Ministry Update

A few years ago, someone was in one of our meetings and purchased a copy of every preaching CD I had available on my table. Their mission: to send it to American troops in Iraq. So it was that I preached to men in harm’s way on the other side of the world. Last night, a Marine named Ron Miller came up to me and told me a similar story, only this time my preaching CD’s went to Afghanistan. He told me of Marines gathered around the stereo to listen to me open the Word of God by way of recording. I wept as he told the story. He took off his globe and anchor tie clasp and gave it to me as a token of appreciation for my ministry to those Marines, some of whom breathed their last there in that mountainous country.

When I turned 18 some years back, I got out the phone book and found the number for the local Marine recruiter in the town where I lived. I wanted to join the Marines, I told him. After a few questions pertaining to my medical history, the recruiter told a disappointed youngster that there was no way I could ever join the Marines due to medical problems. God used the news in my life as another confirmation of my call to the ministry, but I have never lost my love of the Marine Corps, though I could never be one of them. To know now that I had the opportunity to preach the Gospel of Christ to Marines facing combat every day was one of the greatest blessings of my life.

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” Ecclesiastes 11:6