The leadership up front assured him he did belong.
At the end of the evangelistic service based on John 3, the man went forward to pray and ask for forgiveness of his sins. A good group of believers gathered around to pray with and for him. Before long, his face was upturned, glowing.
"I feel free!" he said.
"I feel free!" he kept repeating, rising, and swinging his arms over and over again as if they had been chained.
What rejoicing!
The Pine Ridge man in the blue plaid shirt in the photo above (he's hiding Jonathan in the photo) had testified earlier, too. Jonathan told me he had never heard him testify before. This man was in tears, saying how the services had helped him and it meant so much to him to feel that God loved him/them and that people cared.
What the different missionaries had done to come and boost as well as others coming in was a huge encouragement to the people there, we believe. But most of all, God's presence was there.
One thing I found amazing was Saturday evening when Larry Poe's text was Psalm 34, especially the verse, "O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him."
I couldn't help thinking back only an hour and a half earlier when Crystal and I had been on our way to Martin, and we were praying together for the service, for us, for the community.
"Help the people of this community to taste and see that You are good!" I had prayed.
And then there was this text!
It felt as if the Holy Spirit had not only inspired the speaker, but even the prayer that had happened ahead of time, me completely unaware of the text.
And I am not sharing this so anyone will think I am some sort of super spiritual person, but just because it is part of the story of the weekend that encouraged me with the
reality of God in our lives.
And I absolutely love Psalm 34.
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