Mel Trotter was born in Orangeville, Illinois in 1870, one of seven children. His bartender father was described as a man who, “drank as much as he served.” In his teenage years, Mel became an alcoholic himself.
At 21 years of age he married Lottie Fisher, who was apparently unaware of his alcoholism when they wed. Mel had training as a barber, but his addiction soon pushed the young family, including their young child, into poverty, even selling his family’s possessions to pay for his drink. Again and again he promised his wife he would quit, again and again he failed.
After one ten-day drinking spree, Mel came home to find his two-year-old child dead in his wife’s arms. He later wrote, “I’ll never forget that day. I was a slave, and I knew it. It pretty nearly broke my heart. I said, ‘I’m a murderer. I’m anything but a man. I can’t stand it, and I won’t stand it!’” He embraced his wife and swore, literally on his child’s coffin, that he’d never drink again. Two hours after the funeral he staggered home, falling-down drunk.
In his shame, he left his home and boarded a train for Chicago in January of 1897. When he arrived, he sold his shoes for a drink. Drunk, broke, and shoeless in the Chicago snow, he determined to throw himself in to freezing Lake Michigan and end his life. On the way to kill himself, he was pulled inside the Pacific Garden Mission. The Director of the Mission who was leading the singing stopped the song when he saw Mel come in and pleaded with God in prayer saying, “O God, save that poor, poor boy.” The Director told those there of his own past addiction and how Christ had delivered him. That night, Mel answered the invitation to receive Christ that evening. Asked later how he knew he was saved, Mel replied, “I was there when it happened, January 19, 1897, ten minutes past nine, Central Time, Pacific Garden Mission, Chicago, Illinois, USA.” He claimed 2 Corinthians 5:17 as his favorite verse, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” The Mission helped Mel find a job as a barber and helped him reunite with his wife. He became very active in the work of the Mission.
In 1900, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, some business leaders contributed seed money for a Gospel Rescue Mission in their city. They reached out to Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago for assistance, and they nominated Mel Trotter as the new mission’s director. Despite having never led a single meeting on his own, he accepted and found himself very adept at the work. He became a well-sought preacher, an effective fundraiser, and able administrator, and mentor to many who followed him in the work.
He found he could both preach and deal with the hecklers. On one occasion, while he was preaching a small group of young men came into the meeting, jeering and being generally disruptive. Trotter stopped his sermon and began leading the song “More About Jesus.” By the time the song was completed, he had physically thrown each of the ‘tough guys’ out of the building.
Trotter won a man named Herb Sillaway, another drunken barber, to Christ. Over the next four weeks, Herb got drunk six times. In despair, he tried to drown himself. Mel found him in jail, clothes still wet. Saying nothing, Herb noticed Trotter standing in front of him, weeping. Herb said, “My God, man, I believe you love me.” “Yes, Herb,” Trotter replied, “I love you like I love my own soul.” Sillaway eventually became Trotter’s trusted assistant.
Under Mel Trotter’s leadership, the Rescue Mission in Grand Rapids became the largest of its kind in the United States. They purchased a nearby theater (which had hosted a burlesque show) to make space for all the ministries of the Mission. The Mission Sunday School had 300-500 children in attendance, feeding them as well as evangelizing them. There were prison ministries, Bible classes, and street evangelism. His wife began the Martha Mission, teaching homeless women to sew. In addition to all this, Trotter played a major role in establishing dozens of similar Rescue Missions across the United States, many of them led by people he had ministered to and mentored.
During World War I, he preached to soldiers in training camps preparing to be shipped to Europe. The USO required him to “entertain” as well as evangelize, so to avoid being placed between prize fighters and movies, he enlisted a quartet to sign as part of his preaching. He counted over 16,000 soldiers who came to faith under his preaching.
Mel had become a popular Bible conference speaker, and even preached in some of Billy Sunday’s campaigns.
Mel Trotter passed away in 1940. Many spoke at his funeral. One recounted that he would pray with an alcoholic then stand him up, slip him a dollar, and tell him to return that evening with his wife and children. The individual recalled that the alcoholic said as he left, “I would rather die than spend this dollar on booze.”
The mission Mel Trotter founded is still in operation today in Grand Rapids. It has since been renamed “Mel Trotter Ministries.” The ministry’s web site shows that in the year 2020: 264 people found employment, 336 decisions for Christ were made, 92% of people they found housing for did not need to return, and that hundreds were served at the medical clinic they operate. The Mission still has a strong evangelistic thrust, bringing the hope of Jesus to those in the worst of situations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Trotter
https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/alcoholic-mel-trotter-delivered-from-drink-11630650.html
https://www.meltrotter.org/themission/history
https://www.meltrotter.org/themission
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