APOSTOLIC News

Rancho Cordova – March 3, 2010. The homeless old man shuffles down the street. His tattered jeans are held together with wire and his shirt is filthy. His stringy, gray hair frames a gaunt, drug-ridden face. No one can see the deep, black hollowness inside. When the blackness overwhelms him the old man does the only thing that makes it go away, crank.

George was born on July 5, 1942, in Chandler, Indiana, a lowly town in a farming community. With his mother nowhere to be found and his father blind, by the age of three he and his eight siblings were placed in an orphanage. Fortunately, an aunt and uncle adopted him. George describes his new mom and dad, “They weren’t religious, and they believed in spanking a lot.”

At the age of fourteen, George got his first job selling Christmas trees. When he grew up, he owned Southern California-based and, Arizona based electrical construction companies. In 1979, the companies failed, so he took advantage of a job offer from a large General Construction Company taking a position in sales that required extensive travel.

At age 39, he discovered that all the traveling his job required and the meetings he was supposed to attend sapped his energy. He felt that he couldn’t keep up with everyone else. He turned to drugs. “You know, I went to the doctor and he prescribed amphetamine. I felt that I needed it because I couldn’t keep up with everyone else on the job,” he said. George would fly out to one of the business meetings and not show up, or he would lie over in another state on his way back and not show up to work the next day. A life full of promise and position vanished when he was fired from his job. After roaming the streets of New Orleans he made his way back to California. Then it was in and out of several relationships and many jobs. Nothing it seemed went right except for his drug use. It always made his pain go away for at time. Then it was use your friends until they didn’t want you around any more. After officially becoming homeless in 1995, George roamed around Rancho Cordova. At first, he relied on his acquaintances for food and a place to stay, but his welcome soon wore out. Eventually, he found a place of shelter and concealment under a little tree off of Folsom Boulevard. During the day, he earned money by making a run for one of the drug dealers in the area. He remembers, “My existence of food would be from the old Lucky’s Super Market dumpster.” Then one evening, he returned to find his tree home burnt to a crisp. Everything he owned was gone. Once again, he was left with nothing. Disheartened but determined, George scouted around until he found another tree. This one gave him a little more privacy because the branches arced low and were leafy. He liked the tree.

One Friday evening while walking along the street he saw a couple standing in front of a small, store front church called Rock Tabernacle. He recognized the couple as his old apartment managers. He knew them as Mike and Debbie. As soon as he approached them, Mike began to witness to him. George became very uneasy. Mike made him promise to show up for Sunday morning service. With the promise secure, Mike gave him $20.00 to get something to eat. George said he immediately bought some crank with the money and did the crank right away. On Sunday morning George kept his promise and showed up for the service. “All I did is weep through out the service”, he said. Afterward, he started attending church regularly, and received the Holy Ghost during a Sunday morning service. However, without a complete understanding of what he had received, and with no direction for the future, he continued to live under the tree, with no outward signs of a changed life. He attended church but continued to use drugs.

Sometime later, the moment of truth and confrontation came while he was shooting up some powerful crank. The crank didn’t faze him. It was as if he hadn’t taken the drug into his veins he knew then that he needed a new master. As he cried out to God, his chest heaved with sobs and confessions. “Jesus, please help me. If there is anything better than this, please tell me. Forgive me! I have wasted so much of myself”. Instantly peace consumed him, and he fell asleep. When he awoke the next morning he knew something had happened to him. He was free! He knew he would never have to do drugs again! God had delivered him, he was totally free…It was at this point he made the decision to turn his life around and surrender completely to God. George went into a drug recovery program where he stayed for two months. He arranged for an outreach team from the church to come to the recovery center and teach a bible study concerning the plan of salvation according to the Acts 2:38 message. As a result, about 45 men and women were baptized in Jesus’ Name and received the Holy Ghost. At the end of the recovery program Mike helped George get a job with the storage company where he worked. He rented George a room from Mike and Debbie.  In a few short months George was able to buy a used car with low mileage. This was just the beginning of many blessings that God would bring into his life. The greatest single thing that God did for him during this time was give him a wonderful Christian wife.

 He became attracted to Wilma Grisham and several months later George and Wilma were united in marriage. But Satan does not give up easy. George went to witness to an old friend one day and the old friend invited George to do some crank. He accepted it and found himself the slave to his old master again. He tried to maintain his job, hide his drug use and kept going to church, thinking no one would find out. This hypocritical self-deception however, came to an abrupt end with the administration of a random drug test. The penalty was severe. He was terminated from work, and his employer put him off the property and out of his apartment. His wife was both disappointed and angry. She no longer wanted anything to do with him. There was no where for him to go but back on the street. He had lost his job, his home, and his marriage to a wonderful Christian lady, all in one day. After several days of homeless wandering, George was accepted into a two month drug rehab program thru the Veterans Administration. The rehab was located in the mountains about a two hour drive from the city of Rancho Cordova. With a broken heart and a contrite spirit, George sought forgiveness and restoration from God. God’s grace came freely and quickly. Being able to forgive him self was much more difficult. By his own words, George “died out on that mountain one afternoon,” and it was then that every thing changed God restored his joy and he became a new creature. His wife forgave and took him back. Through a miracle, God gave him a job working in a machine shop.

George Hart is a member of Rock Tabernacle Church, in Rancho Cordova, CA, (a daughter work of The Rock Church).

Written by Misha Simmons