One more soul saved

Thank the Lord for one more soul on their way to heaven tonight. I preached at our once a month service at Wheeler Mission, a homeless shelter, in Indianapolis tonight. The place was packed pretty much near or beyond capacity because of the cold weather. Sometimes when preaching I walk quite a bit and I had what was probably at best, about a 10X6 section to move around in tonight. That area included a bible stand, microphone stand and an occasional foot or two from the audience. In behind the stand there was a few feet before the altar and in front not much more, if any, between it and the congregation. So I kind of felt boxed in. But the service was great. To start off someone requested a song as we were passing out songbooks and lo and behold I already had that marked to sing! I started out intending to preach on conviction and repentance, but preached on that a quite a bit more. God knew just what was needed though. At the altar call, I was exhorting on the fact that there was nothing to be ashamed of to come to the altar, but in fact more shame in staying in your seat. After the man came and gave his heart to the Lord, saying he didn't want to live the rest of his life with the condemnation, I announced that he had gotten saved and everyone started clapping. They were very enthusiastic! We then sang Victory in Jesus, as this man had just gotten victory! It is one of the favorites there so many of them know the words as well. We sang it through once and then I stood and we sang the chorus again without music. I could feel the spirit wonderfully in that place. By the time we got done singing the chorus, I really felt like preaching!!! But, it was time for them to start getting ready for bed. I just thank the Lord for one more soul saved and for His wonderful prescence tonight. I received a blessing as I am sure that a number did there as well. I thank the Lord that we have this open door of opportunity to preach the gospel there. We went once to fill in several years ago and they invited us to come on a permenant basis, of which we have tried to be there, with few exceptions, ever since.
We will be launching a book drive for the month of February at our local church. While visiting a convert in one of the local jails, I noticed that they had a basket full of books for kids in the waiting room. During the many times that I have been there, I noticed that a large number of the books, if not the majority, were in bad to horrible conditions. Covers were torn off, pages missing, etc. Seeing a number of kids there, I thought that this could be a way for the church to be of service to these people, providing something for the children, while reaching out at the same time. Though I had not gotten around to calling to jail, I had mentioned the book drive idea to our local mission leader. She let me know about a week and a half ago that she had called the jail, and that they were ok with us donating books, as long as we got rid of the torn-up ones. So, we are hoping to be able to get a number of books to donate during this next month. I am hoping and trusting that some soul(s) will be reached for Jesus through this. Hopefully we will be able to make a difference in some childrens' lives and through them, their parents' lives as well.
Pray for us as we continue to grow. As Bro. Donnie says, I have caught someone in the act of doing good. More on that in some future post. Needless to say, God is blessing us. I hope He is blessing you as well.