I’ve just recently finished watching a DVD called ‘An Appalachian Dawn’. Appalachia is a very large area in the East of the United States stretching from New York state down to Alabama. It has long been associated with ideas of hillbillies or families like The Waltons on TV many years ago. It is a very different place from those sorts of stereotypes by-in-large, but nevertheless, it is an area in some states which is known for poverty.
Clay County in Eastern Kentucky was just such a place and on top of that it had become known for its drug and alcohol abuse which is also always associated with wider crime. Not only this, but widespread corruption amongst civic officials such as judges and councillors, made doing anything about the problems extremely difficult if not impossible. That is, until the Christians in the area, putting aside whether they were conservative Presbyterians or Pentecostals, Methodists or whatever, decided that they needed to pray together and plead for God’s help.
The rest is history as they say. Corruption has ceased, with many corrupt officials now in jail. Drug sales and abuse has diminished hugely; the population is again smiling, laughing and enjoying life according to those living there. The town of Manchester (its main urban centre) has been cleaned up literally. One pastor even mentioned that 4 one-time drug dealers who were friends of his have now become pastors themselves due to God’s work in their hearts.
Folks, things can change when the Christians put aside their differences, repent of anything that is in the way as God reveals it and seek God. It just takes each one of us to believe in the power of the Lord to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,..” Eph 3:20-21 NKJV, and then the rest becomes history!