Chris

So, James has gone home to Salisbury, and Mike got called into the office again today, this time Chas asked if Mike would be willing to bring a young man named Chris home to stay for a couple nights. Mike has been working with Chris around the church, and said “of course” Chas asked if Mike had to call and ask me, and he said no (because he doesn’t, first of all Mike is the head of the household, and second, I submit to my husband). So, enter Chris Knight, our adopted 20 year old son. Chris recently came to accept Jesus as his Savior, and was baptized, and went to TN to join an extensive rehab program. The program went pear shaped, and Chris was forced to come back to NC. He really didn’t have anywhere he could go, so one of the Assistant Pastors took him home. And Chris was entered into the rehab program we have at the church. Extensive Bible teaching, and working at the church. The program can be 3-6 months, depending on progress. One thing Chris had to do was quit smoking, stay away from old friends and have limited interaction with family. Not to be mean, just to teach him disipline, and how to submit to authority.
Whereas James lived in the motorhome, Chris gets to live in the house. We have him situated in the guest room and things are going well. I only see him for limited time, morning and evenings, where Mike has him all day at work too, but we are all learning things and enjoying the fact that the Lord is using us and our house to do HIS good work. Chris’s mother and step-father live in Kernersville and he gets to spend Sundays with them, after church(they attend there too) and his father lives about 2 hrs south and came up with his grandparents for church the other Sunday. It looks like we will have him with us until June, or whenever he gets out of the “program”. Someone in the church will employ him, and he will get an apartment, and his drivers license, he’s obviously looking forward to that, but right now, he just needs to be “poured into” and get strong in the Lord, before he goes out into the “real world”. We are loving on him, and he has become part of the family.

James

We were sitting around watching TV one night, it was almost dark, so around 7:30pm and there was a knock on the door. We thought it was our “handy man Jesse”, so Mike answered the door, and went out on the porch to talk. I went around to the bedroom window to see who it was, and saw Mike talking to a young white man with blonde hair. I watched them speak for awhile, making sure there was no angry body language and that everything was safe, then I went in to wash dishes or something. A couple minutes later I again went to the bedroom window to see that everything was still ok, and I see Mike with his hand on this boys shoulder praying for him! Tears came to my eyes, it is so awesome to see how God is transforming my husband! Next thing I know, Mike is in the house putting shoes on, and getting the car keys. The young man’s name is James and his car has been stolen, Mike is taking him to George’s house(a friend of James)where he is staying. Mike gets back a little later and unfolds the story. James lives down south about an hour, in a place called Salisbury, he came up to help George move, and he left his keys in the car at the gas station, and it was stolen. Now it was Easter weekend, and he was stuck til Monday, waiting to hear from the detective. About an hour later, Mike’s cell phone rings and it is James, family came to stay with George for the holiday weekend, and he was getting kicked out of his bed, did Mike know where he could spend the night? Bus station, hospital waiting room? Are you crazy? So, Mike went and picked him up while I fixed up the motorhome. We had let Jesse and his girlfriend Jocelyn store some stuff in there, so it was an ordeal, but I got it where you could walk and the bed made up, so that was where James stayed the night. The next day was Easter and James went to church with us, stayed thru both services, while Mike worked in the coffee bar, then went to George’s house for Easter dinner. We had Easter dinner of our own, new friends from church Joe and Gina Floyd and my friend Kathy from work and her husband Chris and daughter Brianna. Kathy brought a ham, and I did some lamb, scalloped potatoes and some southern greens. It was cold and windy so we ate inside, which was a tad crowded, but we all laughed really hard and had a great time. As the party was winding down James showed back up, and we had some more time to talk to him. He knows the Lord, and knows he’s not living the way he should, and meeting us, hopefully put the “fire” back in him. He stayed another 3 nights, during the day he would play phone tag about his car, and work around the neighborhood doing yardwork for money. He was in touch with his boss (he works for a plumber) and was coming to get him Thursday. He kept trying to get info about his car, and finally found out that nobody was assigned to his case, the tel# he kept leaving messages at was just the initial officer who took his statement. So (with relief) we said goodbye to James on Thursday, and he promised to keep in touch and to find a church of his own. We continue to pray for James and he has called. He called the first Sunday he was home, had gone to church, with his aunt and had news on the car. It had been pulled over on Monday eve, and had been sitting in the impound lot since Tuesday! Now they wanted him to pay something like $249.00 to get it out! My friend, had been worried about him staying with us, of course there had been some news story warning people about scam artists going door to door, but I had to tell her that we didn’t live by “what ifs” and we had to trust the Lord was going to keep us safe. The Lord did keep us safe and after all the conversations we had with James, we all came to the conclusion that the Lord wanted us to meet. It was cool.