A REAL CHRISTIAN

 "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."  (Matthew 10:42)

I heard from a truly wonderful person last night - A Real Christian - and I want to tell you about it.

The typical format of Assemblies of God churches has greatly changed over the past forty years or so.  It used to be that almost every AG church had Sunday School for all ages every Sunday morning, immediately followed by a Morning Worship Service which lasted about an hour.  The big service of the week was Sunday night.  In most churches, the Sunday evening event started at 7:00 p.m. and could last till 9:00 p.m. or in some cases even later.  These evening services were well attended, and where you'd be most likely to experience the Gifts of the Spirit such as Tongues and Interpretation or Prophecy and where it was not uncommon for people to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit or for just about any other wonderful spiritual experience to take place.

During the 1990s, attendance at Sunday night services began to drop, as did the supernatural events which took place during those services.  In some parts of the country AG churches still hold Sunday evening services, but in most of New England they disappeared entirely around 2005.  

At Bread of Life Church where Mary Ann and I actively attend, we have a once a month Sunday night time of fellowship.  It starts around 5:30 and ends around 7:00.  Last night was the April fellowship night.  There's a class for parents of kids who are mostly age 12 and under.  There's a Bible Study for other adults and teens. And, there's a special evening children's church during which Mary Ann really does a magnificent job ministering to what my Aunt Estelle would have called "the kiddos".

At last night's Bible Study, Pastor Gary focused on the Story of the Good Samaritan from Luke chapter 10.  We  spent time talking about "Wounders, Wounded, and Healers".  He did a great job teaching and facilitating the discussion.  Now, I opened talking about a truly wonderful person - A Real Christian; and that is what I want to share with you in this post.  I don't know she or her husband well.  I'd say they're about my age (I'm 68) and maybe just a tad older.  I don't want to use the woman's name.  I don't have her permission to do that, and she might not be comfortable with me using her name.  In the course of discussing being a "healer" to the "wounded", she humbly told us her story.  It was the story of ministering in a church on the west coast a number of years ago.  She's not a pastor or an evangelist or anything like that.  She's what most people would call, an ordinary Christian.  In fact, after what she shared, I'd say she's more of an extraordinary Christian.  She and her husband attended a small Assemblies of God church located near an Indian reservation.  (I guess today it might be called "A Native American Reservation".)  She led a Missionettes group in those days.  (Up until about fifteen years ago, Missionettes was the program for Girls sponsored by the Assemblies of God and available at most AG churches.  Today it's called "Girls Ministries".)  She said her Missionettes group was small.  I got the impression the girls were maybe around 12, 13 or 14.  She said most of them were Native Americans.  And, most of them came from homes where there was a lot of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and in some cases teenage premarital sex.  The woman said she tried her very best to minister to and help these girls.  You could tell she truly loved them.  She remembered that one night she went to the Missionettes meeting and one girl told her she'd tried to phone her a couple nights earlier.  The girl added, "I overdosed..."  As this dear woman told the story, she was fighting back tears.  She told of how the girls told her there were boys who wanted to attend Missionettes.  She informed them the boys really couldn't attend Missionettes because it was for girls only.  But she got a great idea.  She started a youth group in that church for both boys and girls!  "I'm not a youth pastor," she said, "I didn't know what I was doing, but I did what I could."

I'm almost getting choked up as I'm typing this!  The woman added that a number of years have now gone by.  Sometimes she does hear from some of those people she'd ministered to.  Sadly, a number have gone on to repeat the same cycle of alcohol and drug abuse and illicit sex, although some have not.  

So many times in evangelical churches we make heroes out of great singers and musicians (and please don't get me wrong, I love to hear great Christian singers and musicians) and we make a lot of pastors and teachers who can speak very well.  I can speak very well.  But I've never done anything as great as what I believe that dear woman did at that little church near the Native American Reservation!  She really made me stop and think.  In fact, she made such a big impact on me last night that I felt compelled to write this piece.

Many times we don't think we matter - we don't think we're very important - we don't think we make a bit of difference for the Kingdom of God.  When God calls us, often it's to something that's not glamorous or easy.  We may feel so inadequate.  But He just asks us to say "Yes, Lord" and to trust Him.

That's all.