Bowling Alley Miracle
by Lynn Ridenhour
Brother Jimmy, our pastor, would pray for just about
anything.
Our camp meetings were growing at Milldale Bible Camp. We just barely had
enough room to feed and accommodate all the families. I never will forget one
Wednesday night prayer service. The small country church easily held the
twenty or thirty families who were local members. It was a typical prayer
meeting. Or so I thought. We were in between camp meetings.
Brother Jimmy got up and made an announcement to the small congregation.
"…I found us a cafeteria today that’s big enough to meet our
needs. And I bought it…"
That’s the way Brother Jimmy was. I never knew a man so quick to act in
faith. He went on, "…I was driving down one of the main boulevards
in Baton Rouge today and saw a bunch of men tearing down a bowling alley. I
thought, ‘this would make a perfect cafeteria,’ so I pulled off to the
side of the road and asked for the owner."
I’m sitting there thinking, this handful of saints don’t have the money
to buy a bowling alley. Most of us were poor to lower middle-income families,
and there were only twenty or thirty families. Didn’t matter with Brother
Jimmy. He walked by faith, not sight.
"…A man came walking over to my car. I told him who I was, that I
pastored a small church out north of town and that the bowling alley would
make a perfect cafeteria for our campgrounds."
Brother Jimmy asked the man if he’d sell it. The owner quoted him a price
and our pastor said "…I’ll take it…"
He continued, "…I believe if we’ll come to the altar and ask
God to move on the owner’s heart, he’ll give it to us…"
I’m thinking, "…come on…"
I wasn’t used to praying for bowling alleys while kneeling at an altar.
But that’s exactly what we did. The whole church went forward that Wednesday
evening, we knelt at the altar and asked the Lord to give us that bowling
alley--to move on the owner’s heart.
The next morning Brother Jimmy drove back to meet the owner at the bowling
alley. The owner said, "…tell you what. You bring your men of the
church to tear it down and you can have it…"
I was stunned.
But I saw it with my own eyes. I was one of the men of the church who
helped the next week and a half disassemble a bowling alley in Baton Rouge. We
rented a crane, sold the lumber from the siding, and paid for the rental on
the crane.
The bowling alley became our cafeteria with room enough to seat a couple
thousand campers. All because our pastor had the gumption to ask God for a
bowling alley.
Didn’t cost us one dime.
