911 - Dream Center Lifeline

Posted by Elizabeth Demarest

A week ago I met Joyce for the first time. She was not hesitant to share with me that she had been struggling with drugs and had all of her kids taken away from her because of the addiction. She has 10 children and another one on the way. She told me she wanted to change her life around but was not sure how to do it. I prayed with her that day and she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. I told her I hoped to see her in church soon.

Halfway through this past Saturday night's service Joyce came in, walked to the front row where I was sitting and sat down next to me. She seemed very upset. I noticed she was holding my card in her hand. It was the same card that I handed her a week ago when I met her. She leaned over to me, crying, and said, "Mrs. Elizabeth, I have been trying to call you all day. Why haven't you answered your phone?" I held her tightly in my arms and explained to her that I was very busy all day getting ready for service, but that everything would be OK now that she was in church. She could not stop crying. In between sobs, she said the words I so long to hear from a hurting and lost soul: "Mrs. Elizabeth I want to get saved and baptized." At that moment I wanted stop the service to tend to her request. Inside I wanted to scream and shout and praise God with all my might - there was such an urgency in her voice that she was desperate for God immediately. I gently whispered in her ear that today was the day of her salvation and that Jesus Christ was coming to abide in her heart forever because she believed and wanted Him.

At the end of service she was baptized and as she came out of the water God touched her and filled her with her presence. All Joyce could do was jump, shout the name of Jesus, and lift her hands in the air with the uncontrollable joy of a child at a birthday party. She was smiling from ear to ear.

The next day my husband and I had lunch with Joyce at her home. We were honored to be her guest and she laid out the red carpet treatment for us (check out the plates of food photos). In our conversation we discovered that she had also lived in "The Shed" (look at the other blog story) at some point. She remembered one day when I had visited her and had given some candy to 2 of her kids. I invited them to come to the Dream Center for a visit.

People are relying on us to get them to God. I never thought that giving some candy and a business card would lead to this amazing story. She truly believed that the call she placed to my cell phone was her 911 lifeline to saving her life and her soul. We are not only called to be God's 911 Lifeline for Donaldsonville but to each soul that is hurting and does not yet have a relationship with God.