LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Sitting in a straight-back chair in the back of the conference room, Scott Teutsch looked interested in the subject matter being discussed during the morning session of the board of trustees’ meeting at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary April 21. Admittedly, though, his thoughts were elsewhere.
Teutsch, a Southern Seminary trustee and pastor of Eastwood Baptist Church, Haughton, La., was considering how he would get in touch with “Jyothi” while he was in Louisville, Ky., for the two-day meeting. Jyothi (pronounced “Jodie”) is a young woman from India whose life was grafted into the body of believers and into the hearts of Eastwood’s members through a unique outreach of the church.
An arm of the congregation that reaches through the back door of the church and into the “backside” of Louisiana Downs helped bring Jyothi to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Located one mile from the racetrack, Eastwood’s “backside ministry” plays an active role in the lives of the seasonal workers at the track. Members of the church make regular trips to the backside where they share the gospel with horse trainers, groomers and others.
In October 1996, Teutsch brought a vanload of workers from the track to the church for a production of “Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames.” Jyothi made a profession of faith that night and returned the next Sunday to be baptized.
Racing season came to a close within three weeks, and Jyothi moved on. But she would not soon forget her connection to Eastwood.
Teutsch recalled that he did not hear from Jyothi again until February. She telephoned him with the news that she had made some poor choices and had become pregnant early in 1997. When friends and co-workers tried to persuade Jyothi to have an abortion, he recalled she asserted, “God will not let me do that.” She gave birth to Josephine last October. Teutsch and Jyothi prayed over the phone, and the two left the conversation agreeing they would speak again soon.
In mid-March, Jyothi contacted Teutsch again; this time she desperately needed prayer. She had moved to Louisville for the 1998 racing season but had no place to stay. Jyothi feared that if she slept on the streets, someone would take her baby. Teutsch assured her that he and his congregation would pray for a safe place for her and her baby to live.
Faithful to his promise, Teutsch informed the members of Eastwood about Jyothi’s situation during a weekly prayer meeting, and the believers earnestly prayed for divine intervention. Knowing that their pastor would be in Louisville in April for the Southern Seminary trustee meeting, a few ladies from the church packaged some clothes for Josephine and a woman’s study Bible for Jyothi.
Teutsch had every intention of finding Jyothi on his biannual trip to Louisville. But where should he start? During a short break between meetings, he called the local Long Run Baptist Association office hoping someone there could give him some direction. But before he picked up the phone to start his seemingly blind search, God had already set up a divine appointment.
As he began to explain the situation to the woman on the other end of the line, she stopped Teutsch in mid-sentence, declaring, “I know her.”
Christina Vincent is involved with a ministry at Churchill Downs similar to Eastwood’s “backside,” and she had met Jyothi through her work there. Vincent told Teutsch that Jyothi and her baby were taken to Wayside Christian Mission by a family from Louisville’s Southeast Christian Church.
As soon as the afternoon meetings were over and most other trustees had returned to their hotel, Teutsch tucked the packages from the church under his arm and took off for Wayside. There, in the midst of caring volunteers and inquisitive children returning “home” from school, he found Eastwood’s prayers were being answered.
Jyothi and Josephine are being nourished physically and spiritually during this transition. As Teutsch sat down with the two, he thanked God aloud for his goodness. Jyothi told him she was no longer working at the race tracks and that she had taken a job at a Mexican restaurant across from Wayside. She said she was trying to get her life back together.
Jyothi’s eyes widened as Teutsch handed her the package from the ladies who had shared Christ with her a year and a half ago. As a smile drew the corners of her mouth heavenward, Teutsch could tell Jyothi was thinking that even when so much in her life had changed, God’s love had remained the same.
Carswell is a newswriter at Southern Seminary.
