By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
WEST MONROE, La. (LBM) – Patrick Adams had been in and out of multiple state detention centers for 22 years when an encounter with Jesus changed his life.
In September, Adams was released from Richland Parish Detention Center in Rayville after serving
a conviction of simple battery and three days later found freedom in Christ during a service at Rescue Church, West Monroe.
“I let it go and gave it to God,” Adams told the Baptist Message. “That’s a hard thing for me to do and while I knew there was a God, I didn’t know a person like me could change.
“But the love I felt the moment I walked into this place really grabbed my heart,” he continued. “I felt tingly all over and heard a voice saying, ‘I’ve got you son.’ At that moment I turned to Christ, and I haven’t looked back since.”
Adams, who responded to a Gospel invitation from Pastor Russell Caldwell, Sept. 5, attended the service as part of his participation in a recovery house on the church grounds – a ministry that includes daily small group Bible studies at 5:30 a.m., nightly meetings, a work requirement and Sunday morning services with Rescue Church.
He is thankful for the men who pour into him throughout the week and his family who never stopped praying that he would turn to Christ.
“If there is anyone out there who needs the Lord, don’t wait to turn to Him,” he said. “He’s real, He’s alive and He’s moving in the lives of people like me. I used to ask people, ‘Where can I get high on drugs?’ but now I ask them, ‘Do you know the Lord?’”
CHANGED LIVES
Adams is one of 60 new believers who have been baptized since Peniel Baptist Church was re-launched as Rescue Church in April 2023 with Caldwell as pastor. The renewed congregation started with just 10 people in Sunday morning worship. The following week, that number doubled when men who were part of the recovery house began to attend, and those men invited their families to come with them, which resulted in further growth. Combined with outreach to the community through a door-to-door visitation program and two Rescue Rallies (distribution of free meals, clothing and Bibles, along with music and jump houses), worship attendance rose to a high of 140 recently.
Caldwell said he has enjoyed the blessings that have come since he became pastor at Rescue Church, which is situated in the drug- and crime-ridden Bawcomville neighborhood.
“God is blessing, and folks are getting saved,” Caldwell said. “My heart is to win the community. Most folks have left Bawcomville, but we are trying to change the community’s identity. It’ll happen through shining the light of Christ in the area and being the hands and feet of Jesus.”
Ben Jones, a native of Bawcomville and member of Peniel Baptist Church for 62 years, said he is thankful he stayed a member of the congregation instead of leaving in 2021. The lone deacon remaining in a church that at one time averaged 300 in Sunday worship, Jones felt he had an obligation to keep the building open and was overjoyed to see the ministry come alive once again.
“This church and community are home,” Jones said. “I may not live here anymore, but I still come back here each Sunday for services. The Lord laid a burden on my heart to keep the doors open even when I was disheartened but now, I get to see the rewards of staying faithful to what God wanted. I get to see people saved each Sunday and my heart overflows with joy.”
