Exiting our public library one day in 2006, with so much on my mind, I almost hadn’t noticed Isaiah walking right past me, and I might not have if he hadn’t shouted to me “Don’t you know today is a day the Lord has made? Why do you look so down?”
Of course that made me smile and Isaiah and I began to talk. He didn’t have to talk much before the smell of alcohol reached my nose, yet he was coherent. I found out he went to Ebenezer Baptist Church, and that he swept the floors there on ocassion.
He then asked me for money, which I did not give him. Side note. I do have somewhat of an experience with alcoholism. Alcoholism was in my own family, and I drank for many years.
I knew not to give Isaiah money because it would be like filling a bag with holes. “Silver and gold have I none but such as I have I give to thee” I told him. Then I asked if I could pray for him. He said “alright” so I took Isaiah’s hand and began to prophesy into his life, and calling forth the new wine that the Lord wants to offer, and desires for him. That his life be filled with the joy of the Lord and he walk free from his little fermented friends. That he become the beautiful creation the Lord intended for him.
“You’re still not going to give me money, are you?” I told him I was not, but that our meeting on this day meant that I was going to see him again soon. The Lord sent him across my path ‘for such a time as this’.
I let Isaiah know that I had to leave to pick up my husband, I was meeting him for lunch. He asked me if I had children and I told him I had two but they were older.
I said goodbye and got into my car to pick up Richard at his workplace, only a block up the road. I arrived in front of Richard’s place and there was Richard waiting, but there was no parking space for me. I told him briefly I was late because I met a man named Isaiah, and then told him the story of our encounter. I shared that he asked for money but I was not to give him any. I had to drive around the block to find a space and when I did, I walked back to meet Richard.
He said “Guess who I met?” “I don’t know, who?” “Isaiah.” “How did you know it was Isaiah?” “Because he approached me and asked me for money and his breath smelled like alcohol so I took a shot at it and asked him ‘Is your name Isaiah?’ and I think it sobered him up a bit.” Then Richard said he asked him “Didn’t my wife just tell you we were not going to give you any money?” A dawning of recognition hit Isaiah and he asked Richard “your wife got two kids?” and Richard nodded. Isaiah just walked away and said “dang”.
I knew that was confirmation that Isaiah and I would run into each other a few more times. I’ve ministered briefly to Isaiah about SIX times since. (Remember that) He would always smell like alcohol, but each time he was coherent and very friendly. He could hold a conversation.
On Monday night, June 30, he was troubled. (Remember the date) It was raining heavily and there he was, talking to Richard, as Richard was waiting for me to pick him up. I called out to Isaiah “Hey my friend, what are you doing out in the rain?” And he came up to the car window, pulling at his jacket. “Get me out of here! Get me out of here” I asked him “Where is here, Isaiah?” “Alcohol. Get me out of here. Get me out of here”
Richard got into the passenger side and told Isaiah we needed to go. Isaiah stood there and then said alright, and started to walk away. I told Richard I couldn’t leave him.
“We have to stay with him. We have to pray with him. We can’t leave him.” Richard told me he prayed with Isaiah already. I said, “I can’t leave Isaiah. We need to minister to him. Are you with me on this?” He said yes.
I parked the car and jumped out and we pulled Isaiah closer to a store front that had a place of shelter from the rain. Isaiah was carrying two bottles of Gatorade and a bottle of gin in his bag.
Isaiah said “I’ll be right back. I have to use the **ithouse.” Richard and I let him go do what he needed to do, but we knew he was sneaking away. We followed him to see he was dipping into his bag. We told him we were here to help him but he had to get rid of the alcohol. “I can’t. It’s too hard” he would say. Of course it’s hard. “We are not here to tell you to throw this away and do something that you will not be empowered to do by the Lord. We’re here to tell you that WE are not going to help you tonight unless you take this first step. Do you want to be free tonight Isaiah?” He said he did. “Then throw the bottles away” “But it’s too hard” And this dialogue went back and forth a few times when I felt I needed to get away to grab him a bite to eat. I went around the block to the Subway and called a few friends. I contacted Deborah Letourneau, the Director of the Healing Rooms in Hurricane and Charleston, and she advised me that Abner Suarez was preaching at Valley Christian Assembly in about an hour from the time I called her. After getting Isaiah a Subway sandwich, I went back to find both of them on the park bench.
The rain had stopped now and Isaiah’s head was on Richard’s chest. “I love you man. I love you.” Isaiah kept saying to Richard. But Isaiah started to turn nasty on me. “Who are you?” Then he turned to Richard. “Is this your wife?” His face contorted and he started speaking crudely to me. “WHAT EH VERRRRR” he repeated every time I tried to open my mouth. He would not let me speak, and then the attacks were intense. He began to tell me just what he would like to do to me as he stared at my body parts. I did not flinch. I could see Richard was very uncomfortable but he knew I was having internal dialogue with God.
I put my head down. “Lord what do I do here? What stone do I pull out of my bag today?”
Then Jesus whispered to my heart “Ask him where the ones who love him are”
Through all his demons talking, I kept calling “Isaiah. Isaiah. Isaiah” But his demons continued to talk junk. I stared right into Isaiah’s eyes and spoke to THE DEMONS. “I don’t want to talk to you. I want to talk to Isaiah and I am not budging from here til I talk to Isaiah”
Isaiah looked at Richard. “She’s tough. Ooooh she’s tough”
“Isaiah, where are the ones who love you?” Isaiah got quiet. Richard told me that Isaiah had just told him he had a brother named Jeremiah, who died of cancer and that was when he turned to alcohol. It was his twin brother. Twin brothers – Isaiah and Jeremiah. This young man had a praying mama. I looked at Isaiah, and started to talk to him like he was a little boy.
“Isaiah, where is your momma?” Isaiah started to cry. “She’s dead” I put my lips out and made a pouty face.
“Where is your daddy?” “He’s dead too” “Where are the others who love you Isaiah?” “They’re all gone” “Jesus loves you Isaiah”
“Awwwwwww dont start talking junk to me.” “Isaiah, you are called by God you know. He has a plan for you”
“Awwwww dont, please don’t start with that” And as Isaiah was crying, he was resting his head on Richard’s chest. He looked at Richard. “I love you man, I love you. But she, she BROKE me. She BROKE me.”
And Isaiah continued to weep.
“Isaiah?” I asked him “Do you want Jesus to set you free tonight?” He said “I do. I love Jesus. I do.”
“Then take your bottles and throw them away”
Richard told me that while I was at Subway, Isaiah let him throw away the bottle of gin. I said to him “What’s in your Gatorade Isaiah?” He said “Gatorade, that’s all” I told him to throw the bottle away, we’d buy him some new Gatorade. I told him he’d have to throw those bottles away if he wanted our help.
“Its’ hard”
“I know. But it’s getting late and I have things to do. I can’t be playing with you. If you are not ready, then we have to go. Do you want to get set free tonight?”
“I do.” “Then you have to throw those bottles away. Isaiah handed the gatorade to Richard and Richard headed toward the trash.
“Richard,” I said. “Isaiah needs to toss those bottle, not you”
Richard handed the bottle back to Isaiah.
“You have to do this yourself Isaiah” Isaiah got up and headed towards the trash. A “friend” of his came by and asked for the bottle. I might have said no, but I didnt care. It wasnt his friend’s time tonight. Isaiah gave his friend the bottle and his friend walked away drinking it.
Richard and I put Isaiah in the car and drove to VCA. He said to Richard “She was right. I had alcohol in those bottles. This is so hard.” Then he looked at me and said “You don’t understand. I smoked crack.”
I said “No, YOU don’t understand. So did I”
The only difference between Isaiah and me, was that I had an intervention of the Lord. Isaiah needed one too. We pulled into the parking lot and took Isaiah in. He was still telling Richard he loved him. Familiar faces were there. Kim Hager, to my surprise, had been asked to worship. Kay Lowther was there – he ministers healing throughout Charleston and in the Healing Rooms at Charleston. Teri McGee and her daughter, Meghan were there. They are ministers at our food pantry. Isaiah sat in the same pew as Richard, and I sat behind them. He was loud but I whispered into his ear that this was not the time to talk. He needed to listen to the music. I was like his mama with a plastic spoon ready to whoop him if he got loud.
Richard’s ministry to Isaiah was also just what Dr. Jesus ordered. I believe that Isaiah did not know the love of a father. He looked like a little boy just buried on his daddy’s chest. Richard carried the love of his Father all over him. Isaiah then stretched out onto the pew and fell asleep. At the end of service, I woke him up and asked him if he would like to go up to the alter. There was someone who would like to pray for him. He said yes, and as he staggered up to the front, Richard and I needed to hold him back because he was anxious to get up. Once there, Abner laid hands on him and Isaiah fell. Tears streamed down his face and several others then laid hands upon him. Ministering to him the love and forgiveness of the Lord. When Isaiah came to his feet, he called up to Abner “I love you in the name of Jesus” Then he looked at Richard “I love you” and then he looked at me “I love you. You are tough.” “She’s tough” he said to Richard.
Shortly before he left, I was reminded of the day I met him, at the library when when he called out to me “Don’t you know this is a day the Lord has made?” I said to him “Isaiah, your brother was named Jeremiah. This means to me that your mother was a praying woman and she knew your calling. God has heard your mother’s prayers. You are going to go out into these streets and set others free. You’ve been called to the kingdom ‘for such a time as this”. He nodded. Richard and Isaiah then left to get a motel room so that he could get a restful sleep, and I stayed behind.
Tuesday morning at 7:45, Richard knocked on Isaiah’s motel room door. Isaiah answered the door and greeted him with a hug. There were two beer bottles on the night table. Isaiah said he met two men there, shortly after he was dropped off at the motel, who had some beer with them. I was disappointed but I KNEW he was touched by God. We had not seen Isaiah for a long while since that night. A year later, we were driving by that same spot where we had our time with him on the bench. I heard a man call out. “Hey! Hey!” and I looked over and it was Isaiah. He held up a large fast food cup. “It’s tea! No alcohol!” We stopped the car to go see him and he said he was clean and sober from alcohol and was waiting for the bus to take him to his recovery group.
“I’m 6 months clean and I am going to get my pin tonight! Will you drive me there?”
That was the greatest news. I was so happy.
I said “Six months?” Then I started calculating when that was. I realized that it was July 1. So six months prior was February 1.
Then, it hit me again. We originally saw Isaiah on June 30 of the previous year and his freedom from alcohol began SIX MONTHS AND ONE DAY from the day we dragged him to church and he was touched by God.
Isaiah 61
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
A year later we were driving through the city. We saw Isaiah again. He was standing outside a church. We stopped to see him and he said “I want you to see something.”
He took us to the gardens around the church. “I’ve always wanted to be a gardener and the pastor of this church allows me to be the gardener. As long as I remain clean and sober, I can keep it up.
His gardens were beautiful. We were in awe of what God had done in Isaiah’s life and that he found support and accountability.
A friend of his walked up to him and said “Are you going to introduce me to your friends, Isaiah?”
She was a church member and confirmed to us that he was truly delivered. Clean and sober.
His garden was beautifully tended to with love and care. The soil was worked and nourished. Like Isaiah.
Isaiah 61:11 For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
