Luke 4:16-21; Isaiah 2:4, (Isaiah 61:1-4; Matthew 25:31-46). Swords, Summer Rain, and Salvation.

Presented to the Summer Rain Christian Festival and TSA AVM on 19 and 20 July, 2025 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Last year here I spoke about Human Trafficking and the workers at San Group. They said they paid between $20 000.00 and $30 000.00 to come here to work for a wage in excess of $30/hr. They said they never received that wage. They said they were subject to unsafe working conditions: working with toxic chemicals without proper protective gear, working long hours, many days in a row. They were afraid for themselves, and they were afraid for the safe transportation of their family. They showed us where they lived. They explained to us how they lived. They asked us to help them flee.

 

fifteen of the 16 workers were taken out of town to a secure Salvation Army facility in Victoria where they could have their physical, emotional and spiritual care needs met and where they could get the legal and other counsel that they needed.

 

The years prior I spoke here about our Emergency Disaster Services work and pointing people to salvation from natural disasters. This was really on my mind lately as all those children recently died in Texas. The first international deployment I was ever on was in Texas. Those children who died recently were at a Christian sleep away camp. We just sent 33 children from here to a sleep-away camp. It has been heavy on my heart. When I spoke about our EDS work here last, I spoke about a hurricane that struck Galveston where people didn’t necessarily need to perish; people who had the chance to choose to get on a bus to escape the impending disaster or to stay and perish: some chose salvation, some rejected it.

 

I often speak about how salvation is forever and how it begins right now and we can choose to take advantage of that salvation – whether it be a bus out of town to free us from human trafficking or a bus out of town to free us from impending flood or hurricane or a metaphorical bus out of sin and death into eternal life. But…

 

Salvation, of course, is more than that. Jesus, Luke, Isaiah, the Bible speaks about a salvation society as one where the sick are healed, the captives are freed, the hungry are fed, the lonely are visited, the perpetrator is forgiven, relationships are healed. Isaiah 2:4 speaks of Salvation as where the Lord:

He will judge between the nations

and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore.

 

In our world, in our country, in our province, in our city there is still conflict, abuse, addiction, poverty, homelessness, murder, mental illness, hate, violence, unforgiveness…and we still pick up our swords. What if we didn’t have to wait until we die to experience a world without all of this? What if Christ was right and he wasn’t lying to us? What if the Kingdom of God is actually at hand? What if the Church (and our churches) is actually the body of Christ and what if we actually do this? It has been said that poverty isn’t a matter of scarcity: God has provided more than enough for the whole world; poverty is a matter of distribution. Countries, organizations, and people with resources simply do not share. I understand that the payroll of the NY Yankees alone could feed and clothe the world – how many sports teams are there in Canada and the US alone? Baseball? Hockey? Football? I plan to watch the game today … Is that what we choose instead of feeding a starving child? America is seemingly always at war and we are when they tell us. I read an article about their recent bombing of Iran. It was a very small American attack – nothing like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. etc. They only used four planes: each plane cost one billion dollars, the missiles they launched each cost 1 million dollars. How many American children could they feed, shelter and educate for that? They (we) would rather spend money killing other people’s children than providing the needed care and education to save their (our) own children. It seems that they (we) would rather their (our) own children die in poverty than pass up the opportunity to kill their (our) enemies’ children. Isaiah says God’s nations will beat swords into ploughshares. We are beating ploughshares into swords. I only pick on the US because I read the article about them and they are the world’s only superpower: Israel, Britain, France, China, Russia, India, Canada, etc., etc. etc.… it all applies. Our countries: if we are sheep nations rather than goat nations, if we are saved, we will beat our swords into ploughshares and we will put more effort into saving people than we do in killing them.

 

Of the over 35 million people in Canada today, 35 485 of us are locked in cages, prisons. There are homeless people right here on the streets of our town today. In BC addiction is more in your face than anywhere else in Canada. I did not see as many people on the streets in Regent Park, Toronto, Canada’s first ghetto, as I did in front of the OPS here when I first arrived.

 

Matthew 25:31ff says that the sheep nations, the ones that are saved are ones who feed the hungry, water the thirsty, visit the lonely, sick and imprisoned, house the unhoused stranger…. Are we a saved nation or do we have unhoused, hungry, lonely people in prison and on the streets? Do you care? Are we as the church doing our part? Are we members of the Kingdom of God fighting to overthrow the powers, principalities and systems of this world?

 

Who here professes Christ as our saviour? When we look at Matthew 25:31ff – even the goat nations that don’t go to spend eternity with our Lord do that! Matthew 7 says that not everyone who calls Jesus Lord is saved. Salvation is more than that. I recently read a poem that was shared at a ‘poor persons conference’ in Albergue years ago. Here is a modified excerpt:

I was hungry

and you formed a … club

and discussed my hunger.

Thank you.

 

I was imprisoned

And you crept off quietly

To your chapel in the cellar

And prayed for my release

[Thank you]

 

I was sick

And you knelt

and thanked God

for your health

[Thank you]

 

I was homeless

And you preached to me

Of the spiritual shelter of

The love of God

[Thank you]

 

I was lonely

and you left me alone

 to pray for me.

[Thank you]

 

You seem so holy;

So close to God

But I’m still very hungry

And lonely

And cold…

 

Liberation Theologian Albert Nolan asks, “How can one speak about the church as the body of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth when church people are so healthy, well-fed and have no broken bones?”  Are we complicit with the systems of this world or are we fighting to expand the Kingdom of God? What can we do? How can you and I at least, beat our swords into ploughshares? How can you and I, at least, act like sheep? First we must advocate for real change! (to de-commodify the world for starters) Then we must do it!

 

Now there is a glimmer of hope even here. This Thursday, as every Thursday, there was I prayer meeting at the Bread of Life Centre. Friends who eat with us there, friends who sleep there, friends who live and visit us there – they pray. You should see the tears. You should hear the testimonies. The Spirit is moving (preaching Good News through the poor); God is transforming lives.

 

When I was in the Cypress Heath region, people were dying in the hospital without the congregations or their pastors even knowing they were there. People were not getting any support. The Lord used His people to set up a hospital chaplaincy program where a pastor would do the rounds everyday and visit everyone in the hospital and reach out to the pastors of the other churches when their congregation members were in the hospital.

 

When I was in Southwest Saskatchewan it was put on hearts, the number of people who were going to prison over and over again – and the number of victims of crime who never had the opportunity to face their accuser and never had the opportunity to be free of unforgiveness. Before my time, God used TSA set up restorative justice in SW Saskatchewan where the victim and offender were able to see each other, the victim would be able to have their questions answered and the victim would be given the opportunity to be freed from unforgiveness which can kill us all.

 

During my time there, God used His people to set up a transition through incarceration program where we sat with the offender (and victim) in court, kept in touch with them in prison, set them up with a place to stay, a job, a social group that was different than the one they had when they went into prison. Of all the people we sat with only one person ever re-offended. Societies can be changed. God does transform lives and He will transform the world. (We do need to get rid of prisons altogether! In the Kingdom of God people aren’t locked in cages!)

 

Since I have been in town, I have seen God use His people to set up the shelter at the Bread of Life centre, and provide food and shelter 24 hours a day, seven days a week through staff, volunteers, soldiers, and community partners (including the ministerial association and various churches) past and present. (We do need to provide supportive housing; there is no homelessness in the Kingdom of God)

 

My friends, this is what the kingdom of God looks like; this is what Salvation looks like. It is people being transformed as they come to know our Lord and Saviour; it is societies being transformed as they come to follow our Lord and Saviour. Are you a part of God’s transformative church in our society? Do you want to be? Do you want to offer food and prayer to people on the food truck? You can. Do you want to serve people at the food bank or the soup kitchen? You can. Do you want to lead a Bible Study at the shelter or the Bread of Life? You can. If service, study, or hospitality are not your gifts… maybe you would like to organize a food drive? Maybe God has given you two coats and you can donate one to the Thrift Store - so that it can either be given to someone in need, or sold to someone in need so that they can have the dignity of selecting and purchasing it themselves, and/or sold to generate funds for services to those in need? Maybe you don’t think that you have anything to offer but maybe beyond your tithes to your local congregation, God is leading you to feed the hungry in your own community by writing a cheque. There are a million ways or more to serve and be used by God as part of transforming our whole society into a salvation society and everyone is welcome to participate!

 

I often think of Randall from my time in Toronto. He is blind. I think he grew up in quite an abusive home. He lived in 220 Oak, the worst building in one of the worst areas of Toronto. Randall is a soldier in our Salvation Army. Randall played music. He was a blind man carrying a tuba (or baritone) on his back, his white cane in his hand, finding his way on subways, busses, and through the roughest most crime ridden areas of Toronto by himself to play music at churches, funerals, Christmas kettles, anywhere he went he shared the gospel in music. And every Friday morning at 7am he would join me and others as we walked around regent park and prayed for people living in the neighbourhood that was once North America’s first ghetto. This is Salvation and it begins now and continues on forever. I have friends of mine from my time serving at Stoney Mountain Penitentiary in Winnipeg who, even though they were behind bars, led people to a saving relationship with our Lord who then brought that Salvation they found behind bars to the outside world. God can use each and everyone of us to change this world, to grow His Kingdom!

 

We posted a picture recently on social media of a child who donated his birthday money to the Bread of Life Centre – most of our employees at The Salvation Army are what in contemporary vernacular we call ‘piers’ or people with ‘lived experience’ – most of us come from backgrounds of addiction, abuse, homelessness. I can’t tell you the number of people we have working with us right now who have their first ever jobs and they are in their 30s 40s and 20s, parents, people who God is using to do wonderful, amazing things.

 

God will transform Our world – He promises whole new heavens and a whole new earth. The question for us is will we be a part of it? We can. He wants us to be.

 

So, let us ask to the Lord where and how He would like each of us to live out our salvation, to be a part of His Kingdom? Let us ask Him how He can use each of us to point our neighbour to salvation both now and forever? As the Lord is leading you to help out in your church, go talk to your pastor today while it is still on your heart. As the Lord is leading you to help at the soup kitchen, shelter, foodbank, food truck, or other ways, you are welcome to chat with me today. As we all share the Gospel of Christ in word and deed, then the Lord can and will save us all and He will use even us to transform our society into His Kingdom, to make our whole world anew.

 

Let us pray

www.sheepspeak.com

SUMMER RAIN 2024: Saved a lot (James 2:14-17)

Presented to the Alberni Valley Community, 10 August 2024 by Major Michael Ramsay at the Summer Rain Music Festival at Russell Field.

 

Summer Rain. How many years has Summer Rain been going on now? We lost a couple to Covid, right? My first time joining you here was in 2019 when Major Stephen Court, Evangelism Consultant for The Salvation Army – among others – spoke.

 

I think most, if not all, of the messages have been about Salvation. I know mine have. So... how many people here already know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour? How many people know Jesus as our corporate Saviour? How many people would call themselves Christian? How many people would say that they are not or not quite yet or haven’t fully decided yet to be Christians? Anyone?

 

So for those of us who are ‘saved’? Why are we saved? For what purpose? What does it mean to be saved? In the Bible we have salvation mentioned in a number of different ways – salvation in the future for all of the cosmos, salvation held for us in heaven, salvation in the here and now and salvation from daily calamity. I submit that each of us who are saved for eternity have a duty to point everyone to that salvation; to be available for God to use to help save others for eternity but also for the here and now. Because there are real things that people need saving from here and now while we are awaiting the culmination of our ultimate salvation.

 

James 2:14-17: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

 

Since San Group has seen fit to sue the city and as we have just had the international day to highlight human trafficking, I thought that I would like to share with you a little bit about some people that the Lord has used us to save in the here and now that hopefully he will use others to save for eternity. {Note: unbeknownst to me when I was preaching a Vietnamese womAn whom I did not know, who is in relationship with these workers has been sharing her faith with them, was present during this presentation. It was a miracle of God. We spoke after and met later to follow up}

 

Genesis 37:17b-28 and 36:

17b So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt...

...36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

 

We know the story of Joseph being sold into domestic slavery in the Bible. These things and things similar still happen today. Jun 26, 2024, 10:18pm, I had a text from David Wiwchar of the Peak Radio Station: "Are you aware of the Vietnamese men who are about to be made homeless by san group?"

"No. Not at all...but we can help" I replied.

 

I immediately set to work to try to find out what was going on. David’s wife works for Kuu-us Crisis Line, so I texted her boss, and asked him what he knew about all this. He told me that the RCMP and the City were aware of the workers and that it was one of our employees at the Army who brought this all to light: I followed up with the employee and let them know that this really is something that is better left confidential rather than pulling in other agencies. But since the cat was out of the bag I went to work. I then contacted my boss and the Modern Slavery and Anti-Human Trafficking department of The Salvation Army seeking help and passing on the information that I had. At 3:35pm I received this reply:

Hello Michael, my name is XXXXX and I'm the Manager of Propel Anti-Human Trafficking Services. I'm trying to get a hold of you and your case worker XXXXX because I was asked to help support the 16 [alleged] human trafficking survivors that I heard presented to your staff yesterday. … With the information I have received so far I have secured a Vietnamese translator/counsellor who is on standby, a shelter on the island that can house all 16 survivors (at least temporarily), and I have an HT specific budget to help with whatever their needs are including transit to the shelter and clothing. I would love to speak with you further to get more information and support your team in whatever ways needed! My number is xxx-xxx-xxxx, hope to speak soon!

 

And then after he had contacted me earlier in the day, at 8:30pm that same night, our Member of Parliament, Gord Johns, reached out to me. He was on his was to see the workers. He asked me to join him. I hopped in his car. We met a translator who knew the people just over the orange bridge. We followed her out to the San Group property on Hector Road. The conditions the workers from Vietnam were living in were deplorable. There was sewage backed-up. It soaked the carpet. The men slept on mattresses side by side on this sewage-soaked carpet. The smell was terrible. There was no heat in the building. There was apparently no running water. The people bathed and washed their dishes in a ditch with water running out of a pipe outside. Gord, who has been in derelict buildings in town – maybe even more times than I have – said that these living conditions were even worse than the Port Pub that the city had just recently closed down because it was dangerously unsafe.

 

We spoke to the people through a translator. They said they paid between $20 000.00 and $30 000.00 to come here to work for a wage in excess of $30/hr. They said they never received that wage. They said they were subject to unsafe working conditions: working with toxic chemicals without proper protective gear, working long hours, many days in a row. They were afraid for themselves, and they were afraid for the safe transportation of their family. They showed us where they lived. They explained to us how they lived. They asked us to help them flee. I told them we could get them out tomorrow.

 

On Saturday, June 29^th, 15 of the 16 workers were taken out of town to a secure Salvation Army facility in Victoria where they could have their physical, emotional and spiritual care needs met and where they could get the legal and other counsel that they needed. I checked up on them on Sunday. They were happy. They were free. Now they were saved for the here and now. Hopefully they can be saved for eternity as well.  As Christians it is our duty to point people to salvation for both now and the future.

 

James 2:14-17 again: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

 

 

This week we had a funeral for one friend and another friend had a car accident that write off their car. I have thus  been thinking about Salvation and our spirit and the Spirit of God. The word for ‘spirit’ both in Hebrew and in Greek has the same range of meanings. Hebrew, ‘Ruach’; Greek, ‘pneuma’ bith mean ‘wind’ and ‘spirit’; therefore, we can think of God the Holy Spirit as the Holy Wind or the very Breath of God.[5]

 

John 20:21-23: Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven...”

 

I remember when I lived in Toronto and was thinking about this very topic- the Spirit of God and Eternal Salvation- the phone rang. There was a man in the hospital who had a terminal respiratory illness. He was going to die from not being able to breathe the air, the wind. I was told he might not live until tomorrow. I was told he needed a minister and I was told his family wanted a Salvation Army Officer. I was told he might be ready to accept forgiveness for his sins and receive eternal life. I ran downstairs, I told my staff, asked for prayer and someone drove me to the hospital, prayed and I headed upstairs to see the man and his family. And to make a long story short, this man who was dying of a lack of breath, accepted the Breath of God, the Holy Spirit and eternal life; so that even as he dies, yet shall He live. This man accepted eternal life, God’s Holy Spirit, even on his death bed. Praise the Lord!

 

What about us here? Is there any in this place who have never asked Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit to come into our lives? Are there any of us here who are dying of an eternal respiratory disease? Are there any of us here who are going through the struggles of life without taking hold of the comfort God offers? Is there anyone here who hasn’t prayed to receive the Holy Spirit yet? If so, you don’t need to wait until your death bed; you don’t need to wait until your dying breath; you can accept forgiveness for sins and live forever today.

 

Is there anyone here who has not asked God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus into their lives yet? Would you like us to pray for you? If so come up to the front here and we will pray for you.

 

Let us pray

 

And for those of you who have the Spirit of God inside of you already – listen to Him. He wants you to forgive others and help them and point them to salvation for eternity and also for now.

 

James 2:14-17: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

 

Let us pray.

Romans 1:14-17: Tomatoes

Presented to the SUMMER RAIN CRUSADE at BOB DAILY STADIUM in Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island, 20 July 2019, by Captain Michael Ramsay

What do you know about The Salvation Army?

·     Did you know that God used The Salvation Army in 1890 to create one of the first labour exchanges to help unemployed people get back to work?
·         Did you know that in the 19^th Century people were actually dying working in match factories – the chemicals or something would rot their jaws away until they died. The Army actually took over a match factory, paid people a living wage and invented matches, like the wooden ones we still use today, that don’t kill people!
·         And did you know that the Army actually ran one of the world’s first sting operations to break up a human trafficking ring?
·         In Canada, The Salvation Army provided the first probation officer.
·         And who has ever gone to a movie? Who has ever liked a movie with an Australian in it: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Hugh Jackman, the Wiggles…? In Australia, The Salvation Army started their whole movie industry.

All of this is true and some people loved the Army for all of this and people were joining the Army but still when people stood on stage like this some people would take tomatoes like these and actually throw them at the Salvationist who would be standing on the stage speaking like I am today. They would try to shout them down and drown them out. They would rush the stage. And the Skeleton Army that would follow the Salvation Army around would throw the fruit, call out the comments, physically assault them and even kill some – but the Army kept doing and the Army kept preaching. So I ask you: when the Army did all the great stuff why would they attack the Army preachers? And why would the Salvation Army keep preaching when they were risking their lives to do this?

we have been serving God by working to rescue people from since our very beginning: we rescue people from addiction, prostitution, homelessness, and more; and we try to help people to a future where we can instead be saved from all of the bad things for eternity if we just know the way, the truth, of that life. Doesn’t that sound great? No more tears; no more pain; no more suffering? That is our message!

It is fundamental to who we are: we can be saved to Heaven from hell and from hell on earth -but some people didn’t like that and so they would follow the Salvation Army around and they would throw the fruit, call out the comments, physically assault them and even kill some of us.

In my time in the Salvation Army I have seen many people saved from this and I have seen some lives really transformed. I have seen people healed of addiction; I have seen people cured of AIDS; I have seen people cured of cancer; (Now God is not going to heal all of us all the time; at some point He wants to call us home to heaven in Heaven) and I have also seen people succumb to terrible ailments albeit in peace as they are comforted by the Lord in their time of need. Just after I moved here from Toronto one of my close friends there died from AIDS – but he knew the Lord and I believe he is with Him now. I have seen people whose whole lives have been transformed, now experiencing heaven on earth and/or looking forward to heaven in Heaven. I have served God and the Army not only here but also Vancouver’s DTES, Winnipeg’s North End, Stoney Mountain Penitentiary, Inner City Toronto. I know and have known people still trapped in very real hells. It breaks my heart. What breaks my heart even more is that they are missing out on the safety and joy of the Lord in the midst of all life’s struggles. Life can be hard. When brutal things happen, wouldn’t you like help and comfort to get through it from the Creator of the whole universe, if you could get it?

It is our desire to see people saved from all this stuff even if trying to help people causes some to scream at us, throw tomatoes at us, attack us and kill some of us. Really, if you believe with me that there is a way for people to be saved from all of this, wouldn’t you tell them? Wouldn’t you want them to be saved?

In The Salvation Army, as well as pointing people to eternal salvation with Jesus and helping people  through addiction, helping trafficked people, helping homeless people and hungry people, we also do a lot of work helping people in natural disasters: forest fires, house fires, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc.

I was able to be in Texas shortly after a hurricane struck Galveston Island in September 2008: more than 1 million people were evacuated from Texas but probably more than 100 people were found dead as a result of the Hurricane and flood. I was on the first deployment with the relief team and bodies were still being found when I left.

Food and water: this was a big part of The Salvation Army mission. We had 30 food trucks from which we served around 75 000 hot meals every day, and gave people water and ice. Ice was very important. It was around 90 F. And the food: many people told me that without The Salvation Army they wouldn’t have eaten at all. Even though they lived through the flood, they wouldn’t have continued to survive.

When we were serving down there, I heard more than one account of a contemporary miracle paralleling that of the fish and the loaves. Our food trucks were instructed to make sure that they gave away all of the food before they came in for the night. They did not want food returned when people were going without. It was getting late and one truck was seeking someone to give its last container of food to. They prayed. One person then saw a line of about 12-18 tired and hungry looking construction workers so they headed over to offer them their food. They were really appreciative.

As they were feeding these men, a number of school buses filled with people pulled up. It is my understanding that they served over 800 meals at that location – no one went away hungry. Feeling blessed by what the Lord had done they started to clean up. (Now there was a non-believer, a Red Cross worker on their canteen with them that day). Someone picked up the container from which they fed the 800 meals and read from the side of it, ‘serves 90 meals’. The Lord fed more than eight times that number and no one went hungry. The Red Cross worker who was helping them on the truck that day began to cry. He said that he had never believed in God – until now.

God provided for the salvation of not only those He spared from the flood but God also provided for the Salvation of those left behind without food or anyway of making food and God also provided for the salvation of the Red Cross worker.

No one needed to die when the hurricane struck. There was lots of warning and it was easy to get the bus out of town. However, some people chose not to be saved. There is a story of one 19 or 20 year-old who stood on the waterfront, intentionally defying the storm. He was swept away to his death. I met a man who lost his home and his business and praised the Lord for his insurance but he wondered why his brother chose to stay behind and die. How does he deal with the fact that his brother rejected salvation?

This is really the same for us today here. We can all be saved; we can all escape eternal peril. This warning was sounded 2 millennia ago – through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord! He gave his life so that anyone, everyone can be saved.

Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that no one needs to perish. The sad thing is that some refuse to take the bus to heaven. Some ignore the early warning system. Some defy God. Some refuse to be saved. Some friends and family are like that man’s brother. Some friends and family are like that 19 or 20 year old – defying God and awaiting eternal death. It is sad. It is tragic. It is heart-breaking. It is for these friends that we received the tomatoes and it is for these friends that Christ was nailed to the cross.

I want to share some good news though: the story of Scott and the story of Paul. Scott was a food truck worker who had accepted the Lord not too long before coming to Galveston to help out with the flood relief and Paul was a 12 year-old boy.

Scott was working on of one of our food trucks. Paul lived in a small apartment with 10 other people and was familiar with the neighbourhood activities of gangs and drugs. This boy saw our canteen near his home and wanted to help. He approached Scott and volunteered to help. Scott welcomed him with open arms and very quickly made an impression on Paul - he kept coming back. Scott even gave him T-shirt and hat. The look on Paul’s face was worth a million dollars or more.

The evening before Scott was to return home from his deployment, I had the opportunity to give him his debriefing. During this exit interview we began speaking about Paul. Scott told me that he had prayed with Paul on a number of occasions and that Paul was asking about Jesus. I asked if Paul had asked the Lord into his heart. Scott said ‘not yet’ and asked me to help him do that.

The next day, Sunday, Scott, Paul, and a number of other volunteers working on the canteen eagerly awaited our arrival – Paul was ready to ask the Lord into his heart. We arrived and I encouraged Scott to lead Paul in the ‘sinners’ prayer’. After a simple confession of sin and profession of faith, Paul was welcomed into the family of God. We then sang a verse of Amazing Grace and Scott presented Paul with a Bible.

While we were celebrating Paul’s proclamation of salvation, two apparent ‘good-ole boys’ rolled up in a pick-up truck with their radio blaring Hank William’s “I Saw the Light.” They were angels. They were messengers of God who had come to celebrate with us, then they were gone.

In the midst of all the turmoil and all the suffering God was there just like in the midst of all our troubles and all our sufferings, God is here. He offers this very same salvation to us that he offered to Galveston, Texas in 2008.

Today we have the same choice as the people of Galveston Island. We can either defy the impending storm and perish like the nineteen year-old boy or we can heed the warning; we can see the light, accept salvation, and celebrate with the Angles sent from God in Heaven. I know that I will never be able to hear Hank William’s, ‘I Saw the Light’ again without being reminded of God’s glorious Salvation on that day.

For those of us who have already experienced the salvation that Scott, that Paul, and that so many others have experienced, for those of us who know we are going to heaven where there is no more pain or suffering and for those of us that know that we can turn to God in our pain and suffering until then, it is my hope that every time we hear the song ‘I Saw the Light’, that indeed we might turn to Lord thank the Him again for His glorious Salvation.

Those who are Mercy seat counsellors I will have you come forward in a moment.

For those of us here who haven’t experienced salvation yet; for those of us maybe who are still living through hell on earth and who would really like to be free of the pain of suffering and instead feel God’s comfort both now and forever. In the midst of the real storms of our lives, for those of us who would like God to save us and keep us from the very real everlasting storms, for those of us who would like to experience heaven in our hearts now and a home in heaven in our future, I invite you to come forward now.

Let us pray.