I was serving a church in Kingsport, Tennessee where a retired Air Force Veteran took the Gospel seriously and organized a mission building a bedroom, bathroom addition for grandparents in a tiny, downtown home who were now raising two grandchildren. In the construction, I learned much from a man who had seen much evil in his life, but held onto a brisk, joyful outlook on life. We faced many challenges in the build but the Lord cleared each obstacle. It was finally time to make the sewer tie in. I opened the hole exposing the ancient sewer and had after a few trips, assembled the fittings and tools to tie in the new bathroom to the sewer. We advised the homeowners not to run any water until the tie in was completed……you guessed it…… the owners failed to realize the washing machine dumped into the sewer, and just as I opened the line, I was covered from head to toe, with human waste and laundry water, gagging and spitting. Jesse was half horrified, and half entertained, and said “ You giving it up?” I spit out “ Take my glasses and pour a bottle of water over my head, I’m wading in to make the connection.” By the time I finished Jesse had a fresh water hose and laughingly professed “ I thought I’d seen it all, but never saw a preacher looking like that!” The next Sunday Jesse stood at witness time, smiling like a bad kid and pronounced “ Brothers and sisters if you’ve prayed to have a pastor that would wade through crap for you; your prayers have been answered; and I have personally witnessed Preachee remember his baptism!”… and he told the story, joy surging through the church. Jesse’s been with Jesus for a while after a horrible battle with dimentia. His wife called yesterday and is giving me his tools. I can see Jesse in glory joking with the Lord “ Preachee’s fixin to wade through, but he’ll sort through it…”