Margie

Sometime near the end of July and the beginning of August after being on the street passing out tracts with a church in the Virginia Beach area, I became burdened about being able to once again lead a soul to the Lord. Somewhere in the years before I have had experience in talking to people who the Lord put in my life and the privilege of leading the person to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But, I had gotten "rusty" in actually talking to an individual mainly due to personally having a "Chick Tract Ministry" in which I put these little comic gospel tracts in bathrooms, on car windshields, personally handing them out and putting them inside of magazines, etc. while in bookstores, etc. Well, because not much is said while doing this, I sort of lost touch with actually talking to a person about salvation.  So, I began praying that the Lord would lead me back to this by opening a door for me to be able to go see someone who "really" needed to be saved. And what I mean by this is someone who actually was asking for someone to talk to them...

As time passed by, I sort of put the thought of this prayer on the back burner and forgot about it. But, one day while being at my grandaughter's birthday party, my daughter Beth began telling me about a 65 year old woman who was dying from pancreatic cancer. She knew about this because a friend of hers named Sandy had told her about this woman. The daughter named Pam had put her mother on the prayer list at church. Her name is Margie! This same day my daughter Beth said Sandy was trying to find someone to go visit Margie and wondered  if I would go  and talk to her about her soul. Of course, I thought about it and said "Yes"!  I decided to wait and get more information on what kind of person Margie was in order to know how to deal with this situatiion and because I knew Sandy was coming to the birthday party I waited to talk to her. She told me that Margie had lived a lifestyle in which she had spent a lot of time in alcohol and drugs and had been pretty rough as a woman.

After praying about when to go see Margie, I decided to go the next day, Sunday afternoon...mainly because I didn't want to waste time before going. And that's when it all began! During this time, I remembered my prayer about talking to someone about the Lord and this really helped me focus on how to go about talking to Margie. I remember that day that I tried my best to get as much information (scriptures) as I could in explaining salvation to an individual. After a lot of frustration, I just prayed and asked the Lord to help me say and do the right thing. I left that afternoon on a trip to the nearby city, South Boston which is where Margie lived. I knew the whereabouts because it is where my deceased mother-in-law lived before moving down in our area. But, after arriving in the Mobile Home Park, it seemed that no one knew where Margie lived. I finally picked a mobile home to just "ask again" if they knew where Margie lived. Well, after knocking on the door, an older woman on the telephone came to the door and told me that she was Margie...I told her that the Lord had sent me by to talk to her about Him!!! To which she responded..."Please come in, I've been waiting for you!" This surprised me--first of all because I thought Margie would be sick enough to be in bed and that she responded the way she did really helped me to do what I feel the Lord had me do that day.

After going back to my car to get my Bible, I went inside and tried to introduce myself to Margie. I had not known her in the past and couldn't recall that I knew anyone that was a relative of hers. We talked about her illness...at this time she told me that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and only had 4 weeks to live...and that she was afraid of dying. So, I talked to her about why she was afraid. Was it because of what she would have to go through to die (like I am afraid of) or because of where she would spend eternity. She said she was not sure of her eternal destiny. I kept asking the Lord to show me how to go about talking to Margie about salvation.

 I began by focusing on "where sin came from...Adam and Eve and then how they fell into sin and got put out of the Garden of Eden". We talked a little about how she felt about that and if she understood why that was. Then, I briefly talked about how God knowing that man had fallen made a way for man to be redeemed. I talked a while about Jesus Christ coming as a babe, growing up and at 33 years of age was crucified for our sins. I focused on this a while because I wanted Margie to fully understand what our sin costs Jesus Christ. He not only died but was brutally beaten beyond recognition. The blood was literally running off  of Him. All our sins were placed on his body. I read some of the scriptures that talked about this. She briefly mentioned the movie  which I recalled "the Passion of Christ" in which said she did not see because she did not want to see how bad it was. So, I focused on this a bit...Jesus Christ knew he would be brutally beaten, publicly embarrassed, spit upon, buffeted, smote with rods and beaten with whips containing glass. He knew all this before he went from the garden before His crucifixion. He also knew He had the power to stop this from happening, which was what the prayer in the garden was about before going before Pontius Pilate. "All This I Did For Thee".

So, it seemed that because of Margie's being in church off and on in her life and having a daughter (Pam) and a sister (Nita) already knew about a lot of  what I was telling her. But, I don't think she had actually really thought about the death of Jesus Christ and how horrible it really was and that it was done for "Margie" as well as for me. I said, "Margie, if you were to die right now, where do you think you would spend eternity?" She said, I really don't know...I am afraid to die! She also said that she had been so bad that she didn't think God would forgive her!  I said Margie, no matter what you've done in your life, God will forgive you if you will repent and turn to Him. This is what God sent Jesus Christ to this earth for.  I said, "Margie, you need to settle your eternal destiny today and make sure that when you leave this life you will go to be with God and not to Hell!" She agreed.  I said, "Margie, you need to pray and ask God to forgive you and save you...You can either say your own prayer or I will help you pray, but I will not say this for you"...She said she wanted me to pray with her. So, I told her she had to mean what we were praying, if she didn't mean it there was  no need in doing it. She said she did and I told her to repeat what I said and mean it with her whole heart!

The following prayer went something like this:

Lord, I know I'm not ready to die.
I know I am a sinner before you.
I have greatly sinned. Please forgive me of my sins.
I know you took all my sins on your body and bore that cross for me.
Forgive me for rejecting you all these years.
I want to receive you as my Savior.
I pray that you will wash me and make me clean.
Thank you for salvation!

Then we talked about assurance and prayed about it.
I said, "Margie, if you meant what you just said to the Lord, you are saved. There is nothing else you can do to be saved!!!!!

At that time her sister Nita knocked on the door and came in...I told her about myself and why I was there. She was so glad to hear that Margie had settled her eternal destiny that day. 
I prayed for the family and then left.

I thanked God all the way home for what had happened and still couldn't quite believe that this had happened to me.

The next time I saw Margie I found that she was in the hospital. So, I went to see her and after she realized who I was, I talked to her a little about her future destiny and then prayed with her. She surprised me by wanting to say a prayer for me. Margie again surprised me with what clarity she prayed this prayer for me. It went something like this...
God, I thank you for sending Alice into my life. Thank you for letting me get saved. I pray that you will give Alice the desires of her heart. Help us to become good friends. AMEN!

It so totally surprised me that I found myself almost crying over it. After a little visit I left.

The next time I went to see Margie was at her home and I stayed there for a little visit. Then, about a week later, I heard from her daughter Pam that she was in the hospital and she wondered if I would go and visit her. The day I decided to go it was raining terribly. I had to drive our old pickup truck because my car had a flat tire. I drove to South Boston and on my way an old man and woman slowly pulled out broadside from the road at the left of me...I realized that they were not going to get out of my driving path, so I braced myself for a collision. But, something took control of the steering wheel and gently guided me just about 5 inches to the left of the oncoming vehicle and I missed being either killed that day or terribly hurt. I know it was the Lord! I figured out later why this probably happened.

After I got to the hospital to see Margie, she was in and out with sleep. I prayed with her and sung a few songs. When I decided to leave I had already left a note to the family saying that I would be glad to give a testimony of Margie's salvation and sing at the Memorial they would have after her death. I prayed that if this was the Lord's will it would be done.

Later, I received a phone call from Pam saying how appreciative she was that I was willing to testify and sing at the Memorial. As I look back on things now, I realize this was very important for the family to hear due to the many prayers that had been said for salvation on their behalf, which is why I believe I almost got killed that day.  I found out later that Margie had been put in Woodview Nursing Home, they expected her to die soon, but then found that she temporarily got better. During this time, I decided to go to Mountain Road Baptist Church where we would be doing the Memorial in order to get a "feel" of how the church was before I was to speak and sing. It just happened to be Homecoming Day, which is a good time to go visit a church since there are usually other visitors on that day. As I sat down next to a blonde haired middle aged woman, she asked me if I usually came there. I responded with, No. I asked her the same and in conversation I asked her what her name was and she said "Pam Walker". To my surprise I had actually sat next to Margie's daughter whom I had never met but had only talk to on the phone. This, I knew was truly the Lord's doing!

Margie finally succumbed to death on October 14, 2011. Our friend Sandy called me to let me know and that Pam would be getting in touch with me. The rest of this story about what happened after this with the Memorial Service is in the following posting on this blog entitled, "Margie's Memorial".
Please ready more about this.