Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, NC, a widely traveled evangelist, and the author of several books. His books are available on Amazon and at www.wordofhismouth.com

The wind was lightly swirling across the treacherous badlands of South Dakota. Clouds on the horizon portended a coming storm; the blind man and his guide would need to find shelter before too long. The scenery, though, despite the desolation, was lovely, and the blind man seemed to feel it.

“Is it yellow?” he asked. His guide, just ahead of him on one of the ever-present ridges, answered in awe. “Yeah. Yellow, but with red bands running through it.” The guide could feel the hand lightly on his shoulder; the blind man could not see a thing, but he was not the timid sort. Through long years of darkness and the determination not to stop living, doing, exploring, he had become accustomed to doing things no one would have ever believed possible.

Earlier in the day, the blind man’s wife had weighed in on all the climbing and scrambling. “He does things he really shouldn’t do,” she said with a resigned smile. I, the guide, answered with an irrepressible grin: “Then I’m afraid I am going to be a very bad influence…”

The blind guy is a dear friend of mine, and a hero for God. His name is Steven Aldridge, and he and his wife, Erin, are missionaries in Pukwana, South Dakota. I taught him in Bible college twenty years ago, never dreaming he had such grit and drive within him. He left home and family in the South at the call of God, and went to a small town that was open to the gospel. And Pukwana is indeed a small town: 239 precious people, many of whom I met in my week of revival meeting with them.

Victory Baptist Church purchased and meets in a Catholic church that closed the doors a few years ago. The bell tower still works beautifully, and I found it amazingly cool to be able to climb the steep, narrow stairs and ring the bell to announce services.

Pastor Aldridge and Mrs. Erin are doing it right: they came to stay. The wider area is known for missionaries coming and quickly going, but the blind guy, seemingly the least likely candidate to stay and stand, has already put down deep roots. They have purchased a house a few doors down from the church and are renovating it to make it livable. They have weathered six harsh winters now, and everyone in town knows and respects them. Whenever they come back South for a visit to kids and grandkids, they always let the town know they will be gone for a bit, but they are coming back, and when.

The church often does backpack giveaways for kids in their area. They bring food to people at Christmas.

Brother Aldridge is the oddest, funniest blind man you will likely ever meet. He mows the church grass with an electric mower. He shovels snow from the sidewalks. A neighbor across the street told us in their hearing, “Preacher, you are making things kind of hard on me. I keep telling people you are blind, and then they see you cutting the grass and look at me like I am a liar!”

When they first started renovating the church, the gentleman trying to replace the rotted timbers supporting the bell could not do it alone. The Pastor climbed the stairs, climbed the ladder into the bell tower, and helped him replace the timbers and reset the bell.

He has gotten turned around a few times as he walked the town; he then did a FaceTime call to get someone to point him in the right direction.

I cannot help but think that every time God in Heaven hears someone make an excuse as to why they cannot serve him, he gets that tight-lipped, ultra-wide-eyed look on his face and points at brother Aldridge as if to say, “Come again?”

Writing to the church at Corinth, Paul, already wrecked in his body through constant persecutions, described the conditions he and his team endured, saying, “We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.”

Speaking of the same things to the elders of Ephesus, he said, “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”

Serve the Lord. Serve him through pain, through anguish, through hardships, and through fears. If we wait until all is well and happy and bright to serve him, we will never serve him at all. And in the end, it will not always be those with sight and health and ample provisions who do the best work for him; it will be those who, though blind or lame or poor, simply get enough grit in their craw to go and stick, knowing our Savior is worth the effort.

Pastor Wagner can be contacted by email at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org, and his books are available by clicking the Store link above.

Feature photo by Pastor Bo Wagner