Saint Lottie Hornbeck part two

Once upon a time, there was a piece of land whose span was five acres. In the back of this property full of weeds and blackberry bushes and on top of a little hill was a building. This building was a church. It was a small building. It was a small church. People came and went from this small church for years. After a while, this little church became smaller and smaller as fewer and fewer people came to worship on Sundays.


But one person, named Lottie Hornbeck, still came. She brought with her every Sunday, four residents from a special needs adult foster home to this small church building. She also brought with her every Sunday, a cassette recorder and a taped message from Chuck Swindoll.

Every Sunday, Lottie and four friends had a church service listening to a recorded sermon in a building on a hill that everybody else had seemed to have forgotent. But not Lottie. And certainly not God.

Lottie kept coming to the small building to have worship services every Sunday for a long, long time. She did not know what else to do. She went to a place that helped churches. She said, “ I have been meeting in a small building up on a hill for a while and nobody else is coming, other than myself and four special needs friends. I do not what to do. Can you help me?”

The person at the place that helped churches thought and then said, “Yes, I may be able to help." The person helped Lottie get in touch with a group of six people who were meeting together to study the Bible. Then, they got in touch with a man who said that he would come and share a worship service with them every Sunday. And that is what they did.

So Lottie, her four friends, six people from a Bible Study, and a pastor begin to meet every Sunday in the small church building up on top of the hill on a piece of land whose span was five acres. They all had a good time and enjoyed one another.

Over time, something wonderful began to happen. The little church with twelve people began to grow. Soon there were twenty people. Then forty. Then a hundred. More and more people began coming to the small church building that they realized that a bigger building needed to be built.

So they cleared the weeds and blackberry bushes and built a bigger building. And people still kept coming. The church grew and grew. More people were happy to come every Sunday to listen to a message. Lottie was happy as well.

Some years later, Lottie went to heaven to be with Jesus. But the church and people kept meeting every Sunday. And they still do, to this very day. All because of Lottie who didn’t want the building to be empty. All because of Lottie, And God. And Chuck Swindoll tapes.