For Him and Them by Dean Cowles, YPN President

A monthly message from YouthPartnersNET President Dean Cowles.

For Him and Them by Dean Cowles

July 2007

Faith and Faithfulness

Every ten years or so, you cherish getting calls like this one that I received the day before Independence Day, July 4th.

"Hey Pastor Dean, it’s Bonnie. I was just thinking about you last Sunday when I preached my third sermon here at Crossroads. I remember after I got saved while you were preaching that you said, 'Bonnie in ten years I can see you preaching from this pulpit and your family helping to run this urban ministry after I'm gone.' Do you remember that?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I think I do. That was an incredible Lord's Day." Bonnie's conversion and that of her whole family in the following months was something you may not see or experience in a decade or a lifetime. I can't tell you the whole story or it would take 20 pages (for that you'll need to ask for my book CAST which is on our website resource page).

Faith and faithfulness like that can indeed move mountains.

I can tell you that I vividly remember that 1997 Pentecost May morning when Bonnie, an addicted welfare single mom, gave her life to Christ in a truly miraculous way. And I recall when her estranged boyfriend and the father of her two children starting coming to church because of the change in Bonnie. He too gave his life to Christ and hasn't had a drink since.

Finally with great pride I can tell you that I joined them in holy matrimony on a Sunday morning right at church because as Steve said, "Why not get married on Sunday? We got saved on Sunday and engaged on Sunday". Best of all, since Bonnie’s parents and most of her immediate family had passed away living lives and years of isolation and addiction on the reservation, guess who walked her down the aisle? Her oldest son, Stephen. He brought her to our urban church a year earlier as part of his after-school tutoring graduation ceremony.

Well, it's been ten long and yet short memorable years since Bonnie and Steve "got saved". And yes they pretty much run the day to day operations of Crossroads Urban Ministry on the Westside of Denver. Bonnie is the Office Manager and Steve is the Facilities Manager.

And maybe your donation this month didn't help out ten years ago, but it carries on today in the lives of those Bonnie and Steve touch everyday because Crossroads is one of our key partners along the front range of Colorado. Because you are faithful every month, YouthPartnersNET is able to invest in lives like these all across the country.

Who knows, if you'll stick with us another decade or so, you may receive the same kind of phone call I did and it will go something like this in 2017:

"Thanks so much for giving. Because of your donation this urban ministry was able to provide after-school tutoring that kept my child off the streets and summer day camps that kept him out of gangs and he's the pastor now of our little inner city neighborhood church."

Faith and faithfulness like that can indeed move mountains. Most of all sharing your gifts and faith will bring a true "Independence Day" of spiritual freedom from sin to those most suffering under the bondage of addictions and isolation.

For Him and Them, and Bonnie too,

Dean Cowles

Bonnie and StevePS: Bonnie's real name is Bonita which in Spanish means, Beautiful. As you can tell, she is a new beautiful creature in Christ. That's her husband Steve at our house for Christmas staff & board party.

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