A nasty night in Newark

October 26th, 2005


The weather was terrible last night, which meant that the crowd at the rescue mission was terrific. We were missing Paul Funchess (preaching in TN) and our deacon (home maintenance emergency), as well as my wife and daughter (illness). The weather apparently put a damper on the intentions of anyone else from the church who might have come along, so it was just Pastor and myself, along with the preacher and his wife.

I'm still fighting off the remnants of a cold and don't have much of a voice, but as short-handed as we were, I still sang a capella. In spite of the confrontational style of the preacher last night, his message was surprisingly well received. I suppose it helps that he's personally come out of a lot of the problems that these men face; he can address them much more bluntly than I think I could. In any case, the response was great. It's not typical rescue mission work (we often have the same men in attendance month after month, and many, if not most, are saved -- I think it just takes a while to get on your feet up here with the cost of housing being what it is, and often with racial issues, among others, at play in finding good work), but it can be very exciting. I sure wish we could transport those guys to our services -- it would sure put a spark in the song service!