Living Above the Bar: Dr. Don Allen on Rising from Lo-Debar to the King's Table
About this episode
Dr. Don Allen, senior pastor of Church at War Hill in Dawsonville, Georgia and founder of RLN Global, joins Philip Cameron for a conversation that will challenge every believer who has ever felt dropped, forgotten, or written off. Drawing from the Old Testament account of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel, Dr. Allen unpacks one of the most overlooked details in Scripture: that Jonathan's son was first named Merib-Baal — meaning "contender for the throne" — before a nurse's panic stripped him of that destiny and renamed him Mephibosheth, meaning "isn't it a shame," exiling him to Lo-Debar, the place of no future. Dr. Allen brings this ancient story to life through the real-world transformation of a trafficking survivor, his ministry calls "Pink" — a young woman born addicted, unable to walk or eat, written off educationally, who is now running, thriving, and riding elephants. As a staff member put it, "That's not a transformation. That's born again." The central message is direct: God still calls for you by name, just as King David called for Mephibosheth. When you sit at the King's table, the tablecloth covers every wound, every failure, every drop. Learn more about Dr. Allen's global ministry at donallen.org or rlnglobal.com.
Part of our Restore collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“This little girl who couldn't walk right, couldn't hold things, couldn't eat right. We had to have special soft foods for her to even just swallow, and barely swallow at that. And just would never expect anything out of her educationally. I'm watching her interact. She's running. She's perfectly fine with her hands. She's eating the quality meals every single day that we're providing. And she is now at the top of her class educationally.”
“Some of you are living in a low bar, and God sent me today to tell you to lift the bar. Raise the bar. He still has a place for you in His plan.”
“When he made it to the king, the king embraced him. And do you remember what the king said? 'You will sit at my table.' When you are crippled in your legs and you're sitting at the table, what can no one see any longer? You're covered by the tablecloth. They can no longer see your pain. They can no longer see your weakness. They can no longer see how you've been dropped. All they can see is that the king has a place for you that is above and beyond what you could have ever expected.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Don Allen of Church at War Hill in Dawsonville, Georgia, delivers a gripping message on what it means to live above the bar — the artificially low ceiling that trauma, failure, and other people's mistakes place over our lives. Anchoring his teaching in the story of Mephibosheth from 2 Samuel, Dr. Allen reveals that Jonathan's son was originally named Merib-Baal, meaning 'contender for the throne,' before being crippled and renamed 'isn't it a shame' and exiled to Lo-Debar, 'the door to nothing.' He parallels this with the real story of a trafficking survivor named Pink, whose miraculous physical and educational recovery illustrates what genuine new birth looks like. The episode's core declaration: when the King calls for you and seats you at His table, the tablecloth covers every wound — and no one can see your pain anymore.
- Dr. Don Allen's Global Ministry Overview
- Pink: A Trafficking Survivor's Transformation
- Merib-Baal — The Bar Set High at Birth
- The Drop: Renamed Mephibosheth in Lo-Debar
- God Still Calls Your Name from Lo-Debar
- Seated at the King's Table — Covered by Grace
- Raising the Bar: A Word for the Broken
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hello, my dear friends. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am so glad that you've joined us today. We've got a tremendous program coming up, and I believe that God is going to speak life into your world. There's an old hymn that I sing to myself, "When Jesus comes, the tempter's power is broken. When Jesus comes, all tears are wiped away. He takes the gloom and fills the life with glory. For all is changed, when Jesus comes to stay." When he shows up in your circumstance, everything's changed. When the woman with the issue of blood touched his garment, everything changed. When the blind man who was lowered down through the roof by four men, whenever Jesus entered his world, everything changed. And I really feel this in my spirit today that you are in for a visitation from the Lord Jesus.
Philip:And my dear friend, Dr. Don Allen, pastor of the church at War Hill in Dawsonville, Georgia, a great church, multi-campus, international church, and he's a dear friend of mine, and he's going to be talking to you today about living above the bar, and you're going to love the light and life he's going to share with you.
Philip:As many of you know, we have a mission work in Moldova. Thirty-six or seven years ago, my dad made me go to Romania. He told me that he'd read in the press about babies dying in these orphanages, and I had no interest in this, none whatsoever. I was on TV and all the national programs. I'd written one book that had sold 300,000 copies. I was doing telethons, and God was blessing our ministry. It was growing. And the last thing I needed to do was to take a break from my crazy schedule, fly to Scotland, and then drive in an old beat-up van from Scotland to Romania, and that's exactly what I ended up doing.
Philip:My dad had been sick with cancer. They'd cut a melanoma from his back. The wound had burst and was like a big hole, divot in his back. And he said to me, "If you won't go with me, I'll go by myself, and if I die, it's your fault." And that was the premise of getting me there.
Philip:All the way to Romania, finally found this orphanage, and it was a horrendous mess. On the second floor, I found a wee boy sitting in a crib covered in his own waste, lost, abandoned by his mother at two weeks old, and now he was three, almost four. And I went into this room, salon number five. I could take you there right now. I could stand in that room to the very place where I saw him. And the Holy Ghost said, "That's your son," as clearly as you're hearing me speak. And I went in, and I picked him up, and I said, "I don't know who you are, but I promise you I will never stop until I can adopt you."
Philip:And I didn't realize how ridiculous and impossible that was. And I was back in a few weeks, and I was back in a few more weeks. All through the year, I kept going back, trying to figure out how to adopt this wee boy. And finally, it took a whole year, but we did. And by the time that had happened, they had no toilets. They sat on coffee cans on a filthy blanket on the ground. And they were left there for hours on end, and all their bottoms were cut with the rim of this coffee can. And so I put in toilets, and we put in beds, and we fixed the leaking roof, and we painted the place and changed the entire world of these kids.
Philip:And by the time I adopted this little boy that is now known as Andrew, I was addicted to what we do today, and that's been 36, 37 years ago. And we are just astonished at what God has allowed us to accomplish. And today, we have an amazing place in a country called Moldova, which is closer to Ukraine. And in there, we have a village called Vatra Village. It is the most beautiful place. Homes right on the largest lake in the country. And we can rescue kids, and they come to us in this village that you're looking at right now. And we put them back in school, and we tell them that if you're born, God has a plan. Every girl you're looking at right now, if a trafficker gets ahold of her and captures her, she is worth $300,000 a year for the trafficker.
Philip:And so God's done amazing things. We're opening up two new more houses. And this last summer, right now, my daughter is still in Moldova with her husband and two sons, and they've been working all year in the camps. Our kids in Vatra Village adopt a village to evangelize, and they do a big camp every summer, and my daughter is right there just now helping them. And my grandsons, which thrill me more than you'll ever know, are involved in the work that God allowed us to start so many years ago. And we have a team of former orphans that now work with video cameras, and they sent me this video yesterday morning, and you're going to love it. You'll watch my daughter, and they're unloading a container into our warehouse in Moldova. Watch this.
Hello, everyone. We're coming to you from Moldova on a very busy, rambunctious day. As you can see, there's lots of action going on behind us. We're unloading yet another container of all kinds of items that we need for our outreach here in Moldova. We've got clothing, baby items, supplies for camps that are going on right now in Moldova as we speak, across different parts of Moldova. So we just wanted to let you see what your giving and your donations is making happen. This is just another small way, but impactful way, that your giving is helping to change lives. Thank you.
Philip:Oh, that is so exciting to watch our kids be God's hand extended. And we need your help. We're about to open two new homes for small kids between the age of 4 and 16. Each one of these houses will require 300 people giving $1 a day. You can be a part of an absolute miracle today by giving a dollar a day. It won't change your economic circumstance. In fact, it will bless you because the Bible says when you give to the poor, you lend to the Lord.
Philip:But if you can be one of 300 people, like Gideon's army, that will say, "Philip, you keep on finishing..." We're building it right now as we speak. We just put in the underfloor heating just the other day, and Melody's there assessing what we need as the furniture goes. All the furniture is brought from America because the quality of furniture there doesn't last long when you got a whole bunch of rambunctious kids. So we need 300 people giving $1 a day to help make this miracle happen. $30 a month is the key.
Philip:All we've done so far in Moldova, all we've done in Ukraine, we have a home in Ukraine, all of those things we've done has been made possible by someone giving $1 a day. And I would love you to be a part with us if you could. You can write me right now. Just make a check out to The Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. You can go on dailyfaith.tv, and there's a giving page there as well. And you can also call us. This is what I would do. Get on the phone and dial 877-DAILYFAITH. Just spell out Daily Faith on your keypad, and a real live person will pick up the phone and talk to you how we can change lives together.
Philip:You have someone in your family that you're asking God to intervene in their circumstance, maybe a son or a daughter, a grandson, grandchild, that just are wasting their lives. And the devil's telling you that, "I've got them, and they'll never be saved." You help me rescue these kids, His kids. The Bible says He's the Father of the fatherless, and He can change their world. So please be a part with us if you would. The address is under my name, and you can take your time to write that down. I'd love to hear from you today.
Philip:I am honored and excited, always excited, to have Dr. Don Allen with us. He is the pastor of a tremendous church at War Hill in Dawsonville, Georgia. And more importantly than all of these accolades that he has, and he has many, believe me, I'm amazed at what he's accomplished in his life, but the thing that I value him most for, he's my friend, and I love him. Don, I am so delighted to have you on "Daily Faith" today. How are you doing?
Dr. Don Allen:It is an honor to be here with you. I'm so blessed to have been able to do things like this for a few years of my life, and I can honestly tell you that I never look forward to it as much as when I have the opportunity to be here with you.
Dr. Don Allen's Global Ministry Overview
Philip:Oh, you are kind. Tell us what God's doing with your ministry and all of the expansive outreaches that you — give us a thumbnail of what God has led you into do.
Dr. Don Allen:God's doing great things right now. We're in 12 weeks of summer camp at our retreat center. We're having children saved every week. This week, we have children from the city of Atlanta who have suffered some form of abuse, homelessness, different things like that, that most of them have never really been into an outdoor environment. And so we've taken them up into our retreat center, and they're being ministered to. Spoiled rotten. Literally being spoiled rotten. Blessed on every side. And many of them will give their life to Christ this week. And so that's going on. Things happening at the campuses. We are having mission trips all over the world. In fact, my youngest son leaves in just a few days.
Philip:Tell us, our viewers, about the mission outreaches that you have all over the world.
Dr. Don Allen:Well, we've got a great work that's going to the parts of the Amazon River that most people can't get to. We helped send a hovercraft down several years ago that can go into the narrow tributaries that boats really can't get into, only the little canoes can get into. We're sending a new plane down that will even help them to go further than they could with that. And then we've got works in Europe. We've got a work that is specifically not far from Moldova there in Hungary.
Dr. Don Allen:And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this one, but it's really hit my heart lately. There's an apartment we were able to convert into a large-scale dormitory type environment, and we opened separate compartments in that dormitory, and it's for the women whose husbands were killed in front of them by the soldiers that invaded the Ukraine, and most of them were brutalized for weeks on end. And when they finally were either released or escaped, they and their children thought they were facing certain death. And we've been able to provide a place for them to get healing and begin to live their lives again.
Philip:I am amazed at what you do. I am so humbled.
Dr. Don Allen:God's doing things all over the world. I'm so excited about those things.
Philip:If someone wants to get in contact with you, tell me how they can send an offering to help what you're doing.
Dr. Don Allen:It's RLN Global. R stands for real, L love, and now. RLNGlobal.com. And you can go to DonAllen.org, or there's several more websites. I'm sure that Andrew has some of those for you guys. And we would love to hear from you. But what I really want to encourage you to do today is to give a dollar a day to this ministry that we're celebrating today. Those children in Moldova are having a life change.
Philip:Oh, I know. You have inspired me to go further. I thought we were doing something, then I get around you and I'm like, "I've got to learn."
Philip:Tell me, how do we live above the bar? Tell us what God's been talking to your heart about.
Dr. Don Allen:Well, I guess we got to go into a common world that we have. We both have ministries that rescue people from trafficking. And we've got a work that's close, that we support just down the road from us, and we've got one in Florida that's thriving right now, that's rescuing women. I have a staff member that got to celebrate her 14th birthday by her mother taking her to the local hotel and selling her. And now she has been delivered, of course, from all that, healed, restored, trained, and she ministers to young people, and God's using her so mightily.
Pink: A Trafficking Survivor's Transformation
Dr. Don Allen:But I want to tell you about one in particular, Philip, today. Again, what an honor to be able to share this story. I might get a little emotional about this one. But this young lady, we call her Pink. Pink is one of the girls that we've had the privilege of rescuing, and she'll be cared for all the way through college. And Pink was the product of multiple generations of women abused. And her mother was such a heroin addict that when she was born, she never really learned to walk. She couldn't use her hands. She couldn't eat properly. And they said she would never be above the mental capacity of a child.
Dr. Don Allen:And when Pink came to our home because they wanted to get her out of the environment that she was in, because they were about to start selling her to men 50 times a day. 50 times a day. We took her in, rescued her. I remember looking and thinking, "What a wonderful child," but it was so many challenges. Are we equipped for this? Are we going to be able? Well, I was just back at that home, and it's been five years that we've had her in our ministry, and I wish you could have seen what I got to experience.
Dr. Don Allen:This little girl who couldn't walk right, couldn't hold things, couldn't eat right. We had to have special soft foods for her to even just swallow, and barely swallow at that. And just would never expect anything out of her educationally. I'm watching her interact. She's running. She's perfectly fine with her hands. She's eating the quality meals every single day that we're providing, and the same thing as all the other children. And she is now at the top of her class educationally.
Dr. Don Allen:And I watched her as she jumps up on — we were in a specific environment that this is part of the indigenous culture, and it was not necessarily a tourist place. It was a part of an indigenous study of those people. She jumps up on top, believe it or not, an elephant, and is riding an elephant. And I'm thinking, "I can't get up there." And this girl that couldn't even walk climbs up on top of this, and I leaned over and I said, "That is a serious transformation." And like I had needed correcting, our staff looked at me and said, "Pastor, that's not a transformation. That's born again."
Philip:Born again. Absolutely born again. And that's what's happening in Moldova with the young ladies you're taking. Same thing.
Dr. Don Allen:Exactly. These girls, their lives are being so radically changed. But the problem is this, Philip. There was a bar that was so low set because of all the things that had failed Pink. Nobody ever expected her to live above that. And I want to talk to those who may feel like something happened in your life that pushed that bar down.
Merib-Baal — The Bar Set High at Birth
Dr. Don Allen:I know my time is limited today, but I really want you to get what I'm about to say. It pushed the bar down. There's a story in the Old Testament. I love the Old Testament. I'm sorry I can't tell a story like Philip can tell. He is one of the most gifted communicators. But listen to this story for just a moment. In the story of David and Jonathan, even after Jonathan is gone and David has ascended the throne, there's a very popular story where David says, "Is there no one left I can honor?" Anyone left. "Is there no one left?"
Dr. Don Allen:And most people say, and they go and they jump ahead, and they celebrate the fact that he finds Mephibosheth, but they miss the beginning of the story. When Jonathan's son is born, he holds him up, and as he holds him up, he says, "This is Merib-Baal. This is Merib-Baal." And Merib-Baal means a contender for the throne. This is one that's going to conquer. He sets the bar extremely high for him. He'll be the king someday.
The Drop: Renamed Mephibosheth in Lo-Debar
Dr. Don Allen:And then something happens. His father is killed. The nurse grabs him in a panic and drops him. And as she drops him — this blows my mind — as she drops him, he's crippled in his feet. And she says, "He's no longer a contender for anything." And she changes his name to Mephibosheth, which means, isn't it a shame? He was once destined for something great, and now he's destined for really nothing. Isn't it a shame?
Dr. Don Allen:And I don't know who I'm talking to today, and I'm going to take you a little step further than you need to hear, but I want you to listen to me. You may have felt like God had great plans for your life. Maybe it's a pastor I'm talking to right now, and you feel like you've been let down by so many, and life has dropped you. What you thought was God's call and purpose for your life, you got dropped. And now, you look around and say, "It's just a shame. Look where I am. I'm not where I thought I'd be." Let me go ahead and say that. Most of the time, when I'm not where I thought I would be, when I finally get there, I realize I wasn't ready for there.
Dr. Don Allen:But what I find is too many of us end up doing what she did. She moved him, because it was a shame, to a place called Lo-Debar. Lo-Debar means the door to nothing. She said he once had a chance for the throne. Because of this fall, it's a shame, because now there's nothing for him. And he's living with no future. Living just daily trying to survive.
Dr. Don Allen:And I think there are people, Philip, listening to us right now, that that's how they're living. They're just trying to survive. They're just trying to get by. They're just trying to figure out if it's worth living tomorrow. I know how it is when you get dropped. Sometimes you get dropped very publicly. Sometimes you have to realize other people are watching you bleed, and they're going by going, "Isn't it a shame?" "He used to be something great. Isn't it a shame? And now they'll never do anything ever again."
God Still Calls Your Name from Lo-Debar
Dr. Don Allen:But I want you to remember the rest of the story. The reason the story is there is because the king said, "Is there not one I've made covenant with anywhere I can honor?" From the house of Saul, is there no one left? And when he looks, he sends for Mephibosheth. And when he sends for Mephibosheth, it wasn't an easy journey. There were people who were critical, who were trying to stop him because they were worried they were going to lose everything. But he made it to the king.
Dr. Don Allen:And when he made it to the king, the king embraced him. And do you remember, Philip, what the king said? "From now on, you shall do this." Do you remember what he said? "You will sit at my table."
Philip:Sit at my table. Let me ask you a question, Philip. When you are crippled in your legs and you're sitting at the table, what can no one see any longer?
Dr. Don Allen:You're covered by the tablecloth. You're covered. They can no longer see your pain. They can no longer see your weakness. They can no longer see how you've been dropped. All they can see is that the king has a place for you that is above and beyond what you could have ever expected. And see, some of you are living in a low bar, and God sent me today to tell you to lift the bar. Raise the bar. He still has a place for you in His plan.
Dr. Don Allen:He still has... I don't care about that divorce that you went through. I don't care that other people told you you never could be in ministry again. Just because they don't know how to interpret God's word — I'll say it again — because they don't know how to interpret God's word, doesn't mean that the King hasn't called for you and given you a purpose. God has a plan for you. You may have stumbled. You may have fallen. You may feel like you can't run again. But He will cover you, and you will learn the step above that low place you'd accepted and sit with the King.
Seated at the King's Table — Covered by Grace
Philip:Oh, my goodness. I hope that's okay, Philip, to share that. He was broken by someone else's mistake. The nurse dropped him. It wasn't his fault. It was someone else. And you may be broken by someone else. Someone else has done stuff, and you live with the consequence of it.
Philip:Lo-Debar was out of the way. And in those days, when a new king came into the kingdom, Saul and all his family would be destroyed because King David was the new king. And when Mephibosheth heard the soldiers and the horses outside the door, he thought, "This is it. They've come to kill me." They hadn't come to kill him, they'd come to rescue him. And what Pastor Don is talking to you today is this, that the noise you hear outside your door isn't the end, it's the beginning. And you can rise again and stand up again, and you can be brought...
Raising the Bar: A Word for the Broken
Philip:In those days, nothing imperfect or broken can be taken into the presence of the king. That wasn't accepted. Unless mercy brings you there, unless grace brings you to the table. And as he sat there next to King David in the highest of all worlds, the mistakes and the failure and the breaking and the abandonment is all behind him because he's been accepted into the arms of the beloved.
Philip:I pray for you right now. This amazing word that Pastor Don Allen has just shared is directed at you exactly. You may be a pastor that's broken. You may be a pastor's wife that's holding it together with chewing gum and band-aids. God knows where you are, and he's going to send the answer in Jesus' name. I want you to get ahold of this great man of God. His teachings are available. DonAllen.org. www.DonAllen.org. There it is on the screen. Write this down, because you will be blessed continuously by the stream of light and life that comes from this ministry.
Philip:And Don, I can't tell you how much you mean to me and how blessed I am to have you in my life.
Dr. Don Allen:Oh, I am so thankful. And all I ask for is that someday my great friend will allow me to accompany him to Moldova to see what God is doing.
Philip:That's a deal. We love you. Listen, thank you for watching "Daily Faith." Time's almost gone. Be a part of this miracle we're having in these new homes, if you would. We love you. We'll see you again. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova. From providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons, and in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their Heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus.
God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now, no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in The Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and the Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-DAILYFAITH. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
Who is Mephibosheth and why does Dr. Don Allen use his story?
Dr. Allen uses Mephibosheth as a picture of someone whose potential was set high at birth — his father Jonathan named him Merib-Baal, meaning 'contender for the throne' — but who was dropped by his nurse in a panic after his father died, leaving him crippled. Allen draws the parallel that many people feel 'dropped' by life through no fault of their own and end up living in Lo-Debar, a place of no expectation or future.
What does Lo-Debar mean and what does Dr. Allen say it represents for people today?
Dr. Allen explains that Lo-Debar literally means 'the door to nothing.' He says too many people are living there emotionally — just trying to survive day to day, having accepted a low bar for their lives because of past failures, public falls, or wounds caused by someone else's mistakes.
What is the significance of Mephibosheth sitting at the king's table?
Dr. Allen points out that when you're crippled and seated at the king's table, the tablecloth covers your legs — no one can see your pain, your weakness, or how you were dropped. He uses this as a metaphor for God's grace: the King covers what's broken in you and gives you a seat of honor that goes beyond anything you could have expected.
What is the story of 'Pink' and what happened to her?
Pink is a girl Dr. Allen's ministry rescued from trafficking. Born to a severe heroin addict, she couldn't walk properly, use her hands, or eat solid food, and experts said she would never mentally develop beyond a child's level. Five years after being taken in, she is running, using her hands normally, eating regular meals, and is at the top of her class academically — a change Dr. Allen's staff called not a transformation, but being 'born again.'
What does Dr. Allen say to people who feel disqualified from ministry because of a past failure or divorce?
Dr. Allen says that just because others don't know how to interpret God's Word doesn't mean the King hasn't called for you and given you a purpose. He encourages listeners that God still has a seat for them at His table, and that stumbling or falling doesn't end the story — the King's covenant and call are still in effect.
Topics
don allenmephiboshethrestorationliving above the barlo-debartrafficking survivorovercoming shame