Words'nTone

My wife, kids, and I are helping an effort to plant a church in our neighborhood, one that is within walking distance from one of our city’s Housing Authority’s apartment complexes. (I hate the words “the projects.”) This Sunday our pastor had invited a local men’s restoration program called Pivot Ministries to come sing and share testimonies. They brought in their choir. The men shared how they had entered the program with lives filled with hurt, destruction, and many on the verge of suicide. Drugs, alcohol, and life on the streets had taken its human toll. They explained how their lives had also ruined family and friends, and especially their children. Some shared how they had tried everything—12 step groups, counseling, and other rehab-programs. But it was the Pivot Ministries’ center emphasis on having a right relationship with God through Christ that made the difference. About a dozen of the men shared their testimonies about how they had found both forgiveness and the strength to change what only God can change--themselves. Almost all cried or were at a loss of words over their emotions to explain how God had helped them. Strong, street-wise men broken down to crying, shedding tears at how God had helped them conquer what had held them captive for so long. One gentleman, barely stammering out his words, eyes weld up with tears, barely able to say, “If you want to see hope…” No words followed, just enough to point his fingers at himself.

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