American Missionary Fellowship

We have some really good friends, Greg and LeeAnn, whose son overdosed about a year ago. I did the service for Daniel. It was one of the saddest services I’d ever been involved in. This is a good family. They love Jesus. They have great kids. But Daniel made some bad choices that eventually took his life.

You may remember that Stephen Curtis Chapman’s five-year-old daughter was killed about eighteen months ago; he and a local pastor put together an amazing service for those whose hearts were broken. It was a service of hope. RobAnne and I were honored that Greg and LeeAnn asked us to go along with them to this service on Saturday night. We feel like we have walked at least part of their journey with them.

What was amazing about the service was that I estimate about 8,000 people were there. We were in the overflow to the overflow to the overflow area. There were people everywhere, and you could just feel the hurt in this crowd. You could see people fighting back tears. You could feel people agreeing with Scripture as Stephen Curtis Chapman sang songs about his pain and about his questions about the pain. You could feel in the room people’s connection with what was going on.

It reminded me in a very dramatic way of how many people are hurting. Eight thousand people got together simply to say, “I need hope. I need help understanding what God is doing.” It was a reminder to me of the importance of what we do in American Missionary Fellowship. We don’t just entertain, or even simply share the Gospel. It’s bigger than that. We’re people of hope. We’re people who come alongside those who are brokenhearted, hurting, and questioning, and in a creative, relevant way, we walk them through that journey.