Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. –2 Corinthians 5:17
It took John Coyle 59 years and a cross-country trek to find what he was looking for.
“I drove 1,057 miles to find Jesus,” Coyle said. “I got my joy back. You never know you ain’t got joy ’til you get it.”
Before
Coyle’s road to salvation began in York, South Carolina, in May 2013.
He was having a rough year. His beloved dog had died in his arms, and broken relationships littered his family life.
As Coyle sat, watching TV—angry at the world and convincing himself that God wasn’t real, let alone good—he saw something about Samaritan’s Purse volunteers in Shawnee, Oklahoma. The city had just become a household name after a deadly tornado ripped through.
“Something told me to call,” Coyle said. “I told my wife, ‘I’m going to Oklahoma. I don’t know how. I don’t know why.’”
Coyle got in touch with Samaritan’s Purse, bummed some gas money from friends and headed west in his old Sebring, feeling like he didn’t have much to lose.
“Everyone in my family hated me,” Coyle said.
“I didn’t like me.”
A Change in Shawnee
Some 16 hours of driving later, Coyle pulled into the parking lot of the church that would house him and other Samaritan’s Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association volunteers for the next few weeks. Immediately, Coyle said, he sensed the presence of God.
“I just pulled in and felt Him,” Coyle said. “He was all over that place.”
Coyle quickly made friends with Samaritan’s Purse program manager Tony McNeil and Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplain Leo Grabowski, who lived less than 20 miles from Coyle.
“Everybody saw a man who was bitter and hurt,” Grabowski said.
Meanwhile, Coyle noticed something different about the chaplain.
“When I met Leo I knew he was a man of God,” Coyle said. “You can see it.”
In the following days, McNeil, Grabowski and others took Coyle under their wing. As he dragged tree limbs, cleaned up trash and helped Shawnee residents search for lost treasures, Coyle had the chance to take part in prayer and Bible studies and ask questions about faith.
“He was loved on by everyone,” Grabowski said. “One day we sat down together alone and talked for some time, just getting to know each other. He said, ‘I want what you have. I want that same peace.’”
“We went through Steps to Peace with God, and I had him read some of the Bible verses,” Grabowski continued. “After just a few moments he said, ‘I know the rest. I want Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I want Him now.’”
There were about seven or eight people around when Coyle accepted Christ, Grabowski said, “and there wasn’t a dry eye in the area.”
It was June 1, 2013.
“That’s my new birthday,” Coyle said. “You’ve never seen a happier man in your life, to know there is a God and He does care about me. Jesus took all the anger, all the hate, all the mistrust. It was gone.”
“The first thing he did when he said the Sinner’s Prayer was repent,” Grabowski said. “He forgave people. The anger just lifted off of him. It was a dramatic change.”
After
A little over a year later, Coyle became a volunteer at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. One of the first people he bumped into was Leo Grabowski. There were bear hugs and tears, and the two men have continued to foster a friendship.
Coyle has also taken part in three more Samaritan’s Purse deployments, and he volunteers with Operation Christmas Child.
Most importantly, healing is happening in those broken family relationships, and Coyle is growing in his walk with God. He was baptized after he got home from Shawnee, and he takes part in a Bible study at the Library.
“He has the joy of the Lord in him,” Grabowski said. “It’s amazing what God does. He drew him all the way from South Carolina to Shawnee, Oklahoma, to have a rendezvous with the Holy Spirit and meet Jesus.”
“God sent me there, I think, to get saved,” Coyle said. “The chaplains—they’re just the best. I know God saved me, but if it hadn’t been for them … it wouldn’t have worked.”
As he stands at the foot of the glass cross at the Billy Graham Library, greeting visitors with an ear-to-ear smile, John Coyle is a new creation.
“It still gives me a lump in my throat right now, but he’s quite the man of God,” Grabowski said. “All I can say is I’m proud to know him, proud to be a part of what God is doing.”
