03/22/2010: "The Voice Mail"

It was early Monday morning when she arrived in her office after a hectic weekend. Exhausted and a little depressed she went through her routine of checking the voice mail messages which were left over the weekend when suddenly, hearing a woman's voice, her day was brightened.

"I am not sure if I was connected to the right person, but i was calling about an event you did in our neighborhood several months ago. My son is 24 years old and heavily involved in drugs. He overdosed about 3 weeks ago. He is doing fine now. Your group gave him a Bible when you came to visit. I wanted to let you know that he now reads it daily and went to church for the first time this morning. I hope that you will be back so that I can thank you in person. I really believe that Bible has saved him. God Bless what your ministry does."

Sometimes blessings are a real surprise. They may not occur at an event for everyone to witness. Instead, like this one, they might arrive in your voice mail, email or snail mail months afterwards. The caller did not leave their telephone number or even the name of the community in which she lived. But, we will meet again as we rotate through the communities we serve about every six months.

The caller believed her son was blessed, and rightfully so. But, little did she know how much of a blessing her call would be to the members of the Local Out-Team.