Posted on 07/24/2020 5:07:39 PM PDT by Mrs. Warrior
My active duty husband was stationed with an Army Reserve Unit in Northern New York for a tour of duty in the early 2000s. Once we were settled in housing in a small community outside of Fort Drum, we joined a church and I started an abused woman's support group.
In the group was a woman I became friends with. Her husband was a dairy farmer and an alcoholic. He was physically abusive to her when he was inebriated. One night she came to our quarters, her husband had gotten very abusive, she was crying. I took her in my arms and told her to let me comfort her as a sister and friend in Christ. She was at the point where she could not take the abuse anymore. We gave her shelter for sometime while she decided what to do. We helped her move out, she got a job and found a place to live.
Everyone at church told me that her husband was a hopeless cause, that they had tried to get him to wake up and make a change to save the marriage and family long before we moved there.
No one is beyond the love that Jesus has for sinners and I wanted to try and help that family. Soon I went to where they lived. I knew he was in the barn so I opened the barn door and saw that he was in the back. It was a standard dairy barn, cows in stanchions on both sides, facing outwards, with a walk way between and gutters on either side behind the cows.
As I started to make my way down the center cautiously, one cow raised its tail. Having no idea about the distance a semi-liquid projectile of poop could go, I was surprised when when poop went flying and landed on my dress.
Why they say “holy cow”, I will never know! I finally made it to where Mike was standing and I introduced myself. I said “I was full of crap” but I meant to say I was covered in it. He started to laugh.
When I looked into his eyes, I saw the desperation of someone who had lost all hope. The love of Jesus in me reached out,.“you come to church with me”. I told him that his wife was my friend, and that she was such a special person, “it was time for you to live”. “I will not just let what has held you in bondage destroy you anymore” and I took his hand. He told me that I should walk out at the head of the cows, not at the tail.
Shortly thereafter, He did come to church and at an alter call accepted Jesus as his Savior. The change in his eyes when Jesus gave him the grace and ability to get off alcohol and to want to live was great to see.
Everyone at church asked him why he started coming? He said “this woman came into the barn looking scared, but she kept on coming, she was the only one who came to where I was at”.
Jesus said that He came to set the captives free, to set at liberty, to heal the broken hearted and to bring peace.
As Mike became sober, my husband and I worked hard to help the family get back together again. It fills me with great joy to have shared the love of Jesus.
To all who read this, I care about you very much, and I am praying for you.
I hope this account blesses you and encourages you in faith in Christ.
Great post, thank you Mrs Warrior.
The grace of God sets captives free indeed!
What a beautiful and inspiring recollection!
The area up by Fort Drum/Watertown it is a desolate place with very long winters and not a whole lot to do during them. Beautiful for about five months of the year, though!
Mrs. Warrior, if I may, is your husband still with us?
As a former dairy farmer, I could picture all of this clearly. PTL for your friendship with that family.
Praise the Lord for that wonderful testimony of the grace of God. whose saves from the guttermost to the uttermost! I worked at a dairy farm and can picture the stanchions in the old barns.
Indeed, Mrs.W still has her Warrior, rather hale and mostly whole....
Excellent! Her stories were vivid and always describing a long time ago.
May both of you maintain your health and glorify God with all your remaining days.
Thanks. We married rather young, 18 and 21, so we are under 60. 38th anniversary in a few days. God has blessed us beyond understanding.
Regards
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