Brother Lee Jumps Again

The deacon stood in front of the church and announced that the church would be with out a preacher for a little while. Brother Lee was called to go on a mission for God in the middle of the night, last night. One of the members said, Brother Lee just up and left us with out a preacher? The deacon said You all know what Brother Lee always says: "I jump when the Lord says jump." Brother Lee said to also tell you all that he is leaving the Ninety and Nine to find the one that is lost, and he doesn’t know how long he will be gone.

Brother Lee was riding his mule down the county dirt road, he had no idea where or why. He just left that in God’s hands to point the way, he knew God would guide him to where he was to be and find who ever it was for him to find. Brother Lee was singing hymns to the Lord when spotted Hank going down the road ahead of him. Hank wasn’t walking like a normal boy would. He was walking like a dog with a broken back leg, using his hands for front feet and holding his left foot out behind him.

Brother Lee knew the boy was part of what God wanted him to help out with, but the boy wasn’t all of it either. Brother Lee stopped the boy and talked with him a while. The boys foot had been broken earlier that year, his family had no way to pay a doctor to set his broken bone and that it had healed back out of place. He had been going around like an animal all Summer long.

Brother Lee found out the boys father was named Albert, and he drank up the money he earned on moonshine. The boys mother Dessie raised a large garden to feed the family of ten. She had to hide the food she canned or he would trade it for moonshine. Sometimes he traded the whole garden for moonshine. Hank said, Last year they found a man picking everything in their garden and loading it into the back of his truck. Albert was with the man, he had traded the food right out of his children’s mouth.

Albert didn’t work in the garden, but his wife and children had slaved in it for months to have food for the winter and all year, until the next garden provided another year of food. Luckily for them the garden from the year before was a bountiful crop, and they had enough food hid so they didn’t starve to death that year. Albert didn’t know they had any other food hid out and it didn’t make any difference if they did or didn’t, he would have traded it for the bottle anyway, along with all the other food if he could have found it.

Hank and his family (Except Albert of course) gathered lumps of coal up, that had fallen off rail road cars up and down the tracks all year, to burn in the fire place on real cold days in the winter. They had gathered about a ton of coal and had it in a pile beside of the old shack, none of the pieces were very big, the fall from the train broke them into small pieces when the lumps of coal would hit the ground. The largest pieces was only the size of a baseball, most were small like eggs or even smaller.

The same man loaded the pile of coal up on the back of his truck when it started turning cold, Albert was there with him as he loaded the coal. When the last piece was shoveled into the back of his truck, he handed Albert a quart of moonshine to pay for the coal. The family had to cut fire wood with an ax which they hid in the woods or Albert would have traded it off too.

They had to leave the wood scattered out way back in the woods where a truck couldn’t get to where it was. They also put an arm load here and an arm load there, just to be sure. Wet wood won’t burn and is hard to find in the snow, many winter days they had no fire because it rained or snowed. That is why they gathered the coal, to burn on days when the wood was wet too, as well as when it was too cold for wood to heat the shack.

Albert didn’t care about food to eat, he could live on moonshine like he had for years, the moonshiner’s kept a fire to run their stills with and that is where Albert stayed most of the time, or in jail and they fed him in jail, while his family went hungry. Albert was big man and mean too, he would make 2 of most men around, maybe even three if they were the size of Brother Lee.

Brother Lee said, Hank, the Lord knows all that your family has been through, he has heard your prayers, God sent me to help. Hank said, What can a little old man like you do with my father, he could break you in half with one hand. Brother Lee said, Hank do you know about our Father in Heaven and his son Jesus. Hank said, A little, just what I’ve heard people say here and there, we don’t go to church anymore, my dad came to church the last time we went and dragged us out and told us he better not catch us there again.

Brother Lee said, Didn’t anyone try to stop him? Hank said, They were afraid to try, they didn’t want beat to death right there on the spot. My father always scares people when he is around them, he is so mean, people say he is the Devils son. Brother Lee said, That’s OK Hank, God’s son is always with me, and lets work on getting your family back in church.

Brother Lee gave the boy a rid home on the back of his mule, he spoke with Hanks mother about going to church. She said, If the church would lock the doors after they got there, they would go. So at least they could hear the sermon before being dragged off and beaten. Brother Lee said, That wouldn’t happen this time, locking the door wouldn’t be needed. She said, You haven’t seen Albert yet.

Brother Lee spoke with the local preacher Brother King. He told brother King he was bringing the family to church on Sunday. Brother King said, God help us all if you do, I heard about the last time they came, Albert run that preacher off before the next Sunday came around. Brother Lee asked if he was afraid too? Brother King said, Anything we suffer for in his name, he will bless us for it.

That Sunday morning the family was escorted to Church by Brother Lee. All went well, Albert didn’t show up at all. That night Brother Lee escorted them back to church again, it was a real hot summers night. Only one window in the church would open up, the others were stuck closed. The doors were closed and locked as Dessie had insisted on, for her to come to church. The other members wanted the doors locked too, in case Albert came along, they figured it would slow him down a little, but he could bust down the doors if he wanted too.

Brother King asked Brother Lee if he wanted to speak tonight? Brother Lee said, No, God hasn’t given me a message, so he must have something else for me to do tonight. I’ll sit in the back by the stove and the locked doors. Brother King stood in front of the people gathered there and said, Tonight’s topic is Hell, today has certainly been hot enough to remind us of what could be in store for us later if we don’t give ourselves over to Christ. Brother Lee started building a fire in the stove to really get the pint across about how hot hell is.

The first few rows of the church was empty when church started, when the stove started heating up, people started moving up front away from the heat and closer to the open window. Brother King said, Thats right, the closer to God you get the better you feel. Soon only Brother Lee was in the back of the church, they could hear him often, opening the stove door and throwing another stick of wood on the fire.

Some of the people was thinking about getting up and walking out of Church to cool off when Albert started yelling in the Window, "Come here Preacher, close to the window, I’ll tear your head off and stick it in your big mouth." Albert was drunk, he didn’t know his family was inside, so he didn’t try to come in. He just yelled and going on outside the church window.

No one wanted to go outside now, Brother Lee started adding wood two and three sticks at a time now, it got hotter and hotter in the little church. People started praying during the sermon. Some was probably repenting for their sins while others were probably praying for Albert to go away. Then Albert noticed through the window that his family was inside, he came around and started kicking at the door when he found out it was locked.

Brother Lee sat quietly in the chair next to the door until the door gave way and Albert walked in. Brother Lee grabbed him by the back of his pants and pulled Albert out the door backwards. Albert was off balance and couldn’t do a thing about Brother Lee pulling him backwards and on outside to where the horses were. Brother Lee took a whip off one of the saddles of the horses tied up there at church.

He did the same thing to Albert, that Jesus had done to the money changer’s long ago. But Brother Lee didn’t stop with just driving him out, he ran him down the road with the whip in hand. He didn’t have to hit Albert with the whip, it was enough that Albert knew Brother Lee wasn’t afraid to use it on him if he took a mind too.

None of the people in the church came outside. All they could hear was the whip cracking and Albert saying "Who are You?" They listened as the sounds got further and further away from the church - Crack-Who are you? crack-crack-Who are you? Crack-crack- crack.

No one seen either of the 2 men for days now. They figured Albert had gotten the whip away from Brother Lee down the road someplace and beat Brother Lee to death with it and dragged his body off. That Wednesday night at prayer meeting, Hank and his family was not in attendance, Brother Lee was not there to escort them church, no one else had volunteered to take his place and escort the family to church.

Half way through prayer meeting the door opened and Brother Lee walked in, followed by Hank and his family. Behind them was another man that no one recognized all cleaned up and shaven. It was Albert and he was sober as well as clean. He sat down in church beside of his family, people couldn’t’ believe their eyes. When the invitations was given, Albert walked to the front and gave his testimony to the church.

He said, I was lost, but now I’m saved, I have turned my life over to Jesus, Brother Lee baptized me this morning in Potter’s creek just before the Sun came up. He prayed with me most of the night and most of today after I was baptized. I’d like to join the church.

One person there that was not a member of the church said, You , after all you have done, starving your children and every thing else you can think of, you have done it all. Brother King said, NO man should bring up anything that God has forgiven a man for! Jesus paid the price in full, Albert’s record is clean in Gods eyes, so who are you to say that Jesus’s blood wasn’t enough to cover Albert’s sins?

Albert said, I’ve done all those things. I let the Devil in my body through my mouth and out of a bottle. But he has to go through Jesus now to get to me, and Jesus won’t allow that to happen because I have faith in him. Another man asked What did Brother Lee say to him? Albert said Brother Lee put the fear of God in me with that whip, he didn’t say a word at first. I started praying for God to save me about a mile down the road. I thought it was Satan himself a hold of that whip, cracking it at me, no one else would have that much nerve to try.

I thought Satan had traded his pitch fork off for a whip, and that he was going to drive me all the way to Hell with it cracking at my heels. I cried: Who are You? over and over, I thought if it was anyone else but Satan, he would have stopped chasing me by now. I prayed: Oh God save me from this Devil and his whip, I don’t want to go burn in Hell. Then I gave up and dropped to my knees, I couldn’t keep going any further. I prayed while this little man in the dark kept cracking a whip all around me.

That man cracking the whip said, If you don’t really mean it, he still won’t hear you, pray harder, as hard as you can. I prayed real hard and I meant it too. The whip snapped in two above where Brother Lee was holding it. Brother Lee said, He heard you Albert, now tell it all to him, don’t leave nothing out, walk with God.

Brother Lee stayed by my side the whole time I talked with God and walked with him in the woods, it took all this time to confess all of my sins to him. Brother Lee’s work was done here, it was all in God’s hands now.

Brother Lee gave all he had in the offering plate of Love, that was being taken up to send Hank to a Doctor about his foot, for surgery if he needed it. Brother Lee gave Hank his mule to keep. He said, Here Hank God knows your needs and has provided for you. Hank said, How will you get home Brother Lee, with out your mule? Brother Lee said, I’ll walk with God.

Written By : Johnny lee Hall