One Day, One Girl, One Soul (Update #3)

One Day:

Sunday evening church was just about to begin. As usual I was checking to see that everything was in place as we were ready to go. I had come up a little late from discipleship training and only briefly noticed there were two visitors surrounded by our welcoming committee. We don't really have a welcoming committee however, they are the most active committee we have (you'll just have to think about that one). The pianist began to play and I assumed my position on the front row. You know, that place where only the pastor and the music leader sit (My girl's call it daddy's pew). I had only been a pastor for a few weeks and was just coming to realize how much I didn't know. It would still be months before I could remember to use the red books at night and the green books in the morning and longer still before I would understand why, but that's another story. As I sat there that evening I wasn't really thinking of our newly arrived guest. It was just a typical Sunday night service in a small southern country church. Little did I realize, this day would change our family forever.

Not Your "Normal" Church Folk:
After we sang a song or two I got up to welcome everyone and pray. Turning around I saw the two of them looking right at me. The boy was skinny with messy long hair and a black Jack Daniels tee shirt. He had a goatee beard that was un-kept, but covered a rather pleasant look. The girl had long red hair (which reminded me to make sure I picked up the red book when I return to "my" pew). She was dress not entirely appropriate for church but well enough so as not to cause a fuss, if you know what I mean. In a small country church, these folks stood out. I welcomed them to our church, gave the announcements and returned to my seat. (Confident that this time I would get the correct book from which to sing) We sang more hymns and even did a few specials that night. I don't remember what I preached, but I do remember both of them seeming to hang on every word.

Afterwards, my wife and I meet them outside and talked for a while. It seems they had walked up the road a mile and found the church. They began to come more often and we began to spend more time with them talking about the things of the Lord. We had them over for dinner and would talk sometimes late into the night. Lisa and I knew they were living together with his mom but we only addressed the subject if it came up in discussions about scripture. It really wasn't important at this point anyway since their problem wasn't fornication it was their separation from God due to sin, (Romans 3:23). just like it has been for us all, since the day of Adam.

One Girl:

One night they came by the house and asked me to go over to my office with them. The young man made a profession of faith and all three of us went to the alter; where he prayed to receive Christ. I counseled with him, but she was more hesitant. That next week I performed my first baptism (I also didn't think to take off my shirt and had to preach with my sleeves soaking wet under my coat, lesson learned) A few weeks later the girl came to accept Jesus as her Lord and was baptized. (I baptize her in water that was way to hot because I had left the heater on too long. She came up looking like a lobster, another lesson learned.) There was also something different about this baptism, it was more spiritual and proceeded what was probably the most spirit filled service we ever had at our church.


Over the next few months these two were put in ever increasing difficult situations. As time went on the young man began to drift away, an all too familiar occurrence in churches today. However there was fight in this girl. She was willing to battle the forces laid up against her. She was going to take up her cross and follow Christ. It would not be easy. It never is if it’s real.



Eventually she got out from under the influence of the boy she was with and his mother. She left our area and ended up with her aunt in the Carolina's. The aunt was a Wiccan and even in her infancy as a Christian this girl tried to confront her to no avail, at least as far as we know. To make matters more difficult the aunt was well off financially and willingly shared her good fortune. The girl was able to buy nice clothes and eat out a lot. This makes it all the more amazing that she left. She knew if she stayed, this way of life would draw her away from Jesus. You see, Jesus had touched her heart and she had not forgotten. If its real you never do.

She made plans to go back home to Arizona and eventually brought a bus ticket. As the bus made it through Alabama and was going into Mississippi the girl became very upset. She felt drawn back to our part of the country and was not really sure why? She tried to get a refund for her ticket so she could buy one back to Birmingham, but it had been purchased with a credit card that was not hers. This seemed to leave her with no option, but she wouldn't budge. She began to cry in that Mississippi bus station but God was watching. He had this girl in his righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10). Soon people began to walk up and give her money to get back to Alabama. She came back to live with some friends but they were not Christians and certainly not good influences. Finally she turned to the only Christians she knew at the time and that was us, mostly my wife. My wife had kept in touch with the girl throughout all this and on New Years Eve her "friends" dropped her and her stuff off in our front yard. She was now ours to guide.


ONE SOUL:

Over the next few months she became an ever increasing part of our family. She relentlessly studied scripture and knows it better than some preachers I know. Turns out she is a good artist. Sometimes she would listen to my sermon and then encapsulate that sermon in a drawing. Often I felt that her drawings seem to say more than my sermons. She was now not only a child of God but our child to raise. She even uses our last name and we treat her like our daughter, because she is. You might say she rounded out our family because we now have 3 boys & 3 girls, a "good" 6 pack.


In this world that might not seem like much but too us, she is one soul touch by God through what God did in us. Some pastors preach a lifetime and never really get to see a life so dramatically changed by the graceful touch of the hand of God. We were given a gift to have experience it in the very first year of our ministry. I thank God for that blessing. If I never accomplish anything again in the ministry it will all be worth it because of that ONE DAY, THIS ONE GIRL AND THAT ONE SOUL forever changed. In the end, this one girl (Amanda) will be as much a blessing to us as she believes we have been for her. Isn't that, in part, what Christianity is all about? Loving others the way you wish someone would love you. Its amazing how ONE DAY can change a family, a life and a lifetime.




God Bless,
Pastor Scott Cosper


























Amanda Cosper #6

UPDATE 1: Amanda will be attending A Bible College in August 2009 where she will be preparing to pursue the will of our God in this life. God Speed Amanda...





UPDATE 2: The young man mentioned in this story was named


Bruce. Sadly, he was recently killed in an auto accident at age 20.


We have been told that he had gotten back in church. He had many


battles to face in his short life. We have also been told that his younger brother wants to be a pastor. If you knew that kid and understood the situation in which he has grown up in you would know this is nothing short of a miracle from God. It's just amazing how God intersected all of us in this one small little town for that moment in time and now is sending forth that fruit. I pray Bruce is with God now and thinking, "guys you ain't seen nothing yet". It's in HIS hands.


Update #3: Amanda has now gotten married. At what was a beautiful outdoor wedding I gave my spiritual daughter away to a man of God by the name of Joesph (or Joey as we call him). Joey is in his last year at Bible college and they just got a house not far from us. Amanda is now getting to practice what she was taught by her mom (my wife) and learned from scripture. I am sure she will be a good wife and manage her home well (Titus 2). I am more proud of her than she will ever know. She is living proof that God can take a lost soul, change that soul through grace and then use it to do the same then again. That God would choose me, a person of such limited means to do something so great is a testament to His power. If you knew me at all you would know just how true that is. I forget that lesson sometimes but evertime I am asked to tell this story it all comes back again.

My next update will be to announce that I am now a GRANDAD. I can't wait till the day she gives me the good news she is going to be a mom. You know, children are a blessing for the Lord and grandchildren are......well I've hear an even greater blessing but don't hold me to that. :)
God Bless
Scott

Thank God for BOWLING BALLS

It was the end of a long day as I approached the front porch of the parsonage. With 6 kids there is always lots of stuff on our porch and usually a bicycle or scooter to maneuver around before hitting the steps. Usually, I just ignore it, but on this particular day one item seemed to stand out. It was an unusual bag and when I reached down to pick it up, it was very heavy. Setting it back down I went inside, too tired to lift it and look inside, and figuring it was full of rocks the boys had gathered up for some secret club house ritual. Once inside my wife looked up to me and asked, "did you see your gift"?

Before I tell you the rest, I need to tell you this. The previous Sunday, a lady from our town named Ms. Lida came to our church. Now I can tell you about Ms. Lida but what my wife wrote on her blog best describes her...

From the world's perspective, Ms. Lida is a person with little or no value. She's an unsightly woman, who lives in a shack just a few blocks from us. She is never quite clean, and usually smells pretty badly... She doesn't have indoor plumbing, but uses the woods behind her house. She washes her clothes by hanging them outside on the line to wait for rain. She is paranoid, and has some tales to tell. Did I mention she hoards things? boxes, trash, dogs... anything will do. We often see her (or hear her) walking down the road, a dog (or 2 or 3) chained to her grocery cart and helping to pull it along. Since we found that she was digging in the dumpster behind a small grocery store for food, we have regularly taken food to her house. Our children know Ms. Lida. They are not ashamed of her, and they don't think any less of her than they do the finest dressed lady at our church. They see her as a person, created and loved by God, and valuable because of it. She often comes by our house to ask us to pray for her, and sometimes leaves t-shirts that she has painted hanging on the tree in our yard. The first one was for Kyle. It was yellow (and filthy) with Jesus' face painted on the front (with real glow in the dark eyes!). Kyle was not embarrassed, but said, "Mom, I WILL wear that shirt to church."Our children know the look and the stench of poverty, and the eccentricity of mental illness. They are not disgusted by it, but are motivated by the desire to help.
(picture is of Ms. Lida on our front porch)

When Ms. Lida came to church the previous Sunday morning she gave me a note. I put it on my desk to read after church. She had written a poem, well I guess you would call it a song since she wrote on the paper that it was to the tune of "Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortening Bread". She came back to church that night and I had a suprise for her. Our pianist could play just about anything and keep up with even the most horrid of singers. I told her to play the song and I sang what Ms. Lida had written during the time we generally have special music. Well nothing could have been more special to Ms. Lida.

You see few people have ever treated Ms. Lida like she was just as important as everyone else. I will never forget the look on her face when I finished that little song. I went over to her pew, hugged her and told her we loved her. She just sit there and cried.

Now it was my time to cry as I scurried back out to the porch to see what was in that bag.

IT WAS A BOWLING BALL

It was a nice one too, except that I couldn't have gotten my little finger in any of those holes and I don't bowl.

As a pastor you get many gifts. People give things to me and my family to help us out along our path. Many of those gifts were greatly needed and all were most appreciated. Yet, here was a gift that I really had no use for, but one that touched my heart. I may one day have a hard time remembering from whom and what gifts we have recieved over the years, but I will never forget that Ms. Lida gave me a bowling ball. For starters it was heavy and Ms. Lida was a little woman. She must have really struggled to get that ball from wherever she found it. Probably in a dumpster somewhere or some old abandoned house.

She had nothing of value to give, but what she gave, God made exceedingly valuable.

By the way, I did get one of those tee shirts she would hang on the tree; although mine didn't have a Jesus with glow in the dark eyes; must be a kid thing. :)

You see, I learned more about what it means to minister to people through our family's relationship with Ms. Lida than I ever learned in a classroom, a seminar, or from a sermon, including my own.

James (the half-brother of Jesus) teaches that since God is not a respecter of persons neither should we be respecters of persons. When James gets to that scripture so many know about works and faith, he uses the brother or sister who is without clothing and daily food for his example. Yes we should pray for people and have kind words for them but if we don't love them with our works (deeds) then our words seem empty to a dying world, and we fall short of fulfilling the "royal law according to the scriptures" James speaks of in chapter 2. Lida helped me to see the value in doing what God has instructed, God's way. Especially with respect to those that society (and in some cases the church) has forgotten.

Fact is Lida probably blessed us more than we blessed her; so let me close with this...

"THANK GOD FOR BOWLING BALLS"!

God Bless!

Pastor Scott