Ministry Update
This evening, I closed one of the greatest meetings of my ministry up to this point. Its greatness was not so much seen in the number of decisions, but in one great decision close to my heart for which we had been praying for years. The meeting was in Plymouth, Indiana, the seat of the county in which both of my parents grew up. Many of the extended family members are still in the area, and to make matters even more significant, the meeting was in the church in which my parents were married.
On Sunday morning, my maternal Grandmother showed up to surprise me. It was amazing to see her there, not only because she had given me no prior warning, but also because neither she nor my Grandpa are saved. To her great delight, she was greeted by Josiah and Abigail who both insisted on sitting with her during the service. I preached the burden of my heart that morning on the subject of pride from the Old Testament story of Uzziah. One of the points that I made was that pride sometimes keeps people from getting saved. At the invitation, my Grandma knew that she was in need of something, but did not go forward. I was grateful to see her in the morning service, but suspected that she had just come out of duty to me as her grandson. She was not in the evening service that night, and I thought that I would not have time to see her again until I had opportunity to visit in their home later in the week. To my surprise, she was back on Monday night, having driven into the service herself. Although she is a fine driver, she is restricted to driving only in the daylight hours because of her age. With Monday’s service starting at 7:00 and ending around 8:15, she was cutting things very close.
Ever since I can remember, we have prayed for her salvation, as well as my Grandpa’s. The one great hurdle was getting either one to admit a need—they were moral people all their lives and he saw no need for a Savior while she believed that she had always been saved. A few years back, as I was praying for them both, the Lord seemed to impress on my heart that Grandma would get saved first, then Grandpa would follow. I mistakenly thought at the time that the Lord was leading me to try to get her alone and talk to her, but all efforts in that direction proved futile.
Grandpa’s bout with Parkinson’s disease has left him more and more bound to his home, and he was unable to come to a single service because of his condition. That left Grandma to come alone whenever she could.
Monday night found Grandma once again hedged by Josiah on one side and Abigail on the other. I preached that night from Psalm 139, giving a kind of character study of God from that psalm. In the end, the invitation was to total surrender to the God revealed in the verses of David’s song. When the invitation time came, Josiah took Grandma’s hand and rubbed it a bit. He then left his seat, as is his custom and went forward to pray for his great grandparents. His great grandma was right behind him. That night at the altar, she admitted her sinfulness in prayer to God and confessed her need to Him. Because of the lateness of the hour, I did not have as much time to deal with her as I would have liked, but knew that my Mom would call her after she got home. Sure enough, Grandma had no sooner walked in the door, when Mom called and further explained the Gospel to Grandma. At the age of 81, she trusted Christ as Savior!
By Tuesday, someone in the church had volunteered to pick her up each night and she did not miss another service of the meeting. Now, the process of discipleship has begun just as we have to leave town. I would ask all of you to pray for Mary Silveus and her husband Eldon, that Mary would grow in the Lord and be baptized and Eldon would trust Christ as Savior. What a blessing it has been to see God do a great work in my Grandma’s life so far. The good work has begun, and God will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
