I’ve heard that question a lot this week. And my answer is the same: Bill. Smith? Jones? From Moultrie?? Nope, my answer is still the same..just Bill. Now the group of people I have been sharing with are a fine group, with very good hearts, just curious. About Bill. And his story. And why I generally had either tears or a huge smile on my face when I was talking about him!

Why? Because here is his story. Bill is almost 65 years old. He is cut from very different cloth, and always gone his own way regardless of what other people thought. While I don’t know a whole lot about him, I do know some. He’s not “from around here”. In fact, most of his life has been lived in another nearby state. I’m not sure what he ever did for a living, but I do know a life of drugs and addiction framed everything. He’s had a very, very hard life; losing one child along the way to death, having one still in prison, and having a third who has been estranged from him on and off.

However, he came to us (our church) through our Celebrate Recovery program..a nationwide program we are a part of, that helps heal all who are willing from their hurts, habits, and hangups. When he first came, he was homeless, living in woods near our church. After awhile we became aware of this and through another chain of events we were able to purchase a very tiny camper that he reluctantly agreed to live in, but it was still very primitive living. As he became more active in attending both CR and church, Bill became more comfortable with us and started sharing more. And became more “himself” with us…which meant a lot. Bill has a very short attention span, and he thinks nothing strange about getting up out of a service, wandering around the church some, and coming back in, only to repeat once of twice more during the same service! He isn’t rude, just himself..and we have adopted measures to ensure his safety during those times. He doesn’t dress well, and he of course doesn’t have the best hygiene. However, he also has become very involved in helping with CR, loving the small responsibilites he has been given. And during this time, Bill found Jesus..and accepted him as his Lord and Savior!

A few months ago, Bill began to look and feel unwell. He became jaundiced, and because of his limited understanding ad skepticism of doctors, it was quite an ordeal to get him to one. He held out as long as he could, but eventually he was so sick that one of the doctors in our church made arrangements to get him seen. When the diagnosis finally came, it was not good..cancer in several places and a very poor prognosis. And it was at that time that Bill began to express his heart’s desire to be baptized. Except. His health continued to decline, and there were several weeks he was almost too sick/weak to even be in his wheelchair at church. So we began to pray, and enlist others to pray, to ask God to please strengthen him so that he could be.

So guess who’s in the photo above? You are right!! It was our overwhelming privilege to see him baptized this past Sunday! Not a dry eye in the house! Bill came up out of that water with the weight of all his life off his shoulders, because he was able to publicly testify to everyone there that JESUS has him now, and that He is living for Him! And one of the coolest things?? He has also been a testimony to hundreds of others! Because our services are online, everyone who sees his baptism will hear his story. Everyone of us who got back with our prayer partners knows his story. Everyone that has posted his baptismal pictures on FB, Instagram, etc has allowed his story to continue to testify..and we believe great things are still yet to come.

Bill probably has very little time left here, and he came to Jesus very late in life. And yet! God has the final say, and God can and does redeem anyone, anywhere, and then use them mightily for His purposes! So when people ask me “who is that again?” the correct answer is this: that’s Bill..my brother in Christ, born again by the blood of the Lamb, a living testimony to God’s amazing grace, on his way to see Jesus..and that’s the BEST answer ever!!