One Sunday Rev. Toenail preached at the church.  A few days later a member called to say that the roof had fallen in! They drove to the church and walked inside.  The roof had fallen on the pulpit.  Thank God, the pastor was not in the pulpit. My, my, my! What to do now?  Well, one of the members had a barn across the street from his house.  He said that the members could go into the barn and have church.  Rev. and Sis. Toenail moved the broken-down pews and piano and whatever else was in the church to the barn.  

That week Bee’s husband asked her to speak at the church. It would be their first Sunday in the new church, the barn. It would also be Father’s Day. Bee was astonished, but she had been feeling God’s hand on her.  Bee often heard God speak to her when she was in the bathroom in the shower.  One day Bee was in the bathroom and the next thing she knew she was on the floor sobbing. She was hearing God’s voice say, “Preach!”  But Bee didn’t tell anyone, not even her husband that this had happened.

On Father’s Day, Bee preached.  Yes, Bee preached her first sermon in a barn, on Father’s Day, in 1987. After her sermon, her husband, Rev. Toenail said, “I prayed for some help.  I didn’t know that my help was right here.”

And isn’t that how it is?  We go looking for help, we cry for help, and we don’t even realize that our help is ever present, we don’t even realize that we “need to use what’s in our hand.”  We don’t realize that God provides for us all that we need, we don’t realize that when God calls us to do something, God equips us.  We don’t realize who our Friend is, we don’t realize who our friends are.  Your friend will help you. your friend will take you by the hand and say, “Go this way, take this road. Try this way. Do this, for it is a better and more excellent way.”

So, don’t just spend time gazing upward in times of trouble, but always look within, tap the power within you, and then don’t forget to look around you. Our God is in us, over us, and around us. Our God is. Our God is our Friend.

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Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Story of a Black Woman Preacher