The Bible says Yahushua was touched by our infirmities; therefore, he is an able minister. “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”1 Human souls are precious in the sight of God. We will be held more accountable for how we handled the precious things of life (human souls), than whether or not we balanced our checkbook correctly, or whether we were a good steward of the church money, church building, or any material possession we had while on earth. We are all stewards of men’s souls! God sent His son to die a redemptive death for all of us. There is a stern curse from the LORD of Glory saying, “It would be better for a millstone to be tied about your neck and to be cast into the deep, than that you should offend one of these little ones.”2 We were offended numerous times. I do not feel we were mistreated purposefully, but more out of insensitive neglect, a total lack of regard for an obvious situation, and the church’s lack of understanding of God’s word, God’s will, and God’s ways.
A short time after we had begun attending the Olive Branch on a regular basis, and while we were still living at Jim and Bonnie’s home, we observed another case where the church refused an opportunity to provide and minister to a homeless family. During a Saturday morning fellowship breakfast, it was brought to the attention of those attending that there was a homeless family with children at the lake in need of assistance. They spoke of not being able to trust “these kinds of people,” how they always wanted to take advantage of the church and get free handouts. After some discussion along these lines, the pastor suggested that they better “wait and see” what the family would do before attempting to offer any help. I was stunned when I heard these words coming from the leadership and a few of the members. Immediately, I saw the way my family was being viewed, “let’s wait and see!” This was a clear confirmation of how the leadership and some members viewed people in need. By the pastor’s recommendation the entire men’s group quickly fell in line with the pastor’s un- Christian suggestion and agreed not to help a family in need.
The family at the lake had small children, was living in their vehicle, and was without assistance in the dead of winter. The church had 300-400 actively tithing members, yet their main concern was being careful that someone did not take advantage of them. I was appalled and could not wait to escape from the morning fellowship with such sick and inconsiderate reasoning. My sincerest regret was that I failed to stand up for the family and use the opportunity to speak a correction to the church’s self-justifying attitude. I was sad that I was unable to assist this family personally, because I was still basically in the same predicament, homeless and without assistance. As I look back I believe that God was again testing the leadership to see if they would act out of Christian love and not neglect the opportunity for ministry.