Numbers 16:48

"And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped." Numbers 16:48

I had the privilege of speaking at Thrive on Friday. It was really cool because our visiting team from Chicago opened it up with a drama presentation of the Gospel. We rarely have the men and women in the same room but we got them together for this special occasion. The team did a phenomenal job; by the end of it both men and women were wiping away tears. Very powerful.

I spoke to the women for a few minutes about facing the floods in life; physical, emotional and spiritual. I talked about depression, anger and suicide...and about God being King over the flood. After the teaching the ladies broke into their groups to talk about what was going on in their lives.

During lunch Charity came and got me; she wanted me to talk to a woman who had come to Thrive. We walked into the fellowship hall and Charity waved a young woman over to us. She asked Joan* to tell me her story. Joan recently lost her job and, as a result, was losing her apartment. She's a single mother and had decided that her children would be better off being raised by someone else. She didn't want to live anymore and was planning her suicide. That was on Tuesday.

That afternoon she met Charity's outreach team who were handing out snack packs and flyers. Charity works primarily with at-risk and homeless youth. Joan was handed a flyer with Charity's hotline number but she disregarded it. A few minutes later her son walked over and handed her a copy of the same flyer. She wondered briefly if it was God.

After much debate she called Charity and set up an appointment to meet with her. Charity invited her to Thrive and she actually came. We were standing in the hallway and she grabbed my hand. "I felt like you were talking just to me," she said, "all that stuff about the water rising and suicide...you were talking right to me". I shook my head and said, "That was God talking to you girl, not me".

She told me that she hadn't had a drink since Tuesday, that Charity was helping her get her stuff straight, and that she didn't want to die anymore. She smiled and hugged my neck, continuing to thank me. I told her that if she held onto God she was going to make it.

The mission team that was visiting from Chicago handed out the flyers on Tuesday. Friday afternoon I shared this story with them. We talked about Numbers 16 and how Moses sent Aaron into the middle of the congregation to intercede for the people. Aaron stood between the living and the dead, and God stopped the plague. That's what the team got to do this week. That's what we get to do every week. We stand between the living and the dead; in the midst of addiction, depression, suicide, and violence. We stand there and offer them the same Hope that was offered to us. We offer them new life.

A black & white flyer, a team from Chicago, and a woman on the edge...add God's mercy to that and we get to witness another miracle. All glory to God!