Homeless man's funeral.

Country Funeral:

As a young minister, I was asked by a funeral director to hold a

grave-side service for a homeless man, with no family or friends. The

Funeral was to be held at a cemetery way back in the country, and this

man would be the first to be laid to rest there.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost; and being

a typical man did not stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour

late. I saw the backhoe and the crew, who was eating lunch, but the

hearse was nowhere in sight.

I apologized to the workers for my tardiness, and stepped to the side of

the open grave, where I saw the vault lid already in place. I assured

the workers I would not hold them up for long, but this was the proper

thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I

poured out my Heart and soul.

As I preached the workers began to say 'Amen, 'Praise the Lord,' and

'Glory'! I preached, and I preached, like I'd never preached before from

Genesis all the way to Revelations. I closed the lengthy service with a

prayer and walked to my car.

As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the

workers saying to another,

"I ain't never seen anything like that before, And I've been putting in

septic tanks for twenty years."