Have You Seen WOODLAWN Yet?

We went to see the movie Woodlawn. The movie, based on a true story, focused on a high school in Birmingham, and most particularly a football team and some on the issues they faced during the upheaval of integration and busing. God captured hearts and the public school became a place of prayer and praise. When Mike came out of the theater, he said, “You know, people who weren’t there in the sixties and early seventies will think this movie is like Rocky or the Karate Kid, full of superfluous pomp and imaginative glory. But we were there. It really did happen.”

It was like stepping into our past and tasting again what God did during that time. It was a magic time. Every time we shared the gospel we expected people to get saved simply because everyone that heard BELIEVED. If we went out on the street to share the gospel and less than five people got saved, we thought we must be standing in the way of God working.

The ministry God opened for us in 1967-71 was to young freshly drafted military boys. Race wasn’t an issue in the military because all the guys were heading to fight a war; facing death has a way bringing clarity. The men were barely men; young, scared, reluctant warriors, most on the way to Vietnam within a matter of days or three months at the most. And we were their last chance to make peace with God before stepping off of a plane in a war zone.

I shudder now as I think of the responsibility we bore. But it was a heady time that with which only the young could keep pace. We ran ourselves ragged. Mike says there was many a time he left home in the morning and didn’t get back home until sunrise the next day. We took it for granted, thinking it had always been this way and always would. Little did we know that there was about a ten year window in which the heavens were opened and a great harvest of souls were swept into the kingdom. I could tell you some stories that you would think were the product of romantic imaginations.

Everyone, old and young, who loved the LORD was eager to help give the gospel. My dad worked a regular 7-4 job and didn’t make that much money, but every week he fed 40 to 60 military men Sunday dinner, and he didn’t serve mac and cheese. It was always a giant roast that cooked all night long, piles of mash potatoes, salads, and many deserts, which always included my mom’s specialty Banana Pudding. My mom cooked all day Saturday getting it ready. On Sunday my dad served and washed all the dishes. He tried to teach, but it wasn’t much of a communicator, so when Mike showed up it was a real blessing. Mike had been ministering to the young men at the Memphis Servicemen’s Center, but soon our ministries became one.

Memphis Union Mission offered Mike the weekly use of a huge lodge and camp grounds in the forest. After church each Sunday we would loaded the servicemen into 3 buses and took them out to play ball and fish or swim, and then we feed them a good supper and after some rousing singing, Mike preached the gospel like it was the first and last time they would ever hear of Jesus. For many it was both the first and last. We later received letters from guys who told us they got saved the day before they shipped out to war. Far too many times we received letters from parent who informed us that their son had been killed in action and that this personal belongings contained a Bible with our name on it and a date in the front. We informed that that the date was their spiritual birthday—the day they trusted Jesus as savior.

Not long ago, a bald headed old man came to our door and informed us that he was one of those Marines that came to know Jesus so long ago. We still hear from various ones. Two of our board members got saved under that ministry and have been good friends ever since.

Our ministry was much more encompassing than the military. Space will not allow. During that time, when Mike was about nineteen or twenty years old he accepted an invitation to preach a series of meeting at a church in West Planes Missouri. God went before him and within a few days over 100 young people made pubic professions of faith. The entire town was shaken to its core. Bars closed down for lack of patrons. The high school ceased to have regular classes as the halls and class rooms were filled with weeping and rejoicing kids and teachers, down on their knees praying for one another and professing their faith in Christ. Eventually the school just called off classes and the kids turned out on the street carrying signs that expressed their faith. Many of those kids went on to become active ministers of the gospel and have continued to this day.

We also had a ministry to the entire city every Friday night. Shad and Shelia Williams, newly converted from a life of drugs and night club performing, joined us and organized a ban called The Scarlet Thread. We say thousands converted through the music, testimonies, and preaching of that ministry. Shad and Shelia are still active today, having seen several million come to Christ through their ministry in India and Africa. There are many more that space does not permit me to name.

Whole generations of families were forever changed. It was an amazing time of God working in the hearts of the youth. We are so thankful to have been a part of that wonderful time. Our children grew up hearing stories of God’s amazing grace poured down on the hearts of people.

Mike is quick to point out that the miraculous work had nothing to do with him, or us. It was happening everywhere, mostly outside the churches, but it was God’s hour and he used anyone and everyone who could give a half accurate gospel presentation. We just jumped in and were swept along by the current of the Spirit’s work. And what a ride it was!

The movie Woodlawn tells the story of how God was working at that time. Amazing as it seems it tells it just like it was. We saw with our own eyes, we were a part of it. Take your family to see Woodlawn and the beautiful work God did. It will bless your socks off.