The Ballestero Blog

The Working Pastor

(The story is true, the names have been changed.)

He hated working an “outside” job but the bills had to be paid. The small congregation’s offerings just didn’t go far enough. Working at a steel mill was not his calling in life. He hated most days there. He was grateful for the wonderful and consistent source of income. There just wasn’t a whole lot of day left over when he got off work. After work there wasn’t much time for church, family or personal life. He had to work to pay the bills. Carrying the financial load of the church, and his own, was not easy.

What bothered him the most was that he wasn’t winning anyone from work to the Lord. In prayer he’d told God that if he had to work and couldn’t teach Bible Studies like he’d like too, then help him to be a witness at work. He had been working there for several years now. Something needed to change. The church was not growing. It was, in fact, quite small. Things were at a stalemate!

Now, every day before work, he would stop by the church and pray. He would pray that God would help him win some of the men from work. When he got off work he again stopped by the church and prayed for a long time about the fact that if he HAD to work, that God would let his job be a place where his light could shine.

He fasted. He would fast for as many days as he could. When his strength ran out he would eat a meal or two and then go back on a fast. He was desperate to see something happen. He did this for almost two months.

At 1am one night the phone rang. “Is this Pastor Don Kelly?” a hesitant voice asked. When he received the affirmative reply he identified himself a fellow employee from work.

“We have an emergency in our family and need some help right now. My married son Roger was shopping at Wal-Mart a few minutes ago. While he was alone in the aisle, he says that he heard a voice as plain as day telling him “You need to get right with God.”

“ He said he look up and down the aisle and didn’t see anyone.  He looked around the corners even checked the adjacent aisles but he saw no one. He quickly moved to another part of the store and again heard the same voice telling him he needed to get right with God. My son left his cart and ran out of the store. He called me saying, ‘Dad, I’m hearing voices. I think I am losing my mind.’

“I said son, meet me at the Hospital. They have a great Psych Ward there, and the Doctors can check you out and give you some medication. My son said, ‘Dad, maybe I don’t need medication, maybe I just need a preacher. I don’t even know any preachers. You never took me to church when I was a kid.’ I told him I knew a preacher that worked with me named Don Kelly and that he was a man of God and I would call him right now. Is there anyway you could meet with me and my son, now?”

The pastor looked at the clock, and assured the caller he could. He invited them to meet him at the church as soon as possible. They arrived before 2am. The Father, his son and both of their wives came. Bro. Kelly listened to the son’s story. Tears were in the son’s eyes. When he finished, Bro. Kelly taught them a Home Bible Study. The boy cried all the way though it.

When the Bible Study was finished, they prayed and repented. The son wanted to be baptized. He came up out of the water speaking in tongues. The wife asked to be baptized, as did the mother. The father said, “You’re not getting baptized without baptizing me.”

The next Sunday morning all four sat in service on the 2^nd row. The Holy Ghost fell! In 3 weeks there were 18 people from work (counting family members) filled with the Holy Ghost. His life had been more of a witness than he’d ever realized. Revival had come.

REVIVAL COMES WHEREVER IT’S WANTED!