One man's ministry:

Wiggins, a typical small town that has died in the core is located beside the Interstate between Hattiesburg and Gulfport. We could not find many stores downtown or the area where people shopped until we found the Interstate bypass. This service road was lined with typical fast food outlets and gas stations with Wal-Mart being dominant. We parked our truck a distance away as this "Mecca" of America parking lot was quite full and slanted toward the Interstate. It is obvious that the life is being sucked out of the core of small towns as business line the Interstates.

Smoke was rising up from the front of the store and the smell hot dogs and hamburgers cooking could be detected. From behind a cloud of smoke we could see the outline of a large Bar-B-Que that could be towed behind a car. On our exit we approached to see that the food was free and that every person got a free beanie-baby. Ruth stepped around the front of the cart to read on a large sign JESUS IS COMING SOON. A man in his early fifties and his son, wearing aprons that read JESUS IS LORD were operating this cart. He had been coming from Indiana since the end of August in order to provide food and the love of Jesus to the people of the Wiggins area. Almost all the people going in and out of the store knew him, not everybody took a beanie-baby, one woman got a new Bible and he had tracts about salvation which he gave out freely. As we stood there talking while people shouted hello and how are youall doing, a woman came by who said that she had 30 grandchildren. What would our friend from Indiana do now? He gave her the box full of beanie-babies that he had left and called it a day as his food was running low. He said that he had to stop because he was getting tired as he did not get a good night sleep because he gave away his mattress the day before.

We drove back thoughtfully to our cabin in the woods.