The desert heat was sweltering.

As the small pick-up truck barreled down the road, inside, a lady and her daughter bounced to the rhythm of an uneven mix of broken asphalt and country dirt. As the sparse desert landscape rolled by she thought to herself, "What's the use?" Both the woman and her daughter, Dolly, seemed to be far away in thought as she pulled up to an intersection. The heat was maddening, but she had gotten use to it. Over the past five or six years that she had lived in the tiny town she had grown accustomed to the brutal summers.

They lived in the California desert just outside of Palm Springs, in Yucca Valley; and even though by now it should barely faze her, today the heat was unusually harsh. Arguing and fighting with Steve probably didn't help matters at all.

Steve was her boyfriend of the past few months. He was a regular at the bar where she worked; the Silver Dollar. Actually he was a regular at all the bars in town. They had met a few months earlier, and after discovering a few things held in common between them, they decided to date. Just about every single night it was the same thing: Steve would play his guitar and sings songs as Duffy would be pouring a cold beer, or maybe she would be at the bar wiping down. Often she would stop whatever she was doing just long enough to listen . Oh, she loved how he played.

But the good times were getting more difficult to recognize, and hard times were settling in. Again. There was a lot of drinking and lots of drugs. The couple suffered because of it and she was starting to see it. Inside she saw it deeply. She wanted a change, but she didn't know how to go about it. She had decided just minutes earlier that she would go to an A.A. meeting, so she loaded Dolly into the truck and off she went.

Now, as she sat at the intersection contemplating her life and trying to make sense of things, her mind drifted back to a time some ten or twelve years past. She was in her early twenties, experiencing some very serious difficulties and had gone into a church seeking an answer to her life's problems. It was one of them old time church revivals, and during that encounter she had a meeting, ever so briefly, with the Truth.

Duffy grew up in a home that was completely devoid of any semblance of God. Her father was agnostic, bordering paganism. He refused to allow any mention of God in his house, nor did he allow his children to come to know Him. When Duffy was little, sometimes she would sneak off to join her friends at the vacation bible school in the summertime, fearful to the last that her father might find out. She truly enjoyed the stories and loved being with her friends. Later in her twenties, when she somehow ended up in a church revival, the flood of childhood feelings reemerged and she had an experience that stayed with her through the ensuing years, though the drugs and alcohol always kept them just below the surface.

Now, as she made a right turn onto Hwy. 62, she discovered that somewhere deep down those feelings had always remained.

Suddenly she realized that the A.A. meeting was in the opposite direction. She was supposed to have turned left ! Why did she come this way, she thought. She was so upset inside, she must not have been paying attention. 'The argument with Steve…', she thought to herself,'…that was it.' Had to be. She looked in her rear view mirror contemplating a u-turn when her eyes alit on a familiar sign up ahead. There, on a huge banner before a storefront church, was one word: REVIVAL.

Immediately Duffy yanked the steering wheel to the right and the little truck screeched to a halt. Dolly was looking up at her mother with wide eyes, wondering what was going on. Duffy turned her head slightly, gazing across her daughter's lap and out of the passenger side window. She stared at the front door of the church. Inside she could see a few people milling about and her heart began to beat faster. She looked down at her daughter and said, "We're going to church instead."

Dolly's face sparkled as the little girl flashed a giant smile. It was a smile so big that her mom would never ever forget it. They hopped out of the truck and walked in.

Duffy's life was about to change.

* * * * * * * * * *

The man reeked of booze.

Steve had been drinking for years, and there was a perpetual smell of alcohol that seemed to permeate his every fiber. Over the course of his life he had grown more and more addicted to alcohol and drugs. Now in his early thirties, he had suffered from a lifetime of bad choices. Steve had picked up a few D.U.I.'s over the years and most recently his girlfriend, Duffy, had pulled him out of his car.

Drunk as a skunk, he had been driving along slowly, bouncing off of the sandy burms that are on the sides of most roads in the desert. She had pulled up beside him and yanked him out of his car, taking him home. Of course he didn't stay put that time, he just got up and walked back to the bar. That had been the beginning of one their recent fights. Steve was a good guy, he cared and all; but he just couldn't care enough to stop drinking. In and of himself he just couldn't find the strength to stop. He needed help.

Steve started running at a young age. He grew up in Costa Mesa, California, in a house with an abusive dad. When he was 14 he ran away to his grandparents house in the Fontana and Ontario areas. He attended Fontana high school, and, in 1966 when he graduated he signed up for the armed services. All of them. He was turned down by every branch due to his vision being severely impaired. This caused him to feel like he had let his country down and for years it bothered him.

He got a job driving trucks for a nursery outlet, starting out on smaller delivery trucks before eventually working his way up to the big semi's. Occasionally on the weekends he would party once in a while with some friends. Steve was the guy who was always quick to pull out his guitar and start singing some old country or blues tune. After a while the drinking and partying progressed from every couple of weekends, to every weekend, to all during the week, until finally, all the time. It was beginning to wear on him, so in 1971 Steve decided that he would pack his things and go to Nashville. He told himself that he was going to make it big as musician.

Along the way, as Steve drove to Tennessee, he stopped in Monroe Louisiana. Monroe was a small town of about seventy families. He stepped out of his car and looked around, seeing nothing spectacular. Lots of flat country and farms as far as his eyes could see. He decided to stay for a spell and got hired on at a pig farm. Eventually he caught the eye of a local girl and a relationship blossomed. Soon the town pastor came by to pay Steve a visit.

The pastor of the local congregation dropped in on a Saturday. Steve had already had a couple beers by mid-morning and he listened as the pastor tell him about the Lord Jesus Christ, and about the price of sin. Even through the alcohol the truth about God hit a chord in Steve's heart. That day Steve cried his eyes out over his sin, but as for going to church, he knew that he would have to check it out some more before making a commitment. Sunday he went to church and things were o.k., no big revelations. But, during the following Sunday service he heard something that turned him off completely. Racism being as it was in the south during the civil rights movement, the preacher said some things that caused Steve to turn away. He just couldn't see how 'Christians' could be so hateful and he decided that he wanted no part of that. Yet he still married the girl from the small Louisiana town and brought her back to California.

They settled back in the Ontario area, but times were hard and after about six months, with no promising leads, they packed up and returned to her town. Steve had heard of some work in Nebraska and wanted to move there, but she didn't want to go, so he came back to California without her.

Things didn't change much for the man over the next few years. His drinking and using continued to cause problems for him. One night, after coming home, he got into a drunken accident with a police car. He woke up on the ground, thinking that he was dreaming a nightmare. When he realized what happened, he wished it really had been a nightmare. The collision totaled the cop car. He ended up having many such run-ins over the years that followed, each incident being progressively worse until life began to be a pattern of destruction.

Steve moved his grandparents up to Yucca Valley in 1972, staying behind in Fontana, and he found himself falling deeper and deeper into a crazy life. He began hanging out with some really dangerous people, running with the outlaw motorcycle clubs. This was during the biker wars of the early and mid-seventies. Biker gangs were all over Fontana, and San Bernardino in general, and Steve was asked to join one.

One night a local motorcycle club president was assassinated. A friend of Steve's happened to be there and he was shot at during the assassination, but somehow managed to escape. Steve started thinking real hard about the direction of his life, and he made a choice not to join up. He quickly moved out to Yucca Valley with his grandparents.

Things mellowed out a little. Steve worked occasionally as a cement worker. He would get just enough money to keep himself high for a while, bouncing around from one job to the next. This was around 1975-76. He spent the next few years living a meager existence, going from job tot job, hanging out at the local bars and playing his guitar. He didn't know it at the time but he was about to come to the end of his days of running.

By the close of 1980 he had met Duffy.

Steve and Duffy were regulars at the local bar scene. They started talking and soon realized that they had both driven trucks for a living in the past. Steve for the nursery, and Duffy had driven a lettuce truck. This shared commonality helped to kindle a friendship between them.

Most nights Steve would come into the bar where Duffy worked already lit up, drunk or high on some narcotic. Steve would often say hi to a few regulars before taking his usual spot. He would then pull his guitar out of it's battered case, spend a moment nursing a beer and tuning the strings, before belting out some raucously good tune. Duffy always liked listening to Steve play. Eventually a romance developed, and shortly afterwards they moved in together. Things had moved so fast, even they thought so. Soon there were fights and arguments.

Now Steve was completely blitzed. Duffy had left their house in a rush. They had gotten into yet another spat, and she loaded dolly into the truck, mumbling something about an A.A. meeting, and rumbled down the road. His head spun dizzily, from the circumstances as much as the chemicals, as he wondered what was next for him.

They had no idea of the wheels that were in motion, working behind the scenes to bring these two souls together for the glory of God.

Inside the revival, Duffy was listening to the man up front preach. It was a small, compact meeting place, with a scattering of mismatched chairs and a tiny podium that doubled as an altar. Her mind was racing. All of the recent turmoil in her life, all the hurts of the past, all of the failures were shouting at her; telling her to turn and go. But she didn't leave. She stayed in her place. Suddenly, she recalled her revival experience from a decade earlier and a flood of emotions flushed her soul. Her heart began to beat faster. She was having a hard time focusing on what the preacher was saying. Her mind was racing, her heart was pounding, and all she new was that she had to get over to that altar. She didn't completely understand why, but she knew that she had to get up there and drop to her knees before the Lord. There was a calling inside. She saw the answer to her problems in coming to God. Suddenly she knew that that was what had been missing all her life. She slowly walked forward, with tears welling in her eyes, and knelt down before the Lord Jesus Christ. She confessed her sins and gave her life to God. Suddenly she felt a small still voice speak to her heart.

He Said, "You are safe with me." Duffy cried a tear of joy, as she knew that those words were true. And finally she felt at peace.

Meanwhile, things hadn't changed for Steve. He kept on drinking and over the next two days he wondered about Duffy; what was happening to her, where she might be. He had a friend named Davy who would come by once in a while. Davy was constantly asking Steve to come with him to church. A lot of the time it bugged Steve, and he would come up with any excuse to not go. But this time Davy didn't give Steve the opportunity to duck out. Before he could think up a good enough reason, Davy had already said, "I'm on my way over. Be ready." And then he hung up.

A short while later they were pulling up to a small store front church that had a huge banner outside that read: REVIVAL.

Steve could feel a slight apprehensiveness rise up as he opened his door and stepped out of the car. People were going in with smiles on their face, real smiles, and that helped to calm him. He sat down next to his friend and listened as the preacher went on and on about pride. He said that even 'decent' people won't bow their knee to Jesus to confess their sins. They were too prideful. Steve knew the preacher was talking about him. He listened as the man spoke more about Jesus, the wages of sin, fallen mankind, and the salvation of God. He listened to the Good News message of the cross. He was rapt. He found that he was giving his complete attention, and he was experiencing peace. When the pastor made an altar call, Steve stepped up and received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.

Neither Steve nor Duffy had known about the transformation that was taking place in the life of the other.

Three days later Steve showed up with a greeting card for Duffy. He knocked on the door, and Duffy stepped out into the yard. Dolly was standing just inside the doorway watching, behind the screen.

Steve handed Duffy the card and said, "This is for you." Duffy pulled the envelope open and removed the card, reading the words inside, and a smile came across her face.

"I accepted Jesus," he said to her as she read the words. "I am a new man." The little girl Dolly stepped out onto the porch.

Duffy looked up at him and smiled, saying, "So did I. Dolly and I both did. We accepted Jesus two nights ago." The three of them came together in the front yard and held each other close. They talked about what they had experienced. There was a joy there that they had never before felt. A true joy that came from knowing that Jesus had saved them. They clung to each other, a new family, new creations in Christ. And they were happy.

Steve and Duffy began a journey together that would demonstrate the miraculous hand of God at work in their lives, and the lives of those around them. At first they were a little confused as to what direction they should go in next. Duffy wanted to feed the homeless but Steve wanted to play music for the Lord. So they joined a small bible study group and began fellowshipping with other Christians. The group as a whole decided that they wanted to create a place where people could come for assistance. They took out a lease on a small shop with an upstairs, and Steve and Duffy offered to stay there. Eventually "The Place" was opened.

It was small, and had little resources, but there were a few racks of used clothing and a couple of spare bunks and sometimes people would come in off the street to crash , or maybe to pick out a jacket in the cold times. Some time later the bible study group kind of fell away from "The Place" and Steve and Duffy were left with the responsibility of the shop, lease and all.

But they managed; the gracious hand of God supporting them through the following year. God had plans for this couple, plans that they couldn't see yet. Extraordinary plans for a community that He knew was in need. God Himself was preparing this couple so that they could be his vessels and fulfill the need. And they truly had no idea.

In 1985 "The Way Station" was started on five dollars seed money. Things were sometimes difficult, as ministries can be in the early going, but eventually things just continued to grow. Today the Way Station provides free food to the needy, including turkey dinner boxes during the holidays, gift drives, clothing, and many other community resources. There are daily bible study's and Steve and Duffy are always on hand to counsel or encourage some wayward person or family, using their experience as a tool for reaching the downtrodden.

God has blessed Steve and Duffy immensely. His faithfulness is demonstrated to all through the continued growth of a ministry that serves their community. May we all be blessed enough to see the providence of God working in our own lives.

Amen.