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Driving, dialing and giving praise to the Lord
A Cornelius man ministers by cell phone to truckers on the road
JOE MARUSAK
CORNELIUS - The Rev. Thomas Little's worship hall is America's open roads. His audience is big-rig truckers who pull off highways from Florida to Pennsylvania to pray, sing and hear the retired Cornelius minister's weekly sermons by cell phone conference call.
Little, who turns 79 on Dec. 22, 2007 preaches to an average 35 to 40 truckers and their wives at 9:15 p.m. each Tuesday from the living room of his home on Hickory Street. Although the former longtime Church of God pastor lives in the Cornelius Church of God parsonage, his sermons are nondenominational.
With dachshund Malice, 12, at his feet and parrot Chipper squawking from another room, Little delivers his 20-minute sermons from a chair at his living room table. He uses a Bible and printed sermon notes.
Last Tuesday's call-in drew truckers and their wives from Alabama, the Carolinas, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
"My church members can't talk back to me," Little said with a smile. "I don't even see them."
One by one, callers mentioned people to pray for. Some broke into song, others tears. By 9:40, Little started his message based on a passage from the Old Testament prophet Hosea. The message was to follow Jesus wherever he leads you.
"Today, the Lord is trying to wake us up, get close to him," Little told listeners. "I don't know how much more this world can get into. We need to listen to God."
He continued nonstop until 10 p.m., even as he got up from the table to let his dog in and out of the home for a bathroom break.
Little has been on the cell phone airwaves for several months as part of Interstate Disciples for Christ, which Jack Norton, a trucker, Cornelius Church of God member and Denver resident, helped start 1 1/2 years ago.
Norton told me he had a vision one night while driving his 18-wheeler in Texas, to pull over and give an hour to God each week with other truckers. He spreads the word through fliers at truck stops.
"Fourteen people have been saved," Norton said. Donations people make to the ministry are given to families in need.
Little said he receives a monthly $300 "love offering" from the ministry. He said the outreach helps him deal with loneliness since his wife of 51 years, Geraldine, died Sept. 28 after a years-long bout with ovarian cancer. One of his three brothers is ill in a local hospital.
What seems to help him is talking about God over a cell phone. "I could go on for an hour-and-a-half, but I won't do it," he said.
Listening In
The Rev. Thomas Little preaches at 9:00 p.m eastern time. Wednesdays on the Faith Outreach Ministries "Tele-A-Ministry." Call 218-339-4300 pin# 288654.
Cell phone companies generally offer free calling plans after 9 p.m., which is why the ministry begins at that hour.
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