Over 1000 Delegates from over 150 counties of the world came to Orlando, FL. Among all the international delgates were 54 people from this far away Island country off the coast of northeast Australia. It does not seem possible that a simple reply to an email could lead to new friends for life, but is what has happened. How did this journey start and why are 28 of these 54 people coming to DeLand, FL?
Details to follow soon!
Plan to Join us Live at www.DelandNaz.TV Sunday June 5th to experience a International Worship service. 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Recently I drove to Jacksonville, Florida for a meeting with my District Superintendent. We had a very fruitful and positive meeting. Over lunch he shared with me a few stories of lives transformed radically in his earlier ministry. As I left his office that day I found myself feeling impressed to pick up a hitch hiker on 1-95 south bound.
I really do not do this very often and when I do I’m with another adult male or alone, but never with my wife or kids in the car. As I believe most hitch hikers are hard pressed with difficult life circumstances it seems best to not pick up people and get involved.
Wayne ran and caught up to me on the road and hoped in. I had this sense of enjoying helping a fellow human being. Wayne was headed to Orlando. Orlando was another 60 minute drive beyond my home and 2 plus hours from where I picked him up.
In the course of the afternoon Wayne and I got to really know each other. Wayne had no home, no job, no money and no possessions other than the clothes he was wearing. Wayne had been an electrician in years past and worked manual labors jobs as he could. Wayne is 52 years old and has a life long addiction problem with alcohol as well as a long story of other challenges he has had. Wayne and I shared life and talked about dreams. He knew the bible and had a church to attend in Orlando at times. He went all the way to Jacksonville for work only to not find any and had only back in Orlando to go too after.
Wayne was burned from walking many long hours in the sun and told me he had a daughter in her 30’s with grand kids he never meet. He ran a couple errands with me and even bought me a Starbucks ice coffee with a card he had from another ministry earlier in the week.
The more time we spend together the more I wanted to help him. But I also realized that Wayne had gotten himself into this hard place over many years and there was no quick fix either. He needed hope, love and a new system to take him out of the street system he had learned to survive in.
We prayed together and shared and laughed along the road. As I gave him a new shirt, hot meal and cold water I saw Wayne open up and become connected with me in a wonderful manner over the afternoon. We even went into a Christian bookstore along the way and he started looking books while he waited on me.
As I walked with him and talked and went into a few stores running errands on my way with Wayne I wondered how many people looked at us together and wondered what a strange combo of men that is hanging out.
I really wanted to help Wayne find a place to start over and get a hot shower and a job, but all that was beyond me that day. Wayne said he would be fine and was so grateful for just the ride to the Daytona area. But I called home and told me wife I would be late because I was going the extra mile with Wayne. I decided I just did not want Wayne on the roads all night and felt the Lord would have me take him home.
As Wayne and I got into the area of Orlando that we was trying to get too he showed me his neighborhood. Showed me the gas station he hung out at and the bench where they hung too. Finally I asked Wayne where exactly he was going with no home or family. He told me he was going to the camp. I said Wayne could I see the camp? I finally pulled behind a shopping strip and power lines and we got out.
Wayne yelled out Lenny’s name and I said why you yelling? He said so they would know we were coming into the camp. I had all kinds of fear surface for a few moments. I wondered if they would mug me or what? But they were all fears and as soon as a few of the men in the camp saw Wayne it was like a reunion. Wayne bragged on me as the pastor who drove him all the way from Jacksonville back home to the camp. As I meet these 4 other men I had to just wonder what God was doing with this today. I sensed I needed to share my story with them and proceeded to preach the gospel to 5 homeless men from their 20’s, 30’s 40, and probably 60’s. One guy was hardened and the others were open. The 46 year Robert said he accepted Christ and knew no way out.
Wayne let me take some picture of him and his home less friends and then walked me back to my van. I prayed one last time with Wayne and encouraged Him to get out of this system into and God’s system so he would show the others how God can help them out of such hopeless situations. I truly believe that God has a plan for Wayne and part of that Plan was using me for an afternoon and God also had a plan for me and Wayne and his world was part of it.
I realize now more than ever that Wayne’s world would have been mine to some degree had Jesus not rescued me at age 19. What an amazing God we serve! I hope Wayne will call me with a testimony in the days ahead. He has an invitation to speak in my church to give his testimony when he gets totally free from his sinful addiction. I pray Wayne will pull through someday soon. I hope he will call me with the Joy of the lord I know God has for him. The Apostle Paul may have walked in the Spirit and had adventures, but for me I get to drive in the Spirit and what adventures we can have as well if we listen to the promptings of the Spirit from day to day.
This past week we found out about the T.E.A. parties happening all over the USA. We ended up as a family and friends going to downtown Deland, FL to join the protest. WHY? Because I am not in favor of the way our President and congress are handling the financial situation in America. One of the speakers today said in America we as Americans are concerned about this taxation overload becuase of the money, whereas she coming from Cuba being an immigrant are concerned about where this will lead as regards to Freedom. I am not sure of the solutions for our country, but sitting around and complaining is not the answer and wrting and calling leaders is one of many and I believe just getting out among other people who believe the same way is powerful and confirming as well. God help America to stay free as there is no other place left to go after America.
I moved to DeLand, FL in January. I was excited to serve God in my new assignment. We have a nice home, nice church and nice community among nice neighbors. My first day in the home before my family arrived I noticed two people cutting through my yard. Jerry and Bob are there names. They came right up to my back door and said are you new to the neighborhood? I told them I was and Jerry ( who I decided was a women and not a man after a few minutes) said, you have a nice dog. I said thanks. I noticed they were carrying a heavy bag of beer.Within the next few days Jerry made a habit of cutting right through my back yard and coming back about 30 minutes later with a bag of beer. Well, within a few short days I realized Jerry and Bob had a addition and my yard helped them get to the source faster than the road. When my wife and kids got to Deland I wondered how this was going to work and had decided that Bob, Jerry and I needed to talk soon about my yard as a short cut. One morning my oldest daughter Chelsea said, “Dad who is THAT PERSON WALKING THROUGH OUR YARD? ” I said, oh that’s just Jerry, she going to the store. Well, I knew I had to get this short cut deal nipped and especially so now with a 6 and 10 year old that like to play outside in the backyard. When I confronted Jerry about finding another way to the store besides ‘MY Back Yard’ she seemed a little put out and told me all her reasons why she needed the shortcut. Well, being the man of compassion I am, I told her, Sorry, but that’s your problem and this is my yard. Jerry was kind enough to comply and probably now gets a little more exercise as I see her walking the streets now often. So now my problems are over until about 3 weeks later when….Three weeks later about 9:30 p.m. on a weeknight I decided I was going to bed early one night. When all of a sudden I hear the front door bell ring! Thinking it is someone I know I head to the door and open it to find a woman between age of 26-30 acting scared and asking me for money for gas. She said she needed it for her car that ran out in front of my house on her way to Denny’s to work. She also told me she was a single mom with two kids and needed gas to get to work. I thought as fast as I could on my feet. My first thought was ‘no money’ and my second thought was ‘is this real or scam?’ Then when she asked for $10.00 I thought, let me just pump her gas for you down the street. So I said, “miss go to the gas station around the corner and I will meet you there in a couple minutes”. She said, I think I got enough gas to get there”. Out of gas and enough gas to get there! I thought this should be interesting. After going to 3 gas stations and looking for this frantic mom I decided she was scamming people who just wanted her off their doorstep and $10.00 was an easy solution to getting someone late off the porch, well at least for some, but not me.I told Becky about who was at the door and she thought people must know this is a pastor’s home or something, but I think there are just strange things happening in this great town of normal people. So now we are here over two months when we have my oldest daughter’s boyfriend from out of state come visit for a weekend and friends from our old home visiting the same weekend. After our Sunday evening service about 9:30 p.m. the 5 teenagers decide to go for a walk. I told them to go just a few blocks down and you should be fine. I told the young man with the 4 girls to take the family dog for a walk with them as well. I figured all is well and harmless, especially with a dog. Harmless until I get a frantic call from my 14 year old telling me that are being beat up and chased just down the street. My first reaction was “are you kidding” and then I knew it was serious. I jumped in my car only to leave the other mom’s wondering if they were dead or something as I did not stop long enough to tell them anything my daughter was telling me.The short version of this story is that two older teen girls and two men in a black car pulled up and taunted them to fight them while walking the dog. They resisted and ran and two of them got attacked and my poor dog even got kicked over. They did get away and no blood was shed, but it was a strange thing. We filled a report with the police and the officer assured me it was one of the safest neighborhoods in DeLand. We laughed as we retold and reheard the details and all ended up ok.A few days later I told this story to some pastors at a local clergy meeting, only to be re assured that DeLand is a great city and that the event the teens experienced was highly unusual. They said the same thing the police said. So I spent several days telling my girls it was ok to walk the streets and it was just a weird thing. I even told a two hour walk with my dog all over the streets and neighborhoods last night to have a fully enjoyable walk and decided this great town. Until…..That’s right, until yet another strange thing happened tonight. I was sitting in the living room on my pc when I heard the doorbell ring at 11:15 PM. My first thought was, I wonder who this could be this late at night. Then my next thought was I am not just opening the door this time. So I turned on the porch light and this young black woman about 22 dressed nice who did not seem drugged or desperate stands there looking at me through the glass hole in my door. I said through the door, “what do you want”? She said, do you have a wife? Well, I wonder what she has in mind if I answer yes or no. I decide to go for the, ‘what do you want question again’ and stay in the drivers seat on this deal. Eventually she said I need to talk to women as it is a women problem I have. In notice she is dressed nice with either a cell phone or walkman in her hand and still wanting to talk to a woman. I finally said, why did you come HERE? Basically why me, why this house? I finally told her to go to the police department, only to have her say she did not know where it was. I said I don’t know either and go away please. So she turns away and heads down the street.My girls come up and say, “dad who was that?” and of course I told them the details and one of my girls said we never had people even come to the door where we use to live on Halloween and here people are just strange apparently all year. Or at least we have gotten our share in two months.I like DeLand and I do think it is a nice safe area, but on my street there seems to be some strange happenings and I wish I could figure out if I have just been sheltered for far two long a time or if what I am calling Strange Things in DeLand are just normal to most people in most small towns and I am a getting to play catch up in my first few months in town.
Over 1000 Delegates from over 150 counties of the world came to Orlando, FL. Among all the international delgates were 54 people from this far away Island country off the coast of northeast Australia. It does not seem possible that a simple reply to an email could lead to new friends for life, but is what has happened. How did this journey start and why are 28 of these 54 people coming to DeLand, FL? 
