Christian Living

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Evangelizing at Eighty+
A testimony from Brenda K. Blakely

The visit from these eighty+ year old evangelists forever changed the direction of our lives. It must have taken the three (3) of them twenty (20) minutes or so to get up the makeshift stairs of our trailer and supper was burning on the stove.

Preparation for supper was well underway when I noticed a car that had ventured the 800 feet down our gravel driveway, negotiated the turn on the way and parked close by our trailer. Three aging southern ladies were working their way toward the makeshift steps leading to the doorway of our trailer. The difficulty of the steps, canes and uncooperative limbs made the climb almost nonnegotiable.

From a respectable vantage point I watched them undauntedly proceed to come up those stairs. I kept expecting to hear a knock. Knock, knock, I didn’t have the heart not to answer after they had persevered to make it to this point. So I quickly answered the door, let them in with instructions to take a seat and rescued supper by slowing the cooking process down a bit.

I greeted them while trying to keep an eye on the contents of our evening meal cooking on the stove. Once they were comfortably settled on the couch they accepted the glass of tea I offered and we began to talk. I continued to keep an eye on supper and remembered I had some cookies in the oven. They were suitable fare for company and they seemed to appreciate the offer.

I kept expecting some kind of confrontation; it was obvious they had not made the journey down our driveway and up those stairs just for a casual chat. Once the perfunctionary and socially acceptable questions were completed they revealed their mission. The church they had attended was having a Homecoming Service the next Sunday.

They had come to invite our family to attend.

In a community this small and close knit they already knew more about us than we did ourselves but they asked us to attend anyway and it seemed real important to them that we attend.

The small country church put out a feast fit for a king and was full of enough love to take care of the entire county. We felt as if this was our own homecoming.

Soon our family became active members and were embraced and loved to life in the church body. The church grew a little during our attendance there and we had opportunities for service and gained friends for a lifetime. Our children had surrogate grandparents who encouraged their growth and proper upbringing.

I am sure those precious ladies had other social engagements that would have been more enjoyable to them than trekking the five (5) mile area around the church and climbing steep, not so stable steps to bring in the lost. I am forever grateful they made the sacrifice to come to our place that day and extend the invitation to our family to attend the little country church that became a big part of our lives.

For many years we had not attended church regularly. The journey those eighty+ year old evangelists took that day down our driveway and up the difficult stairs started our family on a journey down a different road than we would have taken. Their obedience and commitment led us to start a pattern and lifestyle in our family that opened the door for the Lord to work in our lives and lead us into ministry.

Word Count 616
All rights owned by Brenda K. Blakely

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