Chaplain Grant Wolf of the Chattanooga, TN Police Department is compiling an anthology of “stories of faith and courage” from law enforcement personnel for a book to be published for world-wide distribution. The book will be in the form of a daily devotional – 365 stories, one for each day of the year – where members of the law enforcement community sensed the presence of God in some event relating to their work.
Stories are sought from sworn officers, chaplains, 9-1-1 dispatchers, jailers, civilian support staff, spouses and family members in situations where the person submitting the story strongly felt that what occurred was beyond the realm of normal expectations.
Stories received to date run the gamut from light-hearted (a rookie who passed out while helping deliver a baby) to not-for-the-faint of heart (a bank shooting and a fatal auto accident). They represent every phase of law enforcement work and demonstrate that something happened relating to the incident which simply cannot be explained other than by God’s hand.
Download this link for a brochure explaining the law enforcement faith and courage project.
I have known Chaplain Wolf for many years having first met him when he served as Executive Director of The Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers. Let’s see if the Police Dynamics Community can support his project…
Hi Ray,
I have one that is not exactly supernatural, but it is precious to me.
About 1980 or 1981, Lt. Tommy Mimms (later, Sumter County Sherrif) was investigating a drug dealer in Sumter who was arrested and had kept a record book of all his customers. My name was listed as one of the drug buying customers. Lt. Mimms and Sgt. Fred Bradshaw came to my workplace to investigate. I confessed to them that I had indeed bought drugs from the man in question and they grilled me for about an hour. At the end of their interrogation, Lt. Mimms dissmissed Sgt. Bradshaw and asked to speak privately with me.
He said that it was clear to him that I had no busniess doing drugs or associating with the person they were investigating. He then invited me to attend church with him the following Sunday as his guest. I was shocked, but did in fact attend church with him that Sunday. Today, as you know, I am a Pastor and people know me as Rev. Dr. H. Pitts Evans. Lt. Tommy Mimms saw something in me that I could not see myself and he stepped out of the role of police officer long enough to throw me a life rope to Christ. The Lord used that outreach to touch me and later changed my life. Part of my testimony will always be that Tommy Mimms saw God’s hand on me long before there was any evidence to show he was right.
Thanks, Pitts. What an awesome story. I know Sheriff Mimms personally and he is indeed a good man and dedicated Christian. He served as the Chaplain for the SC Sheriff’s Assoc. while I first became sheriff. I will pass your story on to Chaplain Wolf…
One night in Late February 1979 my wife and I were returning from a conference. I was driving my State Patrol vehicle, and we were in a severe Ice Storm. I had told myself we needed to stop, the road was far worse than I have ever seen. Still I drove on. A few minutes later I came upon a accident involving a semi and a car. There where cars everywhere. As soon as they saw what was in front of them they just were instantly out of control. Any way I Stopped my vehicle (emergency lights on) in a place it would protect the car that had bounced of the semi and hit the guard rail head on. I radioed the local county of the accident and asked them to send me another unit to help prevent any further problems. The semi driver got to me and started to tell me his story. I told him we had to get traffic under control and get the women in the car out and make sure they were ok and safe before we could do the investigation. I had him take all my Flares and place two rows of them from the shoulder forward to the center of the road. As a State Police Officer in a rural area I carried lots of “extra stuff “ so I could be sure that everyone had all they needed I began to help the lady’s out of their vehicle which was still at risk and would have to be moved. I got the driver to a car that had gotten past the accident without becoming involved. Then I got the lady in the middle of the car to the same place. The lady by the passenger door refused to slide over and exit the car from the driver’s side. With some dark thought of someone sliding past the flares, I went around the car to the passenger side (also the oncoming traffic) opened the door to get her to safety. As I did I felt like someone taped me on the shoulder and told me to look back. I did. I have never been so scared in my life. I saw the headlights of a car sliding out of control, through the flares. I saw the truck driver throw his flare as he jumped out of the vehicles path. I knew we were going to be hit. I shoved the lady as far as I could towards the Driver’s door, slammed it shut and realized I had nowhere to go. You know the time distortion when you get that huge adrenalin rush. I saw the Ice on the bridge rail had been broken or melted by the lady’s as it hit the bridge. I jumped over the rail and held on. At that time I thought this is all going to be ok. Another bad assumption, the oncoming car wasn’t going to hit the car after all, it was going to hit the bridge first, then the car. I remember thinking about my parachute training. As I let go I rolled myself into a parachute landing tuck. This time I know everything was going to be OK. Wrong again. Where I landed the Grade was not going down 90% from the road, it was graded parallel to the road leading to the railroad tracks the bridge was passing over. When I became aware of my circumstance, I grabbed my arm for support and walked up the slope to a car. It took the ambulance over an hour and a half to get there. We had to go to the next hospital which took another three or four hours. When I woke up the next day I learned that the Orthopedic surgeon that treated me was one of the best in the World and had only been in that hospital because of the storm. He had been there doing a seminar for the local orthopedic Doctors and his hotel had no power so he had stayed at the hospital.
I gave you a few clues about things only faith can provide. Being the first vehicle to get there after the accident and then the felling I needed to get those ladies’s moved to a safer place now. Then being told to look over my shoulder. Then the fantastic Doctor that wasn’t supposed to be there. The fact the first hospital didn’t have the power to run the X-ray Department. All said explain this. The following summer I went back to see the scene of the accident. I went down to the bottom to see where I hit. It was about 40 feet below the road; now the biggest part. You explain it. During that storm I grabbed my arm to steady it as much as I could and I walked back up to the road, and sat down in a car. Now it’s warm, sunny and dry. I COULD NOT CLIMB UP TO THAT ROAD WITH OUT USING MY HANDS ON THE CEMENTE FOR THE EXTRA SUPPORT IT TOOK TO WALK AT THE ANGLE. I know where MY God was that night.
Pete