In the summer of '85 we went to Jamaica. We were newlyweds and our church sent a team down for a week of Vacation Bible School/Revival. I know... suffering for the Lord. It actually wasn't all palm trees and sunny sand - we only managed a little bit of beach time and one day at Ocho Rios. 'Cause have you really been to Jamaica if you didn't climb Dunn's River Falls? The rest of the week we spent in Jones Town a poverty-ridden section of Kingston.
In the evenings there were revival meetings at the host church. We were vocalists in the band and had learned a handful of songs for the week. We ran through all of them the first night as the church's pastor would shout, "Sing another!" after every song. This would happen every night. Rick Brewer was our leader and played piano. He moved his keyboard front and center so he could change the set list on the fly instead of us looking back at him after every song. After we had exhausted our repertoire, the evangelist who traveled with us would get up and preach a while. By the time it was done, we'd all be worn out - physically and vocally. With each passing night I was sounding more and more like Kim Carnes. Hubby was soon able to do a really good Rod Stewart imitation.
In the mornings the children gathered for story time, crafts and snacks. Typical VBS, right? Not even close. First, I'd never been to a VBS where a good number of the children came barefoot... and I'm from Alabama. A few came wearing nothing but underwear. For real. We had worked back home to come up with lesson plans and daily crafts. We had crayons and paper and construction paper and glue... and Burger King crowns. We brought down a huge box of reject socks from the Hanes plant - everybody in Winston-Salem knew somebody who worked at Hanes. We were going to make sock puppets one day, complete with yarn and googly eyes. Until some of the church women looked in the box and were so excited that the children (and maybe some of the adults) were going to receive socks! Needless to say, our team huddled up around the sock box back at the dorm that night. We stitched together toes that hadn't been sewn and matched up as many pairs as we could make. And the people, young and old, got socks instead of puppets. There's something profound about that. We thought they needed toys. We were wrong. But we had the material in our hands to meet a greater need.
One evening we were scheduled to do an outdoor concert. We were using a flatbed trailer as the stage and had all the sound equipment set up. The location was between the police station and the dump. Did I mention that there was a sanitation workers' strike in progress? With the police station at our back and the pungent dump stretching out in front of us, there was a reggae bar to our right. Kingston native, Bob Marley's voice blasted from the outdoor speakers. You could feel the bass thump in your chest. There was no way anyone would hear us sing. In order to power our equipment, someone climbed up the pole outside the police station and connected a cord for us. We began our set. It was not going well. Hubby and I started a duet we'd been singing all week. A few lines in, something crazy happened. All the power in that area suddenly went out. The police station and the bar went dark and the giant speakers fell silent. People began to filter out into the street. But somehow, miraculously, our sound system was still working - the only thing that stayed on. And there we were, our voices raspy and weakened from the strain of the week, singing our song. It was called Jesus Never Fails. I still get goosebumps thinking about that moment.
Fast forward to yesterday. To my creaky efforts to regain my voice. I'm scrolling on the Facebook and there's a video from the service at Sardis Baptist Church in Alabama. We have connections at Sardis. Friends who were like family growing up. I turned on the sound and there was the beautiful daughter of our old friends singing... you guessed it... Jesus Never Fails. I cannot tell you how many years it has been since I heard that song. But there it was. On a day when I was feeling a bit like I've been facing a trash heap, squeaky little voice drowned out by noise and chaos thumping in my heart. The message I needed right at hand. You might as well get thee behind me, Satan, you cannot prevail! Jesus. Never. Fails. Selah.
So many souls have tested Him throughout the course of time So many still reach out to Him with broken hearts and minds And everyone of them will say with no exception that they find Jesus never fails
Even in the days of old, He brought His people through And then He came to show His love when He died for me and you And then He rose again to prove that every story had been true Jesus never fails
Jesus never fails - Jesus never fails You might as well get thee behind me, Satan, you cannot prevail Because Jesus never fails
Sometimes, this world brings troubles that I find so hard to bear I know I could not make it without Jesus being there It's so encouraging to know, however deep we're in despair That Jesus never fails
So, what can I do to prove to you? Tell me, how can you deny? No untold facts - No mysteries, it's all so cut and dry On the witness stand of your life, I'll be the first to testify That Jesus never fails.
Jesus never fails - Jesus never fails You might as well get thee behind me, Satan, you cannot prevail Because Jesus never fails
- Gary Driskell
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