By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
The week that Karin Millican and her friends got the idea, the area’s drug problem had come to a head in a local high school. There had been a situation and the drug dogs had been brought in.
It was a big deal, Millican said. She was brokenhearted.
“It’s a problem that’s prevalent across the state, but I’ve just been burdened about how it’s gotten worse in our area,” she said.
Her friend Julie Dabbs agreed.
“It blows my mind how much it’s changed since I was in high school,” Dabbs said. “In some form or fashion, drug addiction has probably touched every home in DeKalb County.”
Millican and Dabbs had been talking and praying about it for weeks, and then the Sunday after the drug dogs swept the high school, Millican said God spoke to her as she sat in the pew of Nazareth Baptist Church, Rainsville.
God’s vision
“I just kind of felt impressed that God wanted us to put on an event, something out of the ordinary, to share the gospel and address the issue,” she said. “But I’m not that kind of person — I’m very quiet, not very outspoken. I thought, ‘Maybe God will lay that on someone else’s heart instead.’”
Dabbs said God laid the same idea on her heart on the same day, and like Millican, she had plenty of reasons not to follow through.
“I could see the event, and I could see Casey speaking at it,” Dabbs said, referring to Casey Rice, a Rainsville-area resident who had overcome a drug addiction.
But Dabbs didn’t work with youth, and she didn’t even live in DeKalb County anymore — she had recently moved to Georgia.
“I told God, ‘Surely You’re not telling this to me,’” she said.
But as Dabbs and Millican talked and heard each other’s stories, they realized He was. And as they began to try to put the event together, every obstacle melted away. They were able to book the DeKalb County School Auditorium, which had never before said “yes” to hosting an event during basketball season, Millican said.
And in eight weeks they were able to put together Unhindered, an event held Nov. 4 that drew nearly 2,000 people. A band made up of local musicians led worship, Rice shared her story and her father, Morris Hicks, pastor of the local Fellowship Christian Center, shared the gospel.
Ken Allen, associational mission strategist for DeKalb Baptist Association, said for Dabbs, Millican and others to pull an event of that size together so fast was “remarkable.”
“That really shows too that the vision for this was folks in the pew,” he said. “God just gave them a vision, and they ran with it.”
He said it was also encouraging to see people from all over the county coming together to be encouraged in the Lord.
“We can lose sight of that bigger body of Christ that’s out there,” Allen said. “These two ladies made a point to get people from different churches involved so that anyone who came through the door would see someone they knew.”
Getting involved
The result was an overwhelming response from churches of various denominations wanting to volunteer and be involved in the event.
And a large crowd was able to hear the gospel, maybe for the first time, Allen said.
Dabbs said she and Millican were thrilled about the opportunity.
“We know Jesus is the only answer to the issues that DeKalb County faces,” Dabbs said. “God took care of everything to make this event happen all along the way.”
Some people who were at Unhindered made decisions to follow Christ that night. Others have reached out to Rice in the time since to thank her for sharing her story.
With that in mind Dabbs said she’s glad they didn’t ignore the idea God planted in their hearts, even though it was uncharted territory for both of them.
“God’s calling us to do something all the time — the question is, are we being sensitive? Sometimes I think it’s possible we get so busy that we don’t stop to listen and do what He’s asking of us,” she said.
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