How did the son of a shepherd from Kentucky wind up sharing doughnuts with prostitutes and wearing a Santa suit to church?
"God called me to a career in missions on a well-digging trip to Haiti," answers David Randsell. "The people in Haiti just stole my heart as I saw them give their lives to Jesus. I just knew I needed to be a part of that."
As a young man tending his father’s sheep, David realized that his fellow man was more important than the sheep and he wanted to be a part of God’s work.
David Randsell and his wife, Pat, are NAMB missionaries at the Edgewood Baptist Center in Dayton, Ohio. The center is located in an area of Dayton that has the highest crime rate in the city. "Satan owns the property across the street," says David, referring to an all-night grocery store where the prostitutes and drug dealers come to "hang-out." "There is so much illegal activity going on over there."
When David first came to the Edgewood center a year and a half ago, he asked God why He allowed such horrible things to go on right across from the church, then he realized: "God allowed them to be there so we would be reminded to reach out to them."
At first David wasn’t sure how he was going to minister to the people in the neighborhood, but God began to open the doors of ministry. "A local doughnut shop gave us their leftover pastries," said David. "We started handing them out to the prostitutes and people on the streets." From that simple ministry, two prostitutes eventually accepted Christ and went into drug treatment for crack cocaine addiction. According to David, the two women are working hard to establish their new lives.
David found another way to get the attention of the neighborhood.
"I started growing a beard last fall. By December I looked like Santa Claus. So I decided to wear a Santa suit every Sunday in December. Each morning when I arrived at the center the people on the streets would watch me enter the building and sometimes would even follow me in to hear the sermons."
Throughout the year the center gives out food and clothing to people in the neighborhood. "We charge a dollar a bag for food and a dollar a bag for clothes, but we waive the price for anyone who will agree to prayer and counseling," says David. "Almost every time they will agree to pray.
We ask them to thank God for the food and clothing, and we remind them that it is from God and that He loves them enough to feed and clothe them. Sometimes prostitutes will come in just to get one garment. My wife thinks they don’t really need the clothing, they just come for the prayer."
Prayer plays a very large role in the ministry of the Edgewood Center. No matter what is needed at the center they seek God first for His direction and provision.
"We didn’t have a baptistry at the center, and we couldn’t afford to buy one," says David. So they prayed.
"God finally laid it on our hearts to buy a $129 cattle trough to serve as the baptistry. The Lord has blessed us with 60 baptisms over the past year.
"It is so easy to minister to people if you just let God lead you," says David. God led him to start ministries during the week for children and youth who live in the community, plus Bible clubs, drama, music, cooking classes, a drill team and scouts. Kids can play basketball in the church’s parking lot as long as they remember to thank God for the basketball goals.
This may be the last year for the Edgewood Baptist Center. The city has received a grant to redevelop the area. "They are going to tear down the projects around us and build $200,000 homes. The people we minister to will be moved to other areas around the city."
The church is now praying for an RV and a bus to continue their ministry by taking food and clothing to several low-income sections of Dayton. The RV would also serve as a mobile counseling center. The bus would allow them to pick up people around the city for Sunday services.
"In reality the poor won’t have to come to a single location. If you’re going to reach the poor, you really have to go to them. Our ministry needs to be more mobile," says David. "We could reach five times more people than we do now if we could go to them. We have to give these people hope."
http://www.onmission.com/webzine/sept_oct00/doughnuts.htm
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