Could You Repeat That?

Early in the season of waiting, shortly after leaving HorsePower and as I was still wondering what might come of the apparent call to the Christian camp, a friend mentioned an apologetics ministry that I should know about. Now, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia. It is not making apologies for our faith, but rather it is making a reasoned defense for our faith. My friend had lived for some time up near the Twin Cities in Minnesota, where this apologetics ministry had been flourishing for nearly forty years. 

While I knew it wouldn’t hurt to look into it, the Cities seemed a bit far for close collaborations—it was about a four-hour drive. I was busy with my volunteering, and perhaps a little deaf to his call.  In the end, I never did reach out to them. I walked right past that breadcrumb. Then, one day, my husband asked me to take his hearing aid in to be looked at. He said the volume knob was kind of poking out, and he hoped to have it fixed before it really broke. 

When I took it in, they told me they could take a look at it right away, could I wait? I had time—after all, I was waiting—so I took a seat in their lobby. On the coffee table in front of me lay a copy of our local newspaper. I never read the paper. But the front page was folded poorly and sort of propped up . . . with the front-page photo almost staring me in the face . . . with a headline that grabbed my attention:  Father’s Heroism Ends in Tragedy. I picked up the paper and started to read.

The photo was of the founder of that same apologetics ministry . . .  His son had drowned in a tragic accident as he attempted to save his own son from the currents along a rocky California coastline. While this man’s grandson was saved, his son was not. It was a tragedy indeed. I also learned from the story that in the years that had passed since my friend had met him, he had apparently moved to the Sioux Falls area—his house was only 16 miles from mine! Clearly, this was not the time to impose upon him, but I certainly took note. Seemed like God had wanted to make sure I knew. 

I was noticing that—that if I missed one breadcrumb, he would often lay down another. It was ironic that I had been sitting in a place that sold and repaired hearing aids. Seems as though my husband wasn’t the only one who was hard of hearing! The other little piece of irony . . . there was nothing wrong with my husband’s hearing aid. That "volume knob" that was poking out was the stem that you used to pull the hearing aid out of your ear. My husband had had that hearing aid for years. I shouldn’t have even been in that store.

Turns out this man and his wife not only moved to my area, they attended my mom’s church and, after a time of grieving and healing, he was going to be doing a teaching series over the course of the summer. I decided to attend and introduce myself. I came to find out that he had been praying for a Timothy! Someone to pour into who may carry on his ministry as he moved towards retirement. The Siouxland Region was formalized not too much later, and we began to address how and where I would be doing my apologetics ministry. 

This gentleman had been very successful in getting into churches and sharing with congregations and small groups, putting on conferences and the like. We decided to take a similar approach in the Siouxland Region and went about starting conversations with a number of local churches . . . without too much luck. With my experience in research and with a local hospital, we started a conversation about how to carry this message to some of the doctors and medical professionals in town . . . without too much luck. However, don’t ever sell God short. As I shared earlier, in this time of waiting, God had strategically placed me as a volunteer at my church and at a prayer ministry. It was in those appointed places that the doors flew open for me to carry this message—the gospel with evidence—into the county jail and the behavioral health center. The opportunities would grow to include the juvenile detention center, halfway houses, sober living homes and more. Isn’t it just like God, to find a way to reach the least and the lost?  To carry the light into the darkness . . .

“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they

turned their backs and covered their ears.”

Zechariah 7:11 NIV

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up;

do you not perceive it? I am making a way in

the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Psalm 43:19 NIV

 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever

you did for one of the least of brothers

and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Matthew 25:40 NIV

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Luke 19:10 NIV

“The light shines in the darkness, and the

darkness has not overcome it.”

John 1:5 NIV