Lord Jesus Will Answer

DISCOURAGED? CALL DI 0614.

This familiar classified ad in the Washington News sent a despondent man to the phone in the dead of night. To the woman's voice that answered, he said: "I was intending to commit suicide tonight, and a friend told me to call you first." The warm voice at the other end began to pray. After a bit of prayer and a blessing, the would-be suicide felt unaccountably better. He mumbled his thanks and hung up.

The voice that answers at DI 0614 belongs to a short, 70-year-old woman with straggly grey hair, restless hands and a tranquil face. For the past four years, Julia A. Shelhamer, widow of a Free Methodist evangelist, has lived in her mission--a row-house in one of Washington's worst slums. With the help of two assistant ministers, their wives and her own 77-year-old sister, she conducts church and Sunday school services, plus a full schedule of community activities, for a congregation that is about half Negro, half white. "Sometimes," she says, "there are just ten or twelve people; other times we're packed and jammed." Last Thanksgiving she fed 1,000 people.

Her latest undertaking began about eight months ago after Mrs. Shelhamer heard of the suicide of a prominent Washingtonian. "I just walked around the house and prayed. I didn't even kneel. 'Lord Jesus,' I said, 'why couldn't I contact some of these people before they commit suicide?' " A newspaperman wrote the classified ad for her and paid to run it daily for three months. Her telephone seems to have been ringing steadily ever since. One Sunday, the busiest day, she got no calls.

Some of her telephone consultations have dramatically happy endings. One young man who poured out his troubles to her is now studying for the ministry. A young wife, ready for Reno because of her husband's interest in "a yellow-headed girl," was guided through to a reconciliation. All Julia Shelhamer knows about most of the people who call her is that they seem to get real help from her sure faith and reassuring words: "I know the Lord will answer prayer. Will you pray with me? If you will only confess your sins, God will take that sin away and remove the feeling of guilt . . ."

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