I was pastoring a church in the small town of Waurika, Oklahoma not far from the Oklahoma\/Texas border. The church was small and root-bound by a lack of vision in some of the leadership that were unwilling to welcome new people. However, there was a core of people, including most of the young people, who wanted to draw near to God and win lost people. It caused a revival to break out that spread into the community and school.<\/p>\n
I began praying for a certain section of town people called \u201cthe Circle.\u201d It was a housing project built in a circle that was well known for its rowdy tenants. In fact, even the police hesitated to go into the \u201cCircle\u201d after dark. I believed that if I could reach someone\u2019s heart with the Gospel in the \u201cCircle\u201d that we might witness a mighty harvest of souls. My wife and I prayed daily that we could break through the darkness and reach someone in the \u201cCircle.\u201d After many months it seemed that our praying was not working, but we continued.<\/p>\n
The winter after we had begun praying for the inhabitants of the \u201cCircle\u201d a great ice storm mixed with snow fell on our area. It was difficult to drive in, but I had to go to town. As I was carefully driving back I was moving too slowly to climb the street that inclined up to the railroad. I backed carefully into a parking lot to get a run at it. There was not much traffic on the roads and I did not see anyone coming when I took off. However, just as I reached the incline to the railroad track I heard a car honking. The vehicle slid sideways as the driver going much too fast for the conditions swerved around my car.<\/p>\n
As they passed, an old haggard woman sitting in the front passenger seat was obviously enraged. Apparently she had spilt a drink on her dress. She turned toward me, face white and ugly with anger, and mouthed words that I could only guess about. When she held up her middle finger I knew what she was saying. I was so upset by the experience that I went home and immediately began praying. I prayed for that woman for the duration of my time in Waurika.<\/p>\n
That summer we had an evangelist come for revival meetings. One evening we arrived home from a minister\u2019s fellowship meeting in a nearby town. My wife met me at the door and said, \u201cYou have to go now to see a woman who said she must talk to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She told me that one of our new converts, a woman in her twenties, had been taking a shower when the doorbell rang. She wrapped and towel around her and peeked out the window to see an older woman standing on her porch. When she opened the door the woman said, \u201cGod told me to ask you to take me to your pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the conversation that followed the woman told her that she had had a vision of the young woman\u2019s house. God told her in the vision to go to that house and ask the woman who lived there to take her to her pastor. She made her son drive around town until she found the house in her vision.<\/p>\n
I took the evangelist, Robbie, with me as we went to visit the woman. I was amazed and excited to see that the address was in the \u201cCircle.\u201d When she opened the door I could tell that she had been weeping, but her face shined with the glow of a new convert. I told her who I was and her reply was, \u201cMy name is Jennie and I need to know if I’m crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
I could tell that she was completely serious about that question. I replied, \u201cYou do not seem to be crazy. Why do you ask that question?\u201d<\/p>\n
She told us that she had been an alcoholic since she was a young woman. The local judge had sentenced her to a lifetime attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Evidently, she had a fearful reputation not only for drinking, but also for violence. She would fight a woman or a man and was known to use a knife or broken beer bottle.<\/p>\n
One day she was stricken with a heart attack and at the hospital it was discovered that she also had terminal cancer. Lying on the hospital bed she began to think about her life and about death. Then she thought about the times someone had tried to tell her about Jesus. With tears flowing she prayed for the first time in her life. She said, \u201cGod, if You are real, and don’t even know if there is a Jesus. But if Jesus is real, please show me.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that moment she said it felt like something had hit her in the chest. She opened her eyes to see a shaft of light coming from the ceiling and landing on her chest. The release from bondage was instant. She began to weep. She wept tears of joy and relief. Then she began taking the IV and other equipment off her body. That set off an alarm and two nurses came running into the room. One nurse tried to talk her out of removing the equipment, but Jennie said, \u201cI\u2019m going home. I don\u2019t want to be here any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nurse replied, \u201cYou are very sick and if you leave you will die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennie replied, \u201cI can die at home as easily as I can die here. Now bring me my clothes\u2014I\u2019m going home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing her reputation they knew better than to argue with her. A doctor showed up and agreed to let her go home. They brought her things, had her sign a release form, and a form absolving the hospital of all responsibility, and Jennie left the hospital.<\/p>\n
She had a large family bible displayed in a rack on the coffee table. So she opened it up to Psalms, spread it out on the living room floor, and laid with her face in the bible, wept and prayed. Some days she didn\u2019t eat but laid on the floor and prayed. Her behavior alarmed her family. They were as hardened and rough as she had been. The abrupt change in her had shaken them. When her family questioned her she told them what had happened in the hospital. They decided that she had gone insane and made an appointment for her with a psychiatrist. They were going to either have her committed or put on medication.<\/p>\n
So Jennie began praying for help to deal with her family. One evening when she was praying she fell asleep and \u00a0dreamed of the house that she was supposed to go to. She woke up and tried to get her son to take her to the house, but he refused. He convinced her that it was too dark and that he would take her the next morning.<\/p>\n
That brings me back to the our meeting with her that evening. After she finished her story she asked again, \u201cDo you think I\u2019m crazy?\u201d<\/p>\n
Robbie replied, \u201cNo way. I think you\u2019re full of the glory of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
I also told her, \u201cNo, I believe God has delivered you from darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n
I asked her to come to the church meeting that night, but she said that she did not have anything decent enough to wear to church. A few weeks prior to my meeting with Jennie my Mom had passed away. My siblings gave me two of her dresses; one she had worn once and the other had never been worn. I realized that Jennie was about the same size as Mom, so I told her I had some dresses for her.<\/p>\n
When I picked up Jennie that evening, she looked so beautiful wearing my Mom\u2019s dress. She had trouble getting into the car due to a bad knee that gave her much pain. She wept and trembled as she walked slowly down the aisle of the church to sit on the front row. All the time she attended our church she sat in that same pew.<\/p>\n
That night the glory of God fell on her so powerful that she stood up and danced. I am not normally accepting of such demonstrations in a church meeting because I have witnessed too much contrived activity and unchecked emotionalism, which is distracting. But I knew that Jennie was completely honest. She had never been to a church meeting before, never heard preaching, and never witnessed anyone dancing in a church building.<\/p>\n
After the meeting I told her that she had danced and she was at first alarmed. She apologized and asked me to forgive her. I told her that it was okay and that it had blessed me to see her rejoicing so strongly about the Lord\u2019s work in her life. The she said, \u201cWait! I couldn\u2019t have danced. My knee is so bad I can barely walk, much less dance.\u201d<\/p>\n
I replied, \u201cWell it isn\u2019t bad anymore. I saw you dance and whatever God does He doesn\u2019t take it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
She stood up and walked around completely pain-free, and then started dancing again. We were weeping and praising God for the great victory that we had just witnessed. It was not only that God saved a vile woman, but it was how He had saved her, how He brought her to us, and what He was still doing in her life.<\/p>\n
The following week we took her to the appointment with the psychiatrist. She returned from the examination with the verdict. When the psychiatrist had asked about her behavior she told him about her salvation and everything else including the healing and dress. He called for his assistant and said, \u201cGet this woman out of here! She\u2019s religious!\u201d And that was Jennie\u2019s victory over her family\u2019s attempt to commit her.<\/p>\n
Over the next several weeks I baptized 13 souls who had been won to the Lord by Jennie. Many of them were from the \u201cCircle.\u201d Some of her family members were saved. She went after the worst in society because they were the only people she knew. She won her best friend to the Lord. Frankie was a small woman, but just as mean as Jennie had been. Frankie would become so drunk and high that on occasions in order to get her to calm down and sleep her husband would hold her against a wall and hit her in the chin. Evidently, on several occasions he had knocked her unconscious early on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
The Sunday morning they came to church I hugged them. Later in the Sunday school class I felt something crawling on my sideburn. It was a flea. That morning the Holy Spirit convicted Frankie and her husband and they were both gloriously delivered and became faithful Believers. The change in their nature and appearance was amazing.<\/p>\n
Jennie won Frankie\u2019s dad, Blackie, to the Lord. Blackie was so filthy that Jennie had forbade him to sit on her couch until she put a towel on it. It was said that Blackie never took a bath. A few days after after Jennie won him to the Lord, Blackie died suddenly of a heart attack. I went to the funeral and was amazed at his appearance. I had seen him before he was saved and his skin was dark. In the casket Blackie appeared peaceful and his skin was as light as mine. Jennie explained that after he was saved Blackie took a bath and put on clean clothes. She said that no one in the \u201cCircle\u201d recognized him.<\/p>\n
Several years later after pastoring in Missouri, Cheryl and I moved to North Carolina to pioneer a church. Weeks after we began our work in Clinton, North Carolina we received a call from a woman in Waurika, She informed us that Jennie had died of a heart attack. We were very sad. So I was surprised when I went to the post office and discovered a letter from Jennie. She had written it the night that she died.<\/p>\n
The letter was heartbreaking. Jennie wrote that she had moved with her husband to a neighboring city. The church there was cold and had little or no concern for lost people. She said that the church she was attending did not want her there. They became annoyed that she invited the worst of society to attend. She said that her heart was broken by their coldness and that she wished she could just go home to heaven. God granted her wish that night.<\/p>\n
I have thought about Jennie many times, about her hunger for God, her compassion for the lost, and her pure love for people. I thought about the time the church was invited to a Christmas party at one of our board member\u2019s house. I observed with amazement as Jennie sat in a chair surrounded by intelligent and wealthy people. She spoke in her rustic language about what God had done for her, about her love for Christ Jesus, and the way the Holy Spirit ministered to her. When she spoke people stood about her captivated, as if they were listening to a great sage.<\/p>\n
Now she is in heaven. I know that many people, including some Christians, regard heaven as a myth. But I believe that it is real because I believe in Jesus Christ who declared that He would prepare it for us. I will meet Jennie there some day. I have no doubt that when I see her she will be with Frankie and the other ones that she won to the Lord.<\/p>\n
However, I believe that Jennie will also be with my Mom. Mom and Jennie will get along very well. As Believers in Christ Jesus they were a lot alike. Although Mom never drank or smoked, she had a difficult life and was a simple and honest woman. Her personality was a lot like Jennie’s. They may be holding hands and laughing when they see me coming.<\/p>\n
Jennie will thank Mom for the dress. Mom will likely be filled with delight realizing that the dress she had not worn was never meant for her. She will smile recognizing it was the providence of God that a new Believer in Christ Jesus would wear it for the first time. It makes me wonder what I might leave behind that will be used for the glory of God. I hope that it is as glorious as Mom\u2019s new dress the night that Jennie Howard wore it to the church meeting.<\/p>\n
Oh, and one other thing. One morning in Waurika when I was praying something very strange happened. During my prayer I reached the point where I usually prayed about the woman who shot me the finger on that icy winter day. A revelation broke into my mind so clear that I was startled and sat upright. I began weeping and brimmed over with excitement. When I calmed down a bit I got on the phone and called Jennie.<\/p>\n
\u201cJennie,\u2019 I said. \u201cDo your remember when you were riding with your son on the icy street last winter and a man pulled out in front of your car? Remember you spilled your drink, cursed him, and gave him the middle finger?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennie replied, \u201cYes pastor, and I am so sorry I did that,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJennie, that man was me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She began to weep and said, \u201cOh Pastor, I\u2019m so sorry, Please forgive me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I replied something to the effect, \u201cNo, Jennie. I don\u2019t have to forgive you of what God has already forgiven for. Besides, if it had not happened I would have not prayed specifically for you and for so long. God brought us together. You have to see that God worked through that incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
God did not cause Jennie to react the way that she did, but He ordered that our paths would cross. Little did I know that she was the answer to my prayer about the \u201cCircle.\u201d She had no clue that the man she flashed the international sign of ill will<\/em> to would one day love her with the love of Christ. Her appearance had changed so much from when I first met her that I did not recognize her as the woman I had been praying for. Where the angry ravages of sin had been was a face that radiated with humbleness, love, and the glory of a spiritual new birth. Had someone told me on that icy day that the woman in that car would one day wear my Mom\u2019s new dress, I would have likely replied, \u201cAre you insane?\u201d They might reply, \u201cNo, I just believe in the glorious grace of God.\u201d<\/p>\n Verified by:<\/p>\n Dennie and Sandra Brown<\/p>\n Cheryl A. Fisher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was pastoring a church in the small town of Waurika, Oklahoma not far from the Oklahoma\/Texas border. The church was small and root-bound by a lack of vision in some of the leadership that were unwilling to welcome new people. However, there was a core of people, including most of the young people, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-oU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1544"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1552,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions\/1552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}