Harlan County, Pineville Community Hospital....along the way

The Southern Baptist Convention meets annually with messengers that represent the Churches of the Convention. The interim between sessions is managed by the SBC Executive Committee. The President of this Committee is Morris H Chapman while the President of the Convention is Johnny Hunt from First Baptist Woodstock, Georgia.
Morris Chapman has provided great leadership for Southern Baptist. In the September 2009 Executive Committee Meeting, he asked the members of that group which consist of pastor’s, deacon’s, and church members “when was the last time you sought to engage a lost person in a conversation about the Gospel in an intentional effort to win that soul to faith in Jesus”? His words are what I would call, ‘real preaching’ because he is walking over our toes with that question. Christians today are all caught up in the fact that our churches are in most every community in the United States and our building are normally white, or bricked, and most even have a sign out front which clearly shows when we gather to worship and what time that takes place….isn’t that enough?
Johnny Hunt is a man who speaks with great passion and he loves people. Johnny preaches from his heart and his heart directs his actions towards others. Johnny is a soul winner, believes in changes, and new beginnings through grace and mercy discovered in Jesus Christ. Often times we think of these types of leaders as big time folks who don’t understand where we are here in the mountains, or the lives we live, but we are wrong to assume such. We are wrong to think we are all alone and no one understands. Certainly Jesus understands if we would give Him the chance in our lives to prove it, and even the President of the Southern Baptist Convention understands us here in Southeastern Kentucky. His father lived in Harlan, Ky and is buried in a small mountain cemetery just off U.S. 119. He father received his medical care from the staff and employees of the Pineville Community Hospital during his last months of his life. Johnny traveled the mountains here visiting his father often during that time, who would have thought right?
The fact is that Jesus Christ loves all of us. He loves folks who attend church but He is not stuck in the church. He, the Savior, is out roaming the highways, looking under hedges and into the trees of life seeking those that are looking for an answer. He is traveling along 25e from Goldbug in Williamsburg up to Bee Creek Road in Corbin. He is up in the hollow in Rockhold and Woodbine, to Swan Pond and Old Flat Lick. He is traveling through Red Bird, Left Fork, and yes, Frakes too. He is out seeking and searching because He has a plan to bring peace to individual lives through any and all circumstances.
What would Knox, Whitley, Bell and Laurel Counties be like if each of those white or brick church buildings became lighthouses of direction and headquarters for solutions and answers? What would happen if we stopped waiting at the church house doors on the steps to greet people and individual Christians were out helping to carry folks to the church where others were ready to help in providing care to the wounded as they made their way with our help to the healing house? There are lots of ‘what if’s’, but that is not what He is looking for. He is calling those that call Him by name to stand up and be counted not just in the number, but in the active army of the Lord.

Until then