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'God loves you, guy!': Good Samaritan shares simple message of hope to hurting man perched upon highway sign structure — and the man climbs down
Image source: Facebook video screenshot via @NewsChannel8Tulsa

'God loves you, guy!': Good Samaritan shares simple message of hope to hurting man perched upon highway sign structure — and the man climbs down

Rick Jewell happened to be near the scene of an emerging crisis Tuesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma: A man had climbed all the way up a sign structure above Interstate 244 and wouldn't come down.

Image source: Facebook video screenshot via @NewsChannel8Tulsa

So he came outside concerned about the man when a KTUL-TV reporter began speaking to Jewell about what he and the growing crowd below were witnessing.

"I stayed over here and prayed for 15 minutes when I first got here," Jewell recalled to the station, "and then my son says, 'Look over there, Dad; there's a cross right behind him.'"

Image source: Facebook video screenshot via @NewsChannel8Tulsa

Sure enough, the scene was unfolding right next to a giant cross that KTUL said is illuminated during the holidays.

Image source: Facebook video screenshot via @NewsChannel8Tulsa

It may have been a sign of things to come.

What happened next?

Jewell continued speaking to KTUL: "And as a whole, as Oklahoma, we ought to just pray for this man's safety, and that we can find him the help he needs, 'cause obviously he needed something."

As the man entered his sixth hour above the highway, witness Trei Jackson added to the station: "I just hope he don't jump, man."

Image source: Facebook video screenshot via @NewsChannel8Tulsa

Jewell noted to KTUL that "I'd like to get up there and talk to him is what I'd really like to do."

The station reporter asked him what he would say to the man.

"That there's more to life than the end of this, you know, and you have to be a believer, there's something more to life than what's going through his mind," Jewell replied to the station.

Image source: Facebook video screenshot via @NewsChannel8Tulsa

And as it turns out, Jewell did just that.

He said he yelled up to the man, "God loves you, guy!" — and that the man climbed down, KTUL reported.

"I just started out talking to him, and I told him that there was more to life than what he was doing, and that God loved him," Jewell recounted to the station. "And he looked at me, and I told him throw me his cigarettes; he threw me those. I said, 'Throw me that rope'; he threw me that rope. And I said, 'Now get down from there.' I said, 'They're gonna to help you.' He headed down. Simple. It's crazy."

He reminded KTUL of the spiritual preparations he'd taken: "But I also told you what I did for 15 minutes over there before you showed up; I was praying. So, that had a lot to do with it, I'm sure."

Jackson confirmed to the station that Jewell "told him that Jesus loves you, basically, and that you ain't do no wrong, to come down, just ask for help. Bro, he came down!"

Here's video of the moment the man climbed down — and Jewell's reaction afterward:

"I told him Jesus loves him, come on down," Jewell explained to a KOKI-TV reporter immediately after the crisis ended, adding that the man replied to Jewell, "Man, I apologize in Jesus' name ..."

Anything else?

Negotiators also worked with the man for hours to convince him to climb down, KOTV-TV reported, adding that he climbed the structure around 9 a.m. and climbed down around 4 p.m.

Jewell told KOTV he saw the highway was closed due to the situation but was able to drive under a bridge and saw the man on the sign — and that he prayed for what to say to the man and felt called to go talk to him.

"I told him that this ain't the end of the world, there's people that will help you, and I said if you come down, I'll help you," Jewell told KOTV.

Tulsa Police Officer Andre Baul noted to the station that he talked to the man — who said he was worried about legal issues — for about an hour: "He was scared about the future, about what he was going to be facing once he came down."

Police told KOTV the man was taken to get medical treatment.

Jewell added to the station that "looking at it from my perspective and his loved ones, no matter who he is or what's going on in life, there's always tomorrow — there's a brighter day ahead of us."

(H/T: The Christian Post)

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