Story: “Gobstopped” at Bay
BCC Malbis attender Danielle Simmons sent in this awesome story that we just had to share:
My dad recently went into the hospital and we learned that he had stage 4 lung cancer & pnemonia. They told us he would not be coming home and that he didn't have long to go. Of course all of the family came to town as well as my dad's best friend, Bill, from Scotland. Bill was always part of our family growing up - he's made several trips to the U.S. and we've also traveled to visit him in Scotland. He arranged to be on the first flight out when he found out about my dad - and my dad perked up when he found out Bill was on his way. He was able to visit with dad for a few hours before his passing but I think that Bill was the reason he hung on.
Bill stayed in town for a week to visit with all of the family before he headed back to UK. He spent that night with my mom & brother. My brother is a Baptist preacher from GA so they stayed up all night talking about God -vs- science. That opened the door for us to invite him to church. He laughed and took it as a joke but agreed to come with us. He's an agnostic and hasn't been to church since he was a child (he's 65 now). He even took his camera joking to get a picture with Pastor so everyone back home would believe that he went. We live in Fairhope so we pass by several churches on the way to BCC. He could not believe the Sunday traffic and all of the filled parking lots we passed. We arrived at BCC and he said he'd never seen such a huge parking lot for a church he also noticed all of the young people entering the church and said that was quite a testament to the church and it would never happen in the UK.
Upon entering he looked around and thought that BCC had such a "beautiful way of presenting religion." I offered to buy him a smoothie and he almost fell out! When praise & worship started he said he felt like he was at a U2 concert - he was expecting the musicians to come out and tune their instruments but they got right into it!! He was so delighted at the passion of the praise team - and said their faith was unquestionable. That was the first of the Q&A series and it was perfect! For the entire trip home Bill kept saying how "gobstopped" he was and that "this was an event not to missed when visiting the area." We talked that day and night about our walk with God and he asked his skeptical questions. He took the BCC web address home and showed interest in watching more of the upcoming series (even sent in a Question) and is planning to come back in March.
I'll miss my dad dearly but sometimes God may have to move people around in order to reach the ones no one else can.
Perhaps you have a story like Danielle’s? Or maybe you have known others whose lives have been transformed by the love of Christ. Send us your stories in text or video to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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