Atlanta Reformed Presbyterian Church

December 31, 2011

It is now twenty months since we started ministering to the folk in the English Avenue district of downtown Atlanta, known as the Bluff.  We currently have an average of 13 in attendance each week, which includes those of us who come down from the suburbs.  Every Lord’s Day afternoon the arrival of Frank and me along with our faithful assistant, Amy Work, is anticipated by the residents.  On one occasion recently, a car was parked in “our” space and there was a small group of men on “our” steps.  As soon as they saw us approach they literally jumped up, declaring “The preacher is here, the preacher is here!”, the owner of the car called out that he would move it right away, and the steps were suddenly vacated to make room for us.  These men did not join the study, but we were touched at the respect they held for “the preacher”.  Amy enjoys her role as the teacher of the little children who attend, holding her class on the second set of steps of the burned-out church building on the corner of Kennedy and Brawley.

We were encouraged this year by the interest shown in our downtown ministry by a number of visitors from around the country.  As reported in a previous issue, in January three young men came for a weekend from Erskine College in South Carolina specifically to experience this kind of ministry.  In July Amy’s parents, Steven and Jeannie Work, came for the baptism of their new grandson in Chattanooga, and then came down to spend the evening in the Bluff with Amy.  Steven, who is pastor of the RPCNA church in Quinter, Kansas, led the Bible study that evening and then unexpectedly appeared the following Lord’s Day evening as well because they had suffered car problems and had not yet returned home.  Their support gave us a real emotional and spiritual boost.  Later in the same month, Paul Huffmaster, a member of an independent psalm-singing church in San Diego, visited his father south of Atlanta, and attended Northminster one of the three weeks he was in the area.  On the other Lord’s Days he attended his father’s church, but he joined us in the Bluff on all the Sundays he was here.  He was also a great encouragement to us as well as an enormous help with regard to ferrying children to and from the Bible study.  Then in November, Mark Sampson, from Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, who was visiting the area in order to make fundraising contacts, both worshipped with us in the morning and came into the Bluff with us in the evening.  Again, he was not only of great encouragement but also of great practical help ferrying children.

And who could forget the RP missions team comprising Stephen McCollum from Northern Ireland, Carla Quigley from Scotland, and Brenda Gladfeldter from Pennsylvania, along with Colleen Hartlaub from Wisconsin, who were here in the summer.  They, along with Amy and ourselves, held a “block party” on a vacant lot one Saturday morning.  Amy, who is a teacher in a Christian School in Marietta, had written the story of Moses and Pharaoh as a play in which the children could participate.  Stephen was brilliantly menacing in his portrayal of Pharaoh, wrapped in a purple table cloth with a gold napkin wrapped round his head pharaoh-style, waving a scepter that looked suspiciously like a curtain rod.  Carla played Aaron complete with fake beard, Brenda and Colleen dressed up as court magicians, and the children took it in turns to play Moses and, later, Aaron as well.  Besides narrating the script, Amy had even come up with games to represent the plagues. For example, a relay game involving cups of red juice illustrated the Nile turning to blood, the game of leapfrog depicted the plague of frogs, and, to portray the animal deaths, the children imitated an animal of their choice before falling down “dead”.  Unfortunately, we had only four children in attendance, but it turned out to be a great success for those who were there, with a lot of laughter and fun in addition to the learning.  Frank ended the morning on a serious note, explaining the meaning of the story, and using it to introduce Christ and explain the gospel to the children.  All four children came back the next day to the Bible study, and two who were brothers also brought their older brother.  They attended one more week, but after that we couldn’t locate them, and it turned out that they had moved.  Months later, however, we found them and they, along with a sister, started attending again.

The other two young people who came to the block party were Jenario (now 14 years old) and Miyani (now 10 years old), who have been very faithful in their attendance for over a year now, hardly ever missing a week.  We have been proud of Jenario’s efforts to memorise Bible verses and the answers to the first few Shorter Catechism questions.

In addition to the block party, the missions team also set up a prayer table on two other occasions and a number of needy people come by to ask for prayer.  Their names and prayer requests were logged, and we undertook to pray for each one for 14 days.  We still have folk from that endeavour join us occasionally at our regular Bible study.

(Continued)

Related articles

• Downtown Update (theatlantafund.wordpress.com)

December 4, 2011

It was just after 5:30 in the evening when the first shots rang out.  The Bible study had been going very well.  It had started on time at five o’clock, and discussion on the topic of Thanksgiving had been lively.  We had a total of fourteen people in attendance, only one of which was a child.  I was sitting on the wall; Frank’s sister Gini, visiting from Richmond, Virginia, was standing at the end of the wall and, other than Frank, everyone else was sitting on the steps of the burned-out church building where we meet.  To begin with I thought little of the sound of the gunshots, as we had heard them before from at least half a block away, and on those occasions we had not been under any threat.  However, after a volley of about 8 – 10 of them, presumably coming from a semi-automatic weapon, it seemed prudent to slip off the wall and down onto the steps with the other folk.  Frank, still standing on the sidewalk, having seen the shooter in the intersection, shooting north up Brawley Drive, and then fleeing west on Kennedy, called the police.  When the shooting stopped I looked around and saw one person lying face down on the ground outside the convenience store, but he did not appear to have been hit.  Then the second round of shooting started.  Gini had not yet ducked down, and from her vantage point she saw another man running south on Brawley, in our direction, firing south down the road.  At this point, discretion being the better part of valour, she, along with the rest of us hit the steps again, and at this point it dawned on me that this was for real.  This time, my face was down on the concrete.  I imagine we were all praying that the Lord would protect us, and Gini was doing so out loud.  Frank was still standing on the sidewalk talking to the 911 operator who told him that she could hear the shots being fired, and Gini and I yelled to him to get down.  Some of the details are fuzzy, but at that point Gini and Billie saw a white SUV, with its windows down, come south on Brawley past our steps, with all four occupants bearing weapons.  Frank, still standing on the sidewalk, had his back to them and did not see them.  At that point they were not firing, and we are not sure which of the 12 – 15 shots that we heard just prior to this came from the car and which from the runner on foot.  Two cars, Amy’s and ours, were between us and the SUV as it went by, and at some point Frank sought the safety of the car.  Shortly afterwards a man came over and yelled us to get out of the area.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to stand up, but we all did so, and the group quickly dispersed.  The local folk just “disappeared” except for Billie and her son, who have been attending for a couple of weeks.  Billie, who lives in the neighbourhood, is actively involved in trying to bring about change in the Bluff, and appreciates our efforts every Lord’s Day.   We threw the board and easel and the cooler into the trunk in a haphazard manner and Billie, Amy and Frank backed their cars away from the intersection to Jett and, still in reverse, along Jett and around onto Griffin.  There we parked and regrouped.   There were no more gunshots.  Shortly after that, which was about five minutes from the time Frank dialed 911, the first police car arrived followed almost immediately by three more.  Blue lights, but no sirens.  The police were only mildly interested in the situation, telling us that what we had experienced was not unusual for this area.  They didn’t take a statement, taking note only of the fact that the car with the four gunmen was a white SUV.

Having lived in the Bluff prior to undergoing successful drug rehabilitation, a regular member of our group, Linda, had some valuable insights which she shared with Amy as she was being driven back to her apartment.  In fact, before Bible study began, Linda had indicated that she was not comfortable with so many people whom she didn’t recognise congregating at the intersection.  She had previously shared with us that the drug dealers and particularly the drug “kingpin” occasionally loiter in the area while the study is going on, and that if they did not give their approval to this activity they would have made sure that we would have been run off by now.  Linda also believes that if the kingpin had been there on Sunday, the gunfire would not have occurred, or that he would have made sure we were protected.  Apparently he holds an elevated status which is highly respected in the drug community.  Linda also said that, even though the police may not show much interest in black-on-black violence, there would be a lot of interest, and hence disruptions to the drug dealers’ business, if white workers were targeted or caught in crossfire.

Before we each went our separate ways, Billie was very encouraging to Frank, telling him that he doesn’t realise how much good he is doing.  She told him that the devil is at the intersection where we meet, and he wants to disrupt our ministry.

As Frank, Gini and I drove home, we noted the irony of the Bible study earlier, which was the second of two studies on the topic of Thanksgiving.  One of the things that Frank had been explaining to the group was God’s sovereignty, and that, even though we may not understand why certain things happen to us, we are to be grateful for all of God’s providences.  Naturally, our hearts were full of thanksgiving for the Lord’s watch-care and protection over us that evening.  We acknowledged that he had given us this experience for a reason, and that he was in complete control of every bullet.

Scripture tells us to have no anxiety about anything but to take everything to God in prayer.  Never-the-less, we need to show wisdom and discretion with regard to taking sensible precautions, and Frank, Amy and I have already discussed the possibility of some changes.  We don’t anticipate this being a regular problem, as it is the first time that gunfire this close has happened in twenty months of ministering here.  However, one thing we will do is to make sure that anyone who volunteers to join us on the steps understands the fact that issues can arise.

The real Battle of the Bluff is being fought in the spiritual realm, even as it plays out in the streets.  Nothing will happen to us that is not in accordance with the will of the real “Kingpin” of the Bluff, namely the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Please continue to pray for us as we continue the battle for the hearts and minds of the men, women and children who reside in this sad and violent area.  Psalm 34:7.

October 27, 2010

This is an update on some subtle and not-so-subtle changes in our Atlanta ministry.  It all began back in early October when a minister was visiting and went down to the Bluff with Frank.  I stayed at home as I was hosting the minister’s wife and children.  Our guest is an expert in self defence and an instructor on the subject.  Later that evening he told us he had spotted two men carrying firearms and he could tell that he was marked with suspicion by dealers.  He gave us some valuable pointers about trying to ensure our safety.  He also remarked that it was dangerous for us to allow people we didn’t know into the back seat of our car in order to take them home.  He did agree with us, however, that because we are well-known there now, and are disarming, given our honesty and street innocence, dealers are not going to bother us.  The trouble that would bring would not be worth it to them.  Now, however, I can’t help but wonder who, among all the people that we see in the bluff is armed.  On the evening that our guest was there they had 10 in attendance, which was below our average.  It included Willie Brown, a first-time attender, who lives in the area and whose wife is legally blind.  They have two children aged 9 and 13.  He was very interested in coming on a regular basis.

The following Sunday we had 17 in attendance including Willie from last week with his daughter Miyani, first-time visitor Greg and his wife Kim, and previous attender Erica – all of whom were there when we arrived.  Willie Dyck showed up very proud that he had finally had all his teeth pulled – he opened his mouth wide so as to prove the point!  They had been causing him considerable pain and he had been unable to eat solid food.   Amy also arrived before we did because we were held up in serious traffic problems.   When we arrived we found that black ash had been spread on the steps making it difficult to find a place to sit.  We wondered if this was tied in to the pentagram that had been drawn on the wall a few weeks ago.  For “Sunday school”, Amy and Miyani sat on the other set of steps which, thankfully, was relatively clean.  The study (during which at least four different police vehicles went by) went well, but while Elder Bob prayed the closing prayer Kim, Greg’s wife, took out her compact and spent the time putting on mascara.  Then things went downhill in a hurry.  A man who obviously had mental health problems wandered over towards the end of study picking up garbage, cursing and blaspheming as he went.  Afterwards he demanded money for picking up the trash.  He seemed to pick on me.  Then Mary asked for money for something from the store.  We have an arrangement with Mary that we will occasionally loan her money on the understanding that she will repay it.  I regret it now, but I did hand over $5 to her and the demented man saw this and kept after me even more.  He was small of stature, thin with pointy features and bent over, as becoming a character from a Tolkien novel.  He kept after me, pointing his finger at me, and eventually he started to frighten me.  Willie was soliciting money to pay his rent. Frank was explaining to him that we don’t hand out money, but he was trying to come up with suggestions to help him.  Bob, in that same group, had taken notice of my difficulty, so I elected to go and put myself under his protection.  But now, with this weird little man on one side of Bob’s body and me on the other, and with that thin hand and sinewy finger pointing round Bob’s body to where I was, still demanding money from me, I told Bob that I was going to retreat to the car.  He said that he thought that was a good idea and that Amy should also head out, seeing as the situation seemed to be deteriorating rapidly.   I was relieved to see Amy get in her car and depart safely.  I got in our car and sat very still, hoping that I would not be noticed.  The little man sat on the curb and waited for Frank, Willie and Bob to finish their conversation.  He continued to seek money from them, was repulsed and ambled across the street away from the area grumbling and mumbling who knows what.  As Frank came to the car he was followed by the first-time visitor, Greg.  Because of my own troubles I had not been aware of the situation regarding Greg.  Apparently he had been after Bob to drive him and his wife to Lithonia.  He came to our car window wanting money.  This was something our guest from last week had warned us about.  We were somewhat frightened so Frank gave him $5 to catch a bus, in order to get out of there as quickly as he could.  It seemed interesting to me that his wife could afford mascara but apparently they did not have “bus money”.  All the while this was going on Mary became very loud in telling us that we shouldn’t be giving money to Willie or Greg.  She didn’t know them and, being street-wise, she was afraid they were up to no good.  Bob offered to drive Mary home – he also took Willie Dyck.  Frank thought I’d retreated to the car because I wasn’t feeling well – he hadn’t been aware that I’d just been afraid of the demented man (who resembled my idea of a demon) and was also very uncomfortable at the requests for money and the loud disputing.  That was the first time that I had felt that folk who came to the study were there for a hand-out, and also the first time that I had felt somewhat threatened physically.  On the way home we decided that we would no longer carry cash on us and that we would take a sign to put up on the church door saying something along the lines of:  “Silver and gold have we none.  We are here to study the bible.  We carry no cash.”

During the week I struggled with disappointment, and it was a real spiritual battle for me to overcome my fear and discouragement as we headed out to Atlanta the following Sunday.  We put up our sign and, thankfully, nothing untoward happened and no one asked us for money.  It did, however, seem as though we were under some form of attack – this time with yelling.  It was the noisiest experience we’d ever had there, with many more people than usual hanging around the corner engaging in intense, sometimes vehement conversation, also more cars – many with roaring, souped-up engines and loud rap music blaring forth from open windows.

Last Sunday we had serious traffic problems for the third week in a row.  Downtown Atlanta got totally snarled in horrendous traffic.  We finally got to the church steps an hour and a half after we left home!  We had a total of 16 in attendance including Willie Brown, Myoshi and their two children, and a grandfather, father and son from the same family.  The father, who was obviously a believer, was very encouraging and Frank invited him to close the study in prayer.  Amy was delighted to have five children in her Sunday School class.   Again there was an inordinate amount of noise, but no untoward events.  We had three police cars across the street with police milling around for no apparent reason.  After we took Mary’s grandsons home, we took Mary to the hospital to see her friend Leona who, while running for a bus, had been hit by a car driven by an elderly lady earlier in the week.  Thankfully it looks as though Leona will survive.

On Reformation Sunday, AKA Halloween, we had a party atmosphere in the street with a lot of well-behaved but noisy “trick or treat” groups going by, one of which stopped nearby and continued in loud conversation with a bit of dancing thrown in.  None-the-less, we still had a good study with 11 in attendance.  Afterwards, as we stood around talking, we heard a couple of gunshots and shortly thereafter we saw a bunch of folk materialize at the intersection coming from Kennedy Street.  An anonymous person told us it would be a good idea for us to leave but that gunshots were normal for Halloween!

We do trust that the Lord is doing a good work through the ministry.  We have not seen Mike or Nakisha in many weeks, and our hope and prayer is that both of them have done what they had been thinking of doing, and that is moving out of the Bluff.  Nakisha’s mother and Mike’s friend had been encouraging them to go and live with them.  Hopefully, that is where they are.

The spiritual battle continues.  Over the last couple of weeks I have regained much of my confidence because I have been reminded where my confidence lay.  We do indeed need to be sensible in terms of self-protection but we also need to hear, with the ears of faith, the rustling in the treetops as the Lord and his host go into battle ahead of us.  II Samuel 5:24.

September, 2010

In my last article I mentioned that Mary had been tempted to stay in the Bluff following the Bible study the previous Sunday.  She called Frank two days later and said that she couldn’t go back to the corner of Kennedy and Brawley again as the temptation to go back on heroin was too great to deal with.  However, a few weeks later she called Frank and said that she hated not “coming to church” and wanted to be picked up again.   It was agreed that one of us would always keep her in sight and make sure she didn’t “disappear” again.  She has been faithful every time since, and is happy to have a constant escort.

As I have mentioned before, those of us who show up split up and go in different directions to invite people to come to the study.  One Lord’s Day in August, as we regrouped back on the steps, Frank was the last to arrive, and when we saw him coming up the road with four little boys in tow we remarked that he resembled the Pied Piper!  The parents of the little boys had become used to our being there and were very happy to let the children “come to church” with Pastor Frank.

Also that day we had a nun in full uniform join us part way through the study.  As she arrived she said that she wasn’t going to stay and listen, but wanted to thank us for our efforts in The Bluff.  However, as Frank acknowledged her and then continued on with the study in Genesis 3, she stayed and listened for a while.  I noticed that Frank weighted his teaching pretty heavily on the fact of justification being by faith alone and not by any works that we can do.  The nun nodded agreement with a lot of what Frank was saying and didn’t appear to be offended by anything.  She wandered off after a while but returned a few minutes later and stayed with us until she boarded a bus and departed.

One afternoon recently, after Elder Bob had closed the study with prayer, one of the ladies, Melissa, asked if it would be all right if she prayed.  Frank said that would be fine, and she proceeded to pray in a manner that was very touching.  As people who do not suffer with addictions, we cannot understand the pain of being trapped by drug dependence.  Her desperate supplications to be freed from her addiction were spoken with such depth of feeling that one couldn’t fail to be moved.

We have a lot of lively interaction during the study times.  On one occasion Frank even had a problem getting through the reading of Scripture because folk kept asking for explanation of words.  Each explanation led to some form of discussion and even a few rabbit trails.  But it was an exhilarating experience – I almost had to laugh at times as Frank would only get out a few words before there’d be another question leading to another discussion.  I’m not sure one should think of Bible study as being “fun”, but this was certainly a unique and fun time for me.

For several weeks the temperature in Atlanta was 98°.  The humidity varied, however, and we went from being hot and mildly damp to hot and sopping wet.  On one memorable day sweat just started pouring out of our pores and our clothes ended up wet through.  That particular day we drove 20 miles out of our way to take someone home and even then, when we got back to our house, I discovered that the back of my dress was still wet through and stuck to the back of my seat.

A couple of weeks ago, two weeks after they had come the first time, three of the four little boys from up the street came to the study again and their mother (whom Mary knows) joined us for a while.  We had also picked up Mary’s two grandsons, A.C (aged about 12) and Corey (about 6), so we had several children.  Frank was teaching on the seed of the woman versus the seed of Satan and he asked the group who the seed of the woman ultimately referred to.  It was one of the boys from the neighbourhood who answered “Jesus”.

Last week we picked up A.C. and Corey again and they went along the street to find our little regulars.  This time as Frank was teaching about Adam and Eve being sent out of the Garden of Eden, he started by having the group run through some of the good things that had been growing in the garden.  Input, from adults and children, ranged from flowers to broccoli, to trees, to fruits and vegetables that were good to eat.  Then Frank asked, but what else was there in the garden, more important than any of the other things?  And one little boy said, “To make sure you wash them first”!

Now that we are attracting children regularly, our faithful helper, Amy, who is a school teacher, has offered to teach the children separately, using kid-friendly helps.  We are very excited about this development but still need to figure out how to implement the idea.

When we took Mary’s grandchildren home, we heard from their mother Portia (Mary’s daughter) that A.C., who is very sharp and easy to converse with, has really taken to Frank.  He has talked about him to his football coach, referring to him as his pastor.  Portia (who has been recovering from a staph infection on the back of her head) says she wants to start attending and that we might need a bus soon as A.C. wants to bring his whole football team!  She referred to me as “mama” a couple of times, which I think is an African American expression of affection, and so I took it as quite a compliment.

One evening we were joined by Tiffany, who was living with her fiancé, has a four year old son and is pregnant with another baby.  She needed ongoing financial assistance and Frank spent some time giving her suggestions.  A week or two later he tried getting through to her on the phone and spoke to her fiancé who told him that she was in jail.  Then her fiancé spent some time incarcerated himself.  Then one day last week Tiffany called Frank to tell him that someone who owed them money threw a brick through their bedroom window on Sunday night and the next day stabbed her fiancé to death.  The killer was caught by police as he got off a bus in Alabama.  Thankfully Tiffany has gone home to live with her mother in Stone Mountain.

We do believe that the Holy Spirit is working in the lives of many of the people in that neighbourhood. So please pray that we may be effective witnesses, that we will not get discouraged when we have a light attendance nor jubilant when we get a large one, but that our only desire would simply be loudly to proclaim God’s Word and claim that destitute street corner for Christ.

June 20th  2010

It was a hot, sultry afternoon as Frank and I headed into Atlanta.  Roadside temperature readings varied between 98˚ and 100˚.  Downtown skyscrapers shimmered in the heat.

We were still smarting from a low turnout the previous Lord’s Day evening, when, also in high heat and humidity, we attracted only one person to the Bible study in addition to Pastor Frank, Elder Bob and myself, and, for the first time, Amy Work, the daughter of Stephen Work, pastor of Quinter Reformed Presbyterian Church in Kansas.  Amy, a Christian school teacher in her twenties, had wanted to experience our downtown ministry but had been very disappointed at the lack of activity , and I was already anticipating that she would be disappointed again.  The only person from the area who had attended last week was our faithful supporter Kelvin, who was still radiating excitement over his successful detox treatment and the possibility of reconciliation with his wife.  But this Lord’s Day we knew ahead of time that neither Kelvin nor Mary were going to be with us, and I felt very faint of heart as we drove south.

So it was with little faith that we traveled on to The Bluff.  This time we did not split up to distribute invitations, but spread out across the street, staying in visual contact with each other as we walked around the block.  In spite of the heat there were several people out walking or sitting on porches.  At one point we stumbled upon Nakisha sitting in the shade on an upturned five- gallon paint can.  You may remember that we had already developed a relationship with her, and had been praying, at her specific request, that she would get off drugs and stay out of jail.  She was busy wiping eyeliner off her fingers and was most concerned that we would know that she was clean, having just taken a bath.  The subject of cleanliness came up several times, which was noteworthy for the irony, being in sharp contrast to her lifestyle.  She was pleased to see us and was keen to talk.  She told us that, since we had seen her last, she had spent 15 days in jail for solicitation, having been nabbed by an undercover officer.  Remarkably, she also said that she had the opportunity to pay a $250 fine instead, which her mother would have paid for her, but that she decided it would actually be better for her to spend the time in jail.  She went on to tell us that her mother lives in Marietta and longs for Nakisha to go and live with her but that she is just not ready to give up the drugs.  She shared that she used to have a really good job as secretary at a heart-transplant unit, as well as a home and two cars.  When she started taking drugs she thought that she could have it all.  Obviously she couldn’t, and now she prostitutes herself to feed her heroin and cocaine habit.  As we were talking, four police cars with lights and sirens blazing, swung round the corner and past us.  We assume they were about to conduct a drug raid.  Nakisha walked with us to the church steps but disappeared into a nearby house to get a towel, promising to return.  With her disappearance, the three of us were left alone to “ring the church bell” by singing Amazing Grace. 

Frank began the study in Genesis 3 and after a short while a man with an enormous amount of dreadlocks piled up on his head topped with an outsize woolen cap came and sat between Amy and me, creating somewhat of an incongruous sight.  He did wander off eventually but not before others started to join us including Nakisha, Mike and Willie Dyck (pronounced Dyke).  A total of eight of the local residents participated, making eleven altogether.  Frank solicited responses as he talked about the tempter, the tempted and the temptation.  Nakisha hit the nail on the head with some of her comments showing that she understood her sin and her need for a saviour.  She asked again that we pray for her to have the desire to give up the drugs, insisting that she needed us to pray on her behalf because she wasn’t ready to give them up.  Amy made a valiant effort to persuade her of the need to pray this prayer herself, and lively dialogue ensued between the two of them with Mike and Willie adding encouraging comments.  Willie even sounded like a Calvinist as he insisted that God will make her ready in his own timing, and that when that time comes she won’t be able to resist him.  Nakisha continued to insist, “I’m not going to play with God.  I’m not going to pray for something I don’t really want.”  However, we were impressed by her honesty and her refusal to be hypocritical.  It was an amazing experience to witness this discussion on sin and repentance.

Frank spent time praying for the assembled company, after which we continued chatting for a while.  Mike helped us to carry our ice-box and easel back to the car because, as he said, it can be dangerous loitering in that neighbourhood, even in daylight.  That fact was not lost on us, of course, when we took on this mission.  However, we have been providentially led to this street corner and believe that we will be providentially protected.  Mike went on to tell us that he had been a pre-veterinary student at GeorgiaStateUniversity until he got hooked on heroin.  He is keen to get out of the neighbourhood, realizing that he will never be able to get clean until he does.

As we drove away from The Bluff that afternoon we felt rebuked for our lack of faith.  The fact was not lost on us that, no matter how often we find the Lord gracious in answering our prayers in a way that is beyond what we could think or imagine, we are still afraid of being presumptive.  But where is our faith?  The events of that Sabbath afternoon have reminded me that not only can we approach the throne of grace boldly but that we should also look to the Lord to answer our prayers boldly.  It is true that we should not presume upon him, but we should also be more ready than we are to expect a blessing.  In this case our gracious God showed us that he can and does use our feeble efforts to bring glory to himself and encouragement to us.