I haven't seen anyone nominate the pastor of a church for Steward of The Month in our bulletin. So, I am electing my pastor for Steward of The Month!
Here is why: I am a recovering alchoholic, I have been sober for 15 years. Pastor Rodgers helps run a twelve-step meeting every Wednesday night at our church. I was never a religious man until Pastor pulled me from the Hell that was my life. I don't remember much from those days, I was a young, stupid man who gave up almost everything for the bottle. Pastor believed in me, gave me a place to stay in a shelter that he and his church ran, food and a warm bed. I was still drinking while in the shelter, but I was still welcome, and still loved for the child of God that I have always been.
As a homeless man in Florida, I went through the system. I know what kind of people there are out there, good and bad, and I know how some people are givers, and some aren't. Pastor Rodgers and his family have a humble home, his wife, a secretary at the elementary school, gives her check to the shelter ... their two children, now grown, serve at the soup kitchen every Saturday. I am taken aback by this man. He has dedicated his life to the church, and to every person he comes in contact with.
He taught me something so important those nights in the shelter. He would sit on one of the cots with all of us, and read from the Bible. He would go on to say, your life may be hard, but it's the life the God has given to you, and our Lord would not have given you ANYTHING he thought you couldn't deal with. We became close over those seven months in the shelter, and I went into a twelve-step program, he was my sponsor, and well, with God's blessings, I now serve as the stewardship leader for our church. Many men and women in our church share similar stories. This man of God has given us sight when we were blind. Lead us home when we were lost. Given hope where there once was only despair.
He is a true soldier of Jesus.