A lot of people cry around you.

Those were the exact words spoken to me by a new friend during one of our recent church visits to share the story and the vision of God calling us to Ocean Springs. It caught me off guard, but to be fair, she wasn’t wrong. As I told the story of a guy in my gym, and a waiter I met in Ocean Springs, and a lady I met in Biloxi…all of whom I had the privilege of listening to and ministering to, and all of whom ended up in tears as they collapsed under the weight of the burdens they were carrying. I had not really put it together until this lady’s comment, but she saw the common thread: All of these people needed a shoulder, a heart, a listening ear…and all of them ended up bawling out their tears.

What Was Your Most Embarrassing Moment?

That moment you know you will never forget, while you wish you could erase it entirely? For me, although there is a long list of nominees to answer that question, my mind immediately goes to one event from my freshman year of high school. Although I was a skinny, gangly kid, I had somehow made my school’s JV basketball team — and we were undefeated. It was toward the end of the season, and the head coach wanted to pull up a few guys to see how they would handle the pressure of playing for the varsity team. So, a few of my teammates and I got the call up. For our next home game. Which was against our biggest rival. With a packed gym and every one of my classmates and peers there watching and cheering.

My friends, when I consider the character of the God that has saved us and called us His own, one thing that stands out to me is that He is a God for whom nothing is ever wasted. He is a God of redemption, and restoration, and new hope. And, in His love and His sovereignty, He is a God for whom even nothing in our past is without purpose or use in His plan. These days, as I prepare for this upcoming new season in Ocean Springs, I look back on twenty+ years of pastoral ministry — and I see how God was working toward this call all along. From the blue-haired, tattooed kids I was drawn to in youth ministry, to broken families I got to interact with while working crimes against children with the sheriff’s office in Tennessee, to people I have had the privilege to walk alongside in their brokenness and, as their pastor, see them restored to hope in the gospel.

My friends, when you pray, be prepared for God to answer… Often in new and unexpected ways!

In Matthew 9, Jesus, full of compassion for the lost crowds around Him, looks at His disciples and says, “The harvest is plentiful…pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into His harvest.” That tells us several things — First, the field, and those in it, belong to the Lord. It is His harvest. And He is going to bring the lost to Himself! And second, it tells us that, when you pray, and as you look for results, one obvious, huge implication is to expect the reply to come from yourself, “Here am I, Lord, send me!”

For several months now, Stephanie and I have asked you to join with us in praying for a growing heart and a growing harvest to come from a growing ministry out to and among the lost. Well, the Lord is answering your prayers — And we have something exciting to share!