Divine intervention: Church service interrupted by gunman who didn't shoot a single person

'God stepped in and he moved on that young man's heart...'

A man armed with a rifle interrupted Pastor Larry Wright's New Year's Eve sermon, intent to kill -until God intervened.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Pastor Wright told WNCN that the gunman, armed with a rifle in one hand and ammo clip in the other, entered the Heal The Land Outreach Ministries' sanctuary, where he was delivering his New Year's Eve sermon to a congregation of about sixty people.

He told CNN, "I'm the first person to see him and when I saw him, I thought it was a dummy gun, but then I saw the bullet clip in his hand and the bullets were shining."

The fayobserver reported Wright immediately stepped from the podium and walked to the unfamiliar man. Some church members ran for the door while others began screaming, but Pastor Wright simply asked, "Can I help you?"

Wright admitted the answer to his question would determine what his next move would be. "If he was belligerent, I was going to tackle him."

At 6-foot-two-inches and 230 pounds, Wright felt he could take on the retired veteran.

Wright explained that the man was calm and handed his weapon over willingly then stood calmly as pastor Wright patted him down and asked four deacons to come embrace the man. He described the act was an attempt to make the man feel loved.

He admitted to Wright that he had just been released from prison, had found a new job and was recently married. He then shared he'd been hurt in the past by the church and he wanted prayer.

"When I told the congregation, its [sic] OK, he wants prayer and I began to pray for him, and the power of God hit and he fell to his knees and began to cry and weep and he had his face on the ground," Wright described.

"And then I began to minister to him and pray to him and talk with him," Wright explained. He told the man to take a seat in the front row and stay, which the veteran did.

"I finished the message, I did the altar call and he stood right up, came up to the altar, and gave his life to Christ. I came down and prayed with him and we embraced. It was like a father embracing a son."

As they hugged, Wright whispered to the man that police were waiting in the vestibule since he had scared so many people, then the man asked to speak to the remaining churchgoers. 

First he apologized, then admitted, "I came here with some terrible things on my mind, I was going to do some bad things." But he didn't because God spoke to him.

"God stepped in and he moved on that young man's heart and instead of him shooting and killing a whole lot of people, God touched his heart," Pastor Wright explained.

The man was arrested following the service but was not charged. Instead, he has been taken to a medical center as a voluntary commitment.

"I think that night the spirit of God was definitely in the place," one of the church's deacons, Sylvester Loving, shared.

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