The Early Days of Evangelism

During the late seventies, Denice and I traveled from church to church ministering in evangelism. It was a time of great testing and triumph; of feasting on God’s goodness and enduring lack. We learned much about living by faith and the importance of patience and persistence in receiving God’s promises. 

God blessed the services so wonderfully with His presence and power. It was glorious. The lost were saved, the sick healed, the bound found freedom, the thirsty were filled with the Holy Spirit, and believers were encouraged and strengthened in their walk with God. We were having the time of our lives. 

Provision and the College of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit had instructed me not to promote Steve Vickers Ministry in any form. He told me He would handle all the promotion and expansion of the ministry the Lord Jesus had entrusted to me. My job was simply to obey and go everywhere He opened the door. So, I did, and He did.

He would bless in such wonderful ways in a church the pastor would tell another pastor about the things God did during our services, and that pastor would schedule us in his church. That was our marketing strategy.

Also, the Lord had impressed upon me to never make any financial demands on the churches. So, I never asked for travelling expenses, or accommodations, or money for meals, or anything. We simply trusted God for everything, and I mean everything.

There were times we had no money for food to eat. We would scrape together what we could for our girls, while Denice and I would simply call a fast for each other (we were not about to let the devil take credit for us having no food).

I could write a book about stories of God’s supernatural provision in those times. Each one a stone of remembrance and a lesson in our understanding of faith. 

We were learning how to fight the GOOD fight; how to stand in faith on the promises of God. How to stand victorious when the natural contradicts your faith, when nothing changes after prayer and confession; how to find joy, peace and assurance in the midst of the fiery furnace.

Instead of bowing to our needs and the threats of the enemy, we humbly bowed before the throne of God in faith waiting patiently on Him to act. Many nights while Denice and the girls were sleeping, I climbed the hill of God, wrapped my fingers tightly in the garments of His robe and waited in His presence. 

Abraham believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness. He confessed the promise of God, yet he had to wait years before he received the reward of his faith – the promise fulfilled.

That was our life, and we would not have traded places with anyone in the entire world. Denice and I did not think we were suffering – we considered ourselves exceedingly blessed and highly favored by God to have the honor of declaring Jesus and His finished work on the Cross.

We loved our life and the adventure the Holy Spirit was taking us on. We did not think the Christian walk, especially that of those called into the five-fold ministry, was supposed to be a bed of roses, or one without testing.

We understood we were in the College of the Holy Spirit earning our doctorate in faith. Not a certificate we could hang on a wall, but one written by the finger of God upon our hearts. We knew God was leading, shaping and training us.

Life on the Road as a Family

In those days it was common for Church revivals to go on for weeks. Denice traveled with me as much as possible but was not able to every time as we had two small children, Stacy, and Misty. Not every church would provide a motel room for us (hotels were out of the question). Many churches had me stay in a guest room of the pastor’s home, which ruled out my family coming. Since we did not have a home of our own Denice and the girls would have to stay with family.

Our dream was to purchase a van and trailer so we could travel as a family. After a while our faith became reality. Another traveling minister that I knew from college contacted me and said he was selling his trailer. He was getting married and wanted to get a new and larger one. We agreed on a price. So, I bought it and a van to tow it. It was used, but to us as beautiful as the finest palace in the world. We could finally travel from church to church and have a home for our family. 

We loved our new home on wheels. At the front was a sofa with a bunk bed above for our two girls, then a small dining table which folded up against the wall, the little kitchen, then the bathroom with the smallest tub we had ever seen, but it had a shower head, so all was good.

At the rear of the trailer was our bedroom which had a three-quarter bed, which is a little larger than a twin, with with a 3-inch foam mattress. We slept so good, it was heaven. 

I loved being able to preach the Word, minister to the people and then go to our little home. Instead of sleeping in a different bed alone, I slept in our bed with my wife. Now we could travel from church to church preaching and ministering and be a family at the same time. Life was good!

The Wreck on I-85

We had just finished a series of meetings in a church in North Carolina and were traveling to our next meeting. A rainstorm had passed through the night before, but the day we pulled out of the HOA park the sky was blue and clear. 

We headed north on I-85.

Denice was entertaining me with her conversation while Stacy and Misty, well, they were being kids. I was passing a slower vehicle when suddenly the steering wheel jerked to the left taking the van, and our trailer, into the median. The rain-soaked ground seemed to swallow the tires of the van. I tried in vain to gain control, but it was hopeless. 

The van began sliding sideways in the wet soil snapping the hitch and releasing the trailer. Just ahead of us was an overpass with huge concrete columns, which we were moving rapidly towards. Suddenly, the van hit a large concrete drain stopping its sideways slide immediately. The trailer slammed into the side of the van crushing the area where Stacy and Misty were. 

It seemed like an eternity before we finally came to a stop, but it was only a matter of moments. But in those moments so much happened. I quickly checked on Denice and the girls, and they were alright. We climbed out of the van, and no one had even a scratch – NOT ONE SCRATCH! It was nothing short of a miracle.

Our van and trailer were a tangled mess. The right side of the van looked like it had been stuck on a railroad track as a speeding locomotive slammed into it. The front of our trailer was destroyed. 

Traffic on both sides of the interstate had come to a halt. People came running from both sides to check on us. Several truckers stopped, climbed out of their rigs, and came to our aid. They had contacted the Highway Patrol on their CB radios. The median where the wreck happened was very wide, but that did not deter people from running to check on the family that had just crawled out of the tangled mess of steel.

A family gathered around Denice and the girls checking on and comforting them. A trucker came over to me with tears running down his face, His eyes looked like saucers as he said, “It’s a miracle y’all are alive! I watched the entire wreck and began praying for whoever was in that van. I was afraid of what I was going to find. Then I saw you and your family climbing out. I’m telling you, it’s a miracle.” 

I honestly could not even talk at the moment. I just stood looking in stunned unbelief. All I could do was stand there looking at the scene. It seemed unreal.

From Tragedy to Triumph

Tragedy and triumph stood before me in that moment. Our van and trailer, our home, all we owned in the world, was now a tangled mess. But what truly mattered to me was huddled together holding one another without any harm. 

It was as if an angel had spread his wings over my family as this all unfolded. And I honestly believe with all my heart that is exactly what happened in this moment of tragedy – angels folded their wings over each of us. “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

Now, having said all that, I must confess to you my failure in that moment. It is not pleasant to do so, but I must, because it may help someone: Denice looked at me, her husband, the leader and provider of our family, the captain of our ship, and asked, “Steve, what will we do?” And here is what I said, “We are finished! Everything is gone. We have nothing now and no way to replace it. We have no money, and now we have no vehicle and no home. All is gone. I have no idea what we will do!”

Man of God, right? The night before, I preached about the faithfulness of God and having unwavering faith in His promises. Sick people were healed, people who had been held captive by bondages for years found freedom, and most importantly, lost souls found Jesus as Savior. And yet, in less than 24 hours I was saying with my own words, from my own mouth to my precious wife, who was looking to me for strength and confidence in God in the moment, that we were finished.

Instead of speaking faith and hope, I spoke unbelief and hopelessness. Instead of thanking God for the miracle that a weeping trucker recognized and had just declared to me, I spoke only of what was wrong. Instead of honoring God I repeated the hiss of the serpent. Like a defeated soldier I dropped my shield of faith and the Sword of the Spirit, surrendering to my enemy.

I was consumed with the Tragedy I was looking at and ignored the Triumph that was huddled together right in front of me. How blind can we be!!!

Isn’t it amazing how circumstances can blind us to the truths we know in our head and should in our heart. And yet it isn’t so amazing. After all, Satan has been doing it for thousands of years to mankind ever since that fateful day in the garden. You think we would know his tricks and not fall for them so easily. Yet we do, at least I did that fateful day.

The trucker who was so moved by the miracle he witnessed loaded up Denice and the girls and took them to the nearest town while I rode with the wrecker towing our van, following the one towing our trailer. 

God’s Endless Mercy

As I sat there on the front seat the driver was talking to me, but I was listening to another voice – that still, small voice Elijah heard. As He spoke, my heart broke. Tears welled up in my eyes and ran down my face. I’m sure the driver thought it was due to all I had just been through.

But that had nothing to do with my tears -they were tears of a broken, contrite soul filled with sorrow for grieving the Holy Spirit with my doubts, fears, and words – oh my words.

How I wanted to be able to grab them out of the air and bury them in the mud where I spoke them in haste and such foolishness. “Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are consumed by their own lips.” I am no fool, but in that moment, I spoke as one, and I am deeply ashamed of that.

It grieved my heart deeply that I had so dishonored the One who in love lifted me out of the filth and mire of my old life. The One who walked into the pit where I was held captive by my choices…choices that had imprisoned me in unbreakable chains of slavery to sin, shame and guilt. He walked into that pit, broke every chain, and set me free. “Whom the son sets free, is free indeed.” 

Jesus had done so much for me, he had been so good to me, yet in that moment I denied him. I allowed circumstances to dictate my attitude and action. I know exactly how Peter felt as he ran weeping from the courtyard after denying Jesus. 

I laid down my shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit and gave credence to doubt and fear.

I remember the cab of that wrecker. I remember the view out the windshield. I remember how ashamed I felt, how grieved my soul was at my failure. And how fitting the entire scene was – I was in a wrecker, headed to a junk yard!!!

Then, in the midst of my brokenness, a tender touch, like a gentle embrace. Instead of rebuke, an assurance of a love unmoved by my failure. Once again, I drank from the fountain of God’s endless mercy and lovingkindness. “His love (hesed – goodness, kindness, faithfulness) endures forever.”

In a moment, in the cab of a wrecker, headed to a junk yard, my guilty soul went from Tragedy to Triumph by the love of God. That wrecker was towing the tangled mess of our van – but my soul was not towing the guilt of my failure. 

An Invitation to Trust Again

Perhaps you, like me, have allowed the circumstances of life to form dark clouds of doubt over your heart. Dark clouds that hide the hope of God’s faithfulness for your life.

Perhaps, like me, you have surrendered your faith and hope to your circumstances. And perhaps like me, you have declared all that is wrong and forgotten the wonderful promises of God. As those words of doubt fall so freely from our lips the ropes of hopelessness tighten their grip on our faith.

Perhaps, like me, it seems you are riding in a wrecker towing the tangled mess of your broken dreams. 

But also, like me, you can turn your face again to the One who loves you with a love so strong and pure. A love human understanding cannot begin to grasp its power and wonder. It can only be experienced.

Why not experience it fresh and new. Drink again from the fountain of God’s grace and mercy – which knows no end. Drink until your heart overflows with peace, and assurance from the Father that you are His and all is well.

No matter what you have done, or said, or how you have failed – God’s grace and love is far greater. Jesus has been looking for you. If a man has a hundred sheep and one wanders off, he will leave the ninety-nine and go look for the one which wandered off. Let him find you.

When I climbed into that wrecker towing the tangled mess of all our belongings all seemed dark and dismal. When I climbed out all was well!

I cannot close this without one beautiful detail: Because we had very little money we could not afford to stay in a motel. I bought a roll of visqueen plastic and covered the front of our trailer so we could stay in our trailer which was parked in the junk yard.

Denice and I climbed into our little bed that evening and held each other as we thanked God for His protection. We committed our future into His hands. He knew what we had lost, and He knew what He was going to do. 

Friendship and Faithfulness

Early the next morning someone knocked on the door. Denice opened it and there stood Danny Johnston with coffee and doughnuts. We could not believe our eyes. I did not know for sure if it was Danny or an angel from heaven. He had heard about the wreck, so we became a priority to him. That is a picture of friendship. Danny has always been a true friend to Denice and me through the years. His friendship is one of God’s gifts in our lives. 

Thank you Danny for the coffee and delicious doughnuts. And thank you Jesus for your grace, protection, and unconditional love.