Posted on 12/15/2010 5:01:10 PM PST by wmfights
GRACEVILLE, Fla. (BP)--He was alone, stretched out on the bench in the gazebo at The Baptist College of Florida. Most students rushed by to make their 8 a.m. classes. Visibly out of place, the stranger had long, disheveled hair, layered camouflaged clothes and a backpack near his side.
Experiencing the first cold snap of the season at BCF's Graceville campus in early December, one student offered the seemingly homeless bum warmth by pointing him to the student center. Another offered the man hot coffee and food, and struck up a conversation. A professor and two students gave him a Gospel tract explaining the plan of salvation.
Some students and staff members glanced at the apparent intruder and turned away. One staff member, concerned about the safety and well-being of the students on campus, asked him to move along.
The man was invited to attend the 10 a.m. chapel service by two students. He accepted the offer and sat on the back row with one of them.
The chapel service began just like any other with musical praise and worship.
Then BCF President Thomas A. Kinchen came to the microphone to pray and introduce the morning's chapel speaker.
To the congregation's bewilderment, the chapel speaker was either late or not coming. Kinchen was in mid-sentence talking about the guest speaker's topic, foreign missions, when the campus stranger on the back row spoke up and asked, "What about home missions?"
After a brief exchange, Kinchen invited the stranger to come to the podium and allowed him an opportunity to speak. The "bum" obviously had something to say to the students who passed him by yet were enrolled in college to prepare for ministry and service.
The chapel audience seemed to hold their breath as the stranger who had been sleeping in the gazebo now was quoting Scripture and sharing his heart for a lost world.
The speaker's bold depiction of "when you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me" changed attitudes and hearts in the auditorium.
The kindhearted stranger thanked Kinchen, then removed his glasses.
"I'm not really a bum, y'all came up with that yourselves, based on my appearance," the man said. "I'm actually a businessman and the pretty lady on my left is my wife, the guy sitting next to her is our chief pilot and will be taking us to Fort Worth and the campus of Southwestern Baptist Seminary as soon as chapel is over."
Kinchen then introducing the chapel speaker as Richard Headrick, designer and manufacturer of some of the most beautiful signs and crosses displayed all over the world. Kinchen said Headrick has dedicated his life to making a difference for Christ and opening the eyes of people to see the plight of lost and rejected individuals in society.
Headrick said in the 14 years he and his wife have engaged in "bum ministry" at churches and college and seminary campuses, to his disappointment the Gospel message has only been shared with him 20 times.
He was pleased to report the Gospel was shared with him three times that morning on the BCF campus.
"Most of the time my wife and I do the 'bum ministry' together, but on college campuses it seems best to do it by myself," Headrick said. "The thing that hurts me most when I'm bumming it alone is that I'm in the midst of hundreds of people, yet it's as if I'm invisible to them.
"Loneliness and rejection is a terrible feeling," Headrick said. "but it makes it much easier to understand why Jesus [before His resurrection] died of a broken heart."
I know the feeling. That has been one of my biggest challenges. There are some people in our area who prey on rural churches. They show up right at worship time with a car-load of kids and a sob story that goes something like this: "My mother in Michigan is real sick and we're trying to get there, but we have run out of money and our gas is almost gone. Can you give us enough money to buy gas to get us to Michigan?"
Now the first time it happened, I bit. We took up a collection to help the poor woman on her way. Then I was moved to another church. Same story different people, showed up at worship needing money to get to someplace. Now my radar has gone off. I tell the woman that she will have to sit through worship services and then we would see. I asked her to bring the children in too, but she refused. I felt sorry for the poor kids, but I made her sit through the service anyway. Then I told the congregation if they felt moved to offer her some assistance, it was up to them. Some did, some didn't. Same thing happened at the third church. Made her sit through service too. I leave it up to the individuals whether they anti up or not. I won't do it now. Fool me once shame on you, fool me three times shame on me.
Also had a man walk in on our Wed. evening Bible study. All women. Since the church sits on a major highway, I was more than a little worried. The man wanted money for gas (of course). I tried to tell him that we had a community fund supported by all the churches, that covers that kind of emergencies, and told him who to contact. He didn't want to do that. I sent one of the ladies to the office to call and see if someone from the fund could bring him a voucher. I had signaled her to call the sheriff while he was distracted. She came back and said nobody was answering the phone. Finally one of the ladies gave him $20 and he left. It's a shame that people take advantage of our Christian charity to scam people who really can't afford to be scammed. Yes, I've grown cynical too. Sad, but human.
This is an excellent small college in a small town in the Northwest Florida panhandle. It was once called BBI (Baptist Bible Institute) and has turned out many wonderful pastors and musicians. I have been blessed to have several of them serving in the church I grew up in and the churches I have been a member of in my adult life.
It’s just a trick to keep up the 99% homeless myth.
So he pretends to be a bum but he isn’t?
and just how many bums or truly homeless are not bums or truly homeless but actually just posing to teach society some “lesson”?
ridiculous....we are the most charitable folks in the history of mankind...we don’t need the lecture
i don’t need anymore guilt or understanding
most street people I’ve seen are either crazy or addicted to being high...and many don’t want to be in a shelter or off the streets
a few are truly just hard times but there is a whole lot out there to help with that...and i know that because i do help precisely those folks
and I even give to bums...get high or eat a burger...it’s their call
the Gospel sharing by the students...that part of the trick I do like btw
I did too. I'm not much for "setups", but the lesson was good and the response of those that were being setup was even better.
Did anyone there even have the most basic common sense to tell the audience that ministering to bums should only be attempted by full grown men in groups with the ability to defend themselves if need be?
Who's going to take responsibility for some 100 pound girl who was moved by this to go preaching under the overpass and she gets raped and killed?
You can be Christian without being suicidally liberal oblivious to the realities of the world.
It certainly can be.
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