19 November 2010
I’m lying across an uncomfortable bed in my hotel room at 462 Marcoleta Ave. in Santiago, Chile wishing I were there. I hate that I cannot be with you all tonight but by the time you are all at the celebration…I will be teaching a small group of people, a long way from home, about world missions.
Before I understood what missions was, I learned about it at The Door, and from the men and woman that poured themselves into the lives of many young people…me included.
I want to thank the folks that invested financially in the old brick building, beside the tracks, at the end of Edisto. To many of us, it was not… just a building. It was the place that became a refuge, a safe place, church, the place for Bible studies, for prayer, for concerts, for our first experience in learning to be responsible for something, a place to bring friends…and still be cool, for legalized dancing…still leaving room for Jesus!
I want to thank the men and woman who loved us where we were at…and won us to Christ because of that. I want to thank you for not giving up…when giving up would have been easier…for not locking us out…when we should have been…for letting us try to help…even when you could have done it better and faster…for sitting down with us to have difficult talks…when most would have just dismissed us…God used you in our lives…and we were never the same.
I want to thank the men and woman who helped keep The Door open as long as you did. Your investment in that place was an investment into us. I looked over some recent photos and think…who were those freaks? They were us!
I looked at the photo of Knox and Betty at a soundboard. I am sitting beside them, smiling and having a great time looking everywhere else…I was supposed to be learning how to run a soundboard. As I looked at it, I thought, I am older now than Knox and Betty were then. And then I ask myself, am I pouring myself into anyone else like they did? Are we?
I want to finish by saying thank God for men and woman that weighed the cost and spent the money, time and energy to help disciple so many of us. My home life was not the same because of it…My home today is a reflection of The Door and its openness…Lives were touched and eternity was changed and will continue to be changed because of The Door.
I can never thank you enough for your commitment to a bunch of misfits…Thank God that He is Sovereign.
In Santiago, Chile
Wick Jackson
I'm full of joy, thanksgiving, and tears as I read your account of our life so long ago during that great wave of the Holy Spirit over Florence. The Spirit is once again moving in a mighty way in this area. I noticed it a couple of years ago. Get ready! We may be old, but the fruit of our labors is getting to unfold and we will be teaching young disciples like crazy. I'm convinced of it, bro.! Love ya! Julian
ReplyDeleteWow! What a beautiful testimony of a beautiful part of our lives. Yes, I have also looked at those pictures thinking that we are now older than they were then and what an investment of time and resources they made.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I are in a ministry that emphasizes just that. Pouring yourself into the lives of others and training them with your life. Knox and Betty and the others who kept the vision of The Door alive for all of us for so long did that without being taught to. They just did it. They will certainly receive a well done my good and faithful servant!!!! I too wish with all my heart I could be there Saturday night but I will definitely be there in spirit. By His Grace, Carolanne Shrum-Hanks
Well said Wickster....well said....keep on pressing on brother!
ReplyDeleteKnox and Betty Sherer's impact on my life was profound! They were the source of grace and truth in my life and I will be eternally grateful!
ReplyDeleteIn the Lamb,
Dr. Ralph E. Spraker, Jr.
Professor of Chemistry and Mathematics
That was very well said, and makes me grateful in a whole new way. The Lord started His work in many of us in that very place, and nurtured us all through the many people who sacrificed to make the Door happen. I love your encouragement, Wick, to remember the call to give ourselves away to bring about the kingdom of the Lord here on earth, to bring others to Him. It makes it all the more powerful when I make it personal--I look back at how those believers who operated the Door did just that for me, a somewhat desperate teenager trying to find her way, by pouring themselves into teaching training, shepherding, loving. The really beautiful thing is to look at the results; these posts, and the others on the FB invitation page, show their efforts were not in vain--they were multiplied into many young people who today love and follow Jesus and are now seeking to bring others to Him. THAT pushes me forward, gives me boldness, and makes me grateful.
ReplyDelete