FROM CRISIS TO CHRIST-CENTERED HOPE AND RESTORATION

 Pastor John Bohnsack
                         Development Director           

Amazing Grace
 

In the mid to late 1700’s, there was a man named John.  By the time he was 11 years old, he was in training, on ships sailing the Mediterranean Sea.  Bright young man that he was, he efficiently absorbed the training and had a likely destiny of becoming an officer in the British Royal Navy.  However, somewhere he got off the straight, narrow, and upward track.  Falling in with the wrong crowd, he not only missed promotion, he was on occasion flogged and even demoted to a lower rank for serious misdeeds.  Sinking lower and lower in life in general, he even became involved in the slave trade in Africa.  In his early 20’s, he was part of the crew on a slave ship crossing the Atlantic, when the ship ran into a horrendous, ship-sinking storm.  As the ship was battered by wind and waves, a portion of one side of the ship caved in, and he woke up to water filling his compartment.  Trained to react quickly, he immediately went to the water pumps along with other sailors and worked frantically, trying to pump water out of the ship as fast as it was flowing in, so it would prevent sinking.  After hours and hours of that seemingly fruitless battle, totally exhausted, he finally went up on deck.  Throwing himself prostrate on the deck, he cried out, words to the effect of, Lord, have mercy on us all!
 
 Miraculously the ship and crew survived the storm.  We thank the Lord that he took seriously his heart cry to the Lord AND the reality of survival.  As a result of that moment of transformative heart cry, his entire life was changed.  He became a noted preacher and fruitful composer.  You may recognize the name John Newton, who wrote:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

                                
 
Many who come to JRM for help are in crisis situations, perhaps not life vs death, as Newton was, but still beset by huge anxiety and tension over urgent, basic-living needs.  It is a timely opportunity to provide crisis aid, along with the offer to pray, if they wish.  And, over the years, many have, as a result, experienced AMAZING GRACE in a way that has transformed their lives to all eternity

                                      WE PRAISE THE LORD
 

And we express our thanks to you, as support partners, who make this ministry possible, in the midst of strong storms of life that so many of our “customers” are experiencing.