03-01-10

Where there is no vision, the people perish (Prov 29:18a)

Dear brothers and sisters, God bless you. Please allow me to briefly introduce you to Colonel Myrl Allinder, USMC-Ret, who is one of the godly men now sitting on our Rescue Mission Board of Directors. Colonel Allinder was a career fighter pilot and a Marine Fighter/Attack Squadron Commander in Vietnam where he served two tours of duty and flew 375 combat missions. We shall not enumerate all of Brother (as he now prefers to be called) Myrl’s illustrious military service excepting a stint serving at the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, JDA Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his retirement as Assistant Chief of Staff at the US Readiness Command, MacDill AFB. You get the idea. Well, because he was an active evangelical Christian, Brother Myrl had some very definite problems with his superior officers in the military, but he was given this following “vision” about Florida and feeding the poor in 1985.   

I was Chair, Amphibious Warfare, Naval War College, Newport, RI in 1985 and intended to retire from the Marines in RI. I fasted and prayed on this decision, the Holy Spirit seemed to say: “Take one more set of orders.” OK. But NOT in the South, I do not take the heat well, and RI suited me to a “T.” After calling HQMC to agree to one more set of orders, the Assignment Officer said, “OK. You’ll go to Fleet Marine Force Atlantic, Norfolk, VA.” A few days later, the AO called again: “The General at FMFLANT does NOT want you. You’re going to the Joint Deployment Agency, Joint Chiefs of Staff, at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. I was HUMILIATED and CRUSHED.

A request came from the Full Gospel Business Men to give an evangelistic testimony at a hotel in Woonsocket, RI. A few weeks later after breakfast in Woonsocket with some believers who had invited some unbelievers to a free breakfast to hear a “dynamic testimony from a Marine Colonel,” I rose to speak, and about half-way through my testimony, a complete stranger lady rose in the back of the dining room and interrupted me with, “I have just seen a VISION.”

I was dumfounded! What to do? It came into my head: “Tell us your vision.” She replied, “I see the west coast of Florida; and I see a tall green hedge down the west coast of Florida.” That was it!

It made absolutely no sense to me, but a “spiritual sense” of Peace came over me, and seemed to quiet my unrest and angst about being ordered to Tampa, Florida. So I thought, “Well, things are going GREAT in Florida. God is going to do great things through me in Florida. OK. Let’s go!” In fact, after arriving in Tampa in July 1985 I endured nine months of the most traumatic tribulation of my life. THE STORMS/HURRICANES BLEW. THE RAIN FELL. THE FLOODS ROSE. BUT THE HOUSE BUILT UPON THE ROCK STOOD FIRM. (Matt 7). But I was CRUSHED and HUMILIATED. Again and again.

My frustration and heat intolerance rose for the two weeks we searched in July 1985 for a home in Tampa. We had only $10,000 to our name. After another day of fruitless searching for an affordable home, and after yelling at my wife in a public restaurant, we were back at the base quarters at MacDill AFB, when the phone in the room rang about 10 p.m. NO ONE knew where we were; and NO ONE knew the number of the phone in our room… not even me. I had locked myself in the bathroom in distress… trying to pray… trying to repent of all my wicked behavior… when my wife knocked on the bathroom door: “It’s Al Malachuk. He wants to talk to you.” Impossible! The ethnic Russian Malachuk family from New Jersey were known especially as owners of the LOGOS Christian Publishing Company. We had last seen Al in Washington DC around 1970-71. In disbelief I unbolted the bathroom door, and took the phone. “How did you find me? NO ONE knows where we are. Plus, I’m going CRAZY trying to find a home in Tampa.” Al replied, “Come look for a home in Clearwater.”

In a series of “minor miracles,” we were “given” the home across the street from the Malachuks in Clearwater. The owner financed the home and insisted we move in right away! In August 1985, my wife went back to Georgia to bring her invalid mother to come live with us. AND HURRICANE ELENA BLEW UP! The ink was hardly dry on the previous owner’s loan papers! Elena came straight at Clearwater! I was certain we were in for disaster. As I fretted, the Holy Spirit said, “Do you remember the TALL GREEN HEDGE of the vision in Woonsocket? You are protected.”

Elena came to 40 miles off Clearwater, and stood stationary for 40 hours, and I later learned the elevation of our home is 40 feet. And the biblical number of TESTING and TRIAL is…40. A few more “trivial” details: our home is surrounded by a tall green hedge, our carpeting throughout is green, and the wallpaper is green. Nahum: “YAHWEH has HIS WAY in the HURRICANE; the CLOUDS are the DUST of HIS Feet.” What to the world is DEATH and/or DESTRUCTION, is to the believer SAFETY and PEACE. According to Moses and Pharaoh; according to Noah; according to Shadrack, Meshack, Abednego… and the 17 guards who chained them.

Shortly afterwards, Christopher James, one of the brothers of RAYMOND-JAMES investments prophesied that I would be involved in an effort to help the poor on the west coast of Florida. In 1986 I was forced into an early retirement by my Air Force General boss, who accused me of “breaking the law” by bringing my Bible into a Federal building, holding “unauthorized meetings” as I read and prayed in my office BEFORE work hours and was voluntarily joined by other members of my staff, and showing partiality to those who “come to your unauthorized meetings.” I was CRUSHED and HUMILIATED, didn’t sleep for 20 nights, thought I was dying from heart problems with the palpable “TELEPHONE PHONE through my chest”… only a little more of EGO died, however.

Long story short: in 1987, after retirement from the Marines, I became a missionary to poor countries in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, etc.; was ordained by Grace Presbytery in Harrisonburg, VA, and became involved with the men who founded the Suncoast Haven of Rest Rescue Mission in reaching the poor and the incarcerated in Pinellas County. I “paid my own way” on all mission trips, living on our USMC retirement, giving away tens of thousands of Bibles, books, tapes, CD’s, etc. If men gave freely, ok; but never asked nor charged for any ministry, bought my own plane tickets, etc. We always tithed, and God was faithful; by 2000 the home and all debts were paid off; 3 daughters were through college and married; our 1 son “came in from the cold” after “dropping out” at age 15, finished college in 2003 and is one of the “world’s greatest teachers” in Michigan.

With an aging and frail wife, the Suncoast Haven of Rest Rescue Mission became my “missionary effort” in 2000 when Pastor Lionel asked me to come on the Board of Directors. Ministry to the poor in Pinellas County is full time, allowing me to be home each night to minister to my wife of 53 years. The poor who gather at the Haven of Rest, the prisoners of the Pinellas County Jail, the youthful felons of the Juvenile Detention Center, the school children who accept free Bibles on the streets of Pinellas, and the missions outreach of Bayside Church of God… these are the “congregation.”

The VISION of the “lady” in Woonsocket, RI in 1985 and the PROPHECY of CHRISTOPHER JAMES around 1987-88 regarding the PROTECTION OF GOD on the west coast of Florida… and regarding the MINISTRY TO THE POOR… these are coming to pass. GOD IS FULFILLING HIS WORD… as always.

The Rescue Mission outreach will increase by a MEASURE OF MAGNITUDE (ten times) when GOD provides the larger facilities we now need, and we are in prayerful search for. God has Said it. And GOD IS DOING it.

Myrl Allinder

Colonel, USMC-Ret

Clearwater, FL   

23 Feb 2010

Dear brothers and sisters, the 4.1 acre campus that we are believing God has chosen for us to expand our Rescue Mission into contains an 1,800 square foot office building to be used as a Social Services Day Center for the poor, and an attached 6,800 square foot roofed semi-trailer docking station for receiving and distributing bulk foods to hungry people throughout the west coast of Florida (the Woonsocket vision and our vision), and an attached 58,000 square foot building (imagine two covered football fields side by side – seems larger) for food storage and for the sheltering and feeding of 300 or more poor families and homeless men, women, and little children, and ministering to their spiritual needs. Please help us with your prayers, with your financial support, and with your suggestions. Initially, this “ground-floor” project needs a few dedicated people with rather large hearts and/or bucks, and the services of an architect and an engineer and some environmental advice. Meanwhile we shall continue to minister to the poor and lost of Pinellas County with food and clothing, compassion and love, and eternal salvation. Thank you. God bless you. J  Rev. Lionel

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,

Except a man be born again, he cannot see [“enter into” John 3:5] the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)