JIM WAS AN ADDICT FOR 30 YEARS

It was while Jim was homeless that he was forced to look deep inside himself. On his way to his drug dealer’s house with the only money he had in the world, his stolen truck broke down in front of a pager store.

Jim went inside and was greeted by the owner of the shop. Jim told him he needed to use the phone. The big figure of a man told him,

“My brother, this is a divine appointment for you today. This is the year of jubilee for the Lord!”

Jim was so high he wondered if this guy was even talking to him.

The man continued, “Brother, we need to talk”.

Within minutes the man had Jim in tears. He told Jim “Today you need to make a decision…on what you’re going to do with the rest of your life”.

Jim gathered himself enough and thought that he had to get out of there. A struggle was going on inside of him. He asked the man again to use the phone so that he could get help with his broken down truck.

“Brother, that truck is not broken down. If you make the right decision today, when you go out there, the truck is going to start right up” The man told Jim.

Jim went outside with the thought that if the truck were to start, he’d be in big trouble because he knew that he would have to make a decision.

As he put his key in the ignition, he paused…turned the key…and the truck roared to a start.

That day, Jim poured his broken life onto the throne of God and told him “Lord, here it is!”

Today, now 12 years sober, Jim Baldwin is the founder of Smile Seekers, a ministry inspired by James 1:27.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Smile Seekers visit the elderly twice a week in Southern California senior citizen facilities. Jim leads a group of up to 70 men, women and children to visit the lonely and dying.

Jim has also recently undertaken a new project by raising funds for the building of a seventy-five hundred square foot, solid stone 3-story orphanage in Kenya, Africa. The orphanage will be completed in December of 2009.