AN UNEXPECTED BLESSING

AN UNEXPECTED BLESSING

Last week I shared with you a little bit about my Dad. At our banquet on Tuesday night the former Director of the Boardwalk Chapel shared a story with me about my Dad that blessed my socks off ...

The Boardwalk Chapel has been holding nightly outreach services on the Boardwalk in Wildwood for over 60 years. Thousands of people pass by each evening and many stop in for 10, 15, or twenty minutes and are exposed to the gospel through music, drama and the proclamation of the word of God.

One night while my Dad was sharing his testimony of God's grace in delivering him from a life of alcohol abuse, a young man entered the chapel. He was annoyed at what Dad was sharing so he stomped out. The next day he went to the beach and sat down next to a couple who engaged him in conversation. They were Christians and began to share Christ with him. This made him mad, so he picked up his stuff, walked several blocks down the beach where he dropped his stuff to walk the water's edge. While standing there, a young woman came out of the water and began a conversation with him. She too was a Christian. Now really frustrated, he walked up to the Boardwalk and went into a coffee shop and found the only seat which was at the counter.

Sitting next to him was a man who also shared Christ with him, and at the counter, my Dad lead this young man to Christ! Following their discussion, my Dad walked him back to the Chapel and the Director placed a call to a ministry called THE COLONY OF MERCY and later in the day they drove him to America's KESWICK.

Thirty years ago, I really didn't know about the ministry of the Colony of Mercy -- but obviously my Dad did -- little did I know then that I would one day become the President/CEO of this ministry which will celebrate 109 years of ministry to the addicted next week.

God has an interesting way of blessing us.

Great quote: No soul can be really at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us. Feelings may change, and will change with our changing circumstances; doctrines and dogmas may be upset; Christian work may come to naught; prayers may seem to lose their fervency; promises may seem to fail; everything that we have believed in or depended upon may seem to be swept away, and only God is left, just God, the bare God, if I may be allowed the expression; simply and only God. -- Hannah Whitall Smith