"The Oasis................"

My son-in-law and I were already inside the mission last night, shaking a few hands and waiting for the fellow in charge to open the service, when Tony appeared from the rear entrance, a little late, but much welcomed by this old man. My head was in a fog, suffering from allergies after a day spent outside in the heat. His arrival assured me that the hour would not be limited to a lame attempt on my part to find God’s presence in our midst. Dave’s absence was filled with a couple of hymns and, before Mark would bring “How Great Thou Art” out of his saxophone like manna from heaven, my buddy would speak to the men on “faith”, how it springs out of His faithfulness rather than a matter of any mental “huffing and puffing” demanded of believers. His words were not a “sermon”, at least not in the sense of it being an out-lined walk through Scripture. He just talked to them out of his own life, with a verse or two thrown in along the way, all of it a bridge for me to complete in taking us to final prayer. This was no “gathering of the town drunks”. We weren’t preaching to a group of “back-alley society outcasts”, brains burnt out on drugs and there only for the free meal served beforehand. I won’t deny that there’s always the possibility of one or two in our midst struggling in such manner and do not wish to make it sound as if those types are somehow any “less” than the rest of us. We are a “congregation”, every bit as much as that which fills the pews in any other sanctuary. When Tony asked about Virgil’s absence, he learned of his having completed the offered program in its entirety. The same applied to James, his being with us last month merely a wish to visit, as many often do after graduation. Histories and hang-ups aside, we are a mixed bunch of believers with, no doubt, always the change of an atheist or a Muslim sitting in our midst, denominational dogmas not discarded, but most certainly not worthy of arguing as we surrender ourselves unto His presence. In Christ we are one. Over twelve years now and this monthly ministry yet feeds me, its blessings much more than anything I bring unto it……