More good stuff from my buddy Anthony Wood – RCM’s evangelist. This is an amazing, true story from the streets of North Little Rock.
The folks at RCM saved a homeless guy from comitting suicide, and then he turned around and saved a woman from being raped. Check it out:
Lord, what’s it like to save a life? You’ve done it so many times. What’s it like to see death coming for someone and then, You rescue them, save her life, without them really knowing what has happened until it’s over? What’s like to know, that without a shadow of doubt, someone has entered the shadow of the valley of death, with no exit in sight, and be lifted up and out of the pit? You do this quite often. Thanks for letting me watch.
Some people call him Joe, but his name really is John. He’s a good man with a devastating problem, and fatal. He’s been an alcoholic for quite some time, but that’s all changing now. Because, of You.
A couple of weeks ago John called me over as I walked across RCM’s parking lot. He said, “I only want to ask one thing of you Bro. Anthony.” I said, “Sure, if I can.” With a cold stare he spoke, “I only want you to pray for my soul because what I’m about to do I know is against God. Today is the day.” I asked, “Ok, what is it?” He stared, “I’m not telling you.” I smiled, “Then, I’m not praying for you.” Lord, I rarely do that, I mean, not honor that type of request, but it was my first mind and I credit Your Spirit with that answer. I stared back, and he was the first to blink, “Ok, I’ll tell you.” I took him to my office.
“Today’s the day,” John said with resolution. “For what?” I asked. “It’s over, today I’m gonna end it all. I’m tired of the pain, the chemo, I’ve had for the cancer I got from working on a job that had asbestos. And now, they want to do surgery, I don’t want them to cut on me. I gave away my last money to help some homeless people get a room. I’m gonna go to the river, it’s pretty swift, yeah, that should do it. I need you to pray for me Bro. Anthony, to ask God to have mercy on me, because today I’m gonna kill myself, will you let me use your phone to call my sister in Milwaukie so I can tell her goodbye?”
Amanda, our lead social worker said he would kill himself without some major intervention, Lord. He had all the classic signs of a person going to commit suicide. He had a plan, renounced his religion knowing God would not be pleased with his choice to die, gave away all his money, called is sister to say “goodbye,” but really through the defensiveness, he was crying out from the deepest part of his soul, “Help!”
He finally broke and agreed to go to the ER, thanked and hugged us when they took him back. It wasn’t long that he called threatening a lawsuit and asking why we did this to him, meaning lockdown. Well, of course, we didn’t make that decision. He did when the doctors reasoned that he was a danger to himself and others. They locked him down, the best thing that could’ve happened to him.
Four days later, John was out of the hospital, in an outpatient program and making his meetings, sober, and on his way to a halfway house to have the accountability he needs in his life. He came to me saying, “You guys literally saved my life. Thank you.”
A Saturday night a couple of weeks ago, while John was trying to sleep, he heard a ruckus next door to his apartment and a woman screaming. He got in the door to find three men hovering over a woman, naked on the floor, high from the drugs planted in her drink, and a table on top of her they has just thrown to hold her down.
John, Lord, stepped I, like You did for him, and told the guys he wasn’t going for it. He picked her up, as their mouths hung open, left, clothed her, and put her on the bus with a bit of money to continue her escape.
The next day, Sunday, John came to Clint to say, “I’m ready. I’ve put this off for too long but now I’m ready. I want God to have all of my life.” So Lord, You rescued John yet again, but this time for eternity. The new John, surrendered, come up out the water leaving the old corpse of sin in the grave.
Lord, You are a rescuing God, and I guess that’s because that’s just the way You are, and how You want us to be. We at RCM, because You lead us, rescued John, and in turn John rescued that lady, and in turn You rescued John from Satan and sin.
And by the way, Lord, thanks also for rescuing Bill last Sunday afternoon, whom You saved when he took the pile of pills to kill himself. You sent the police to find him behind an abandoned building that few people frequent. He woke up in the hospital alive. He still struggles, but he believes more in You now. You, Lord, the Great Rescuer. Thanks for letting me just be a servant boy in Your kingdom work of rescuing people You love.
“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks for his unfailing love, and his wonderful deeds for men (Psalms 107:19-21, NIV).”
Blessings,
Anthony Wood, Evangelist
River City Ministry
North Little Rock AR
Love it!
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The Overflow 