On Tuesday I had lunch with four people who were at FMC cleaning up the dust from BMP. One was doing community service, the other three were earning rent money. They were all very good workers. I asked them where life had taken them and as they started to share, I interrupted them to ask if I could share parts of their stories with you.

1. One lady was helping a friend stay off meth and was earning rent money for her friend. The friend has been sober (off meth) for about a year. The friend’s husband is serving a ten year sentence at Westview for dealing meth.

2. Another lady has been off meth for 180 days and every day she is setting a new personal record. She started on meth when she was 10, 10 years old! She is now 21 and the longest she has been off meth is 180 days. She lives at the WIT (Women in Transition) house in Angola.

3. The third lady has been off meth for 30 days. The longest she had been sober before was 40 days. She just moved to Angola, from another town in the area, to live in the WIT house hoping that with a change in friends she can set a new personal record of 41, then 42, then 43, days sober. When she and her former friends would go to the bar, she would not drink alcohol because she was the designated driver. Although she was probably buzzed by the meth in her body, she was the most sober of the group. I noticed she had picked up a “Your Life in Christ” discipleship book from our literature rack.

4. The gentleman at the table was from the 4 County Transitional Living house in Angola. He had been off meth 106 days. Each day is a new personal record. He has been in and out of jail several times. His mother is raising his 12 year old daughter. He is 31 years old.

Three of these four people have been in FMC services. I share this with you because you never know what the person sitting in the seat with you might be struggling with. These four helpers represent those who are touched by BMP through the back door. Pray for these four. Their Christmas wish list for themselves and their families is to be able to stay sober just one more day and keep setting new personal records. Pray for WIT and 4 County Transitional Living.

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make BMP successful. The census takers counted 3,300 people who walked the streets of Bethlehem the day after Christ was born, about 75% of them were first time visitors. Go to FMC’s Facebook page to see some of the comments that we received. This Sunday’s bulletin will have a page dedicated to BMP comments too.