A New Ministry?

Have you ever been to a bus station? Four years ago, my husband and I were working for the Law Enforcement Television Network and covered an effective program conducted by the Tallahassee, Florida Police Department. Officers had a strategy for finding drug dealers who were traveling by bus. Tallahassee is a big hub, because it is the convergence of highways going west to Pensacola and beyond... east to Jacksonville... north to Atlanta and south to Orlando and Tampa.

As Mark rolled his video camera that day and I interviewed police officers, I couldn't help but notice the bus passengers. They had sad, tired faces. Many carried grocery bags as suitcases. You know how people going on vacation at the airport have happy children and smiles on their faces? None of that here. The kids looked scared and the parents looked tense. Some looked hungry and didn't have change for the vending machines. Others looked as if they hadn't had a shower in days or didn't own a change of clothes. It dawned on me that if you had money, you didn't ride the bus--you drove your car or bought a plane ticket.

"This is a place of need," I thought. "You could really help people." Ideas ranged from handing out water bottles and healthy snacks to giving away Bibles and canvas bags. Maybe even wet wipes or diapers. From time to time, I thought about what a "bus station ministry" could do and wondered how or when I would try to start something like that in my community.

Then God intervened. We had a caller on our radio show yesterday from Tallahassee. I mentioned on the air that I had an idea for a ministry, but time didn't allow me to describe it. After the show, another caller, from Georgia, sent an email saying he lived close to Tallahassee, so I wrote him about the bus station.

He called back on the air today to say he was going to present the ministry idea to his Sunday school class! I was so excited tears came to my eyes.

To top it off, before the show aired, we prayed that someone with Krohn's Disease would call in-- because another faithful listener had sent a book for us to give to someone with that condition. The caller who wants to start the bus ministry has a wife. Guess what she suffers from?

God is full of surprises. Can you believe how He is working to get people taken care of? Wow.