Downtown 10/10/10

Sunday's trip downtown seemed pretty normal until I got to the alley between Main and Los Angeles streets where I've been prayer walking. At that point the day's trip changed from an average trip to a memorable one. I had come into L.A. by way of Long Beach and came up the Harbor Freeway. I had gotten off at Florence Ave and drove north into the downtown area. I found one guy sleeping on a street corner (with a patch over his eye) but he wasn't interested in any help, so I continued on towards the I-10 and turned onto 18th St. I parked and was able to help a man by the name of Edward and while I was helping him Jackie came over to where we were. Edward wasn't very talkative and when Jackie came over he left. I've helped Jackie a couple of times recently. She seemed somewhat bummed out and I asked her how things were going. She told me her cat of 13 years (Chloe) had died the week before. I asked if I could pray for her and she initially declined but then said, "Well, OK if you want to." I simply asked God to comfort her during this time of grief. She said her cat had been with her through a lot of changes and referred to their early years as, "When I had my life together." Somehow her life has gotten off track and now she is standing on a street corner by a freeway asking for hand-outs. She's probably around 40 years old and seems like such a lost little girl.
A couple of miles away from where Jackie was along the same freeway but near San Pedro St. I found Terry from Dallas and Robert from Atlanta. They were about twenty yards away from each other and both under the I-10 freeway alone. Terry was at least my age and had a few possessions but Robert had almost nothing. He was 41 years old. Along with the food and water they received Robert got a blanket too. The amount of trash and broken glass around them was appalling.
The next person I was able to help was John Stokes from Atlanta. John was one of the first homeless men I met when I began these trips downtown. He was the one I sat down and asked, "What do homeless people need?" I was so new at the time I didn't know very much about their needs. He was the one that told me, "Water, socks and a clean blanket." Well, John received all those yesterday again. Since it has started to get colder he struggles with arthritis in his legs during these times. The police took away his mattress so he sleeps on the sidewalk with only a couple of other blankets between him and the ground.
Last week I met Robert just off Alameda St near 4th St. for the first time. He wasn't too talkative last week but yesterday I saw him again and he actually seemed happy to see me. He was standing almost at exactly the same place as last week. He told me he had eaten everything in the bag from last week. As I drove around the block I saw a couple of blankets on the ground up against one of the buildings. I wondered if that's where he sleeps at night.
I drove over to where Luis sleeps by Lincoln Park but he wasn't there again although his stuff was. I had gotten another pair of jeans for him but will have to keep checking back to give them to him. Along the way back through town I met Costica Vrable near skid row. He said he remembered me but I didn't remember him. He is from Romania and speaks with an heavy accent. The last man I helped was Jessie and he was right there on the outskirts of skid row too. I know I've helped him a few times before because after receiving the bag of food he asked it I had some water too!
At this point all the bags of food were gone and I headed over to Cloud 9 (the alley between Main St and Los Angeles St). There were three men sleeping on the sidewalk of the small street where I park my car. I had some cans of food to give them (I've learned to bring extra stuff each week) but I thought I'd wait until I was ready to leave before giving it to them because they might be awake then. I walked up Los Angeles St and as I got to the new church there were three men standing outside by their cars. As I walked up and said hello one of the men came forward to talk. It turned out his name was Rafael and he is the pastor of this new church. I asked him if I could pray with him for his new church thinking we would stand right there on the sidewalk but instead he invited me inside. I told him how I had started prayer-walking in the back alley of his church four weeks ago when they were first looking at the building. It was pretty exciting to learn that we have both been praying for revival in this area. He told me he came to this country in 1973 (he's 61 now) and was saved in 1977. He has been through a lot and traveled extensively preaching in South America and here in North America too. He had reached the point where traveling was getting to be too much for him and he felt led by the Lord to establish a church here. He has been a pastor of a church near Florence and Broadway in the past and one other one in the downtown area years ago. He told me about the two radio programs he has here locally. I asked if they were both in Spanish and he said yes. I said, "No English, huh?" and he replied, "No English. That's your job!" He also told me his philosophy of pastoring is to preach evangelically and pray for the Spirit to fill the people and empower them to go out and reach the people in the community. What a concept! This is the way the church grew in the first century. He said his radio program has already started to reach people who live nearby and they are coming to the services. We both were getting very excited talking about revival for this area and I asked him to pray for me before I left. I've got to learn Spanish because I don't have any idea what he prayed! It was an inspiring fifteen or twenty minutes we spent together and I told him I'd check back each week when I prayer-walk in that area. What an exciting thing to see God working here. Before leaving downtown I walked around the block and down "Cloud 9 Alley". Gary was waiting for me when I got to his place. We talked for quite a while and ended up talking about his Mother, Marilyn. She lives in Atlanta too. I prayed with Gary about his family situation and specifically for his Mom. I also told him family was usually the best if not only option for getting off the streets. He told me he needed to call her. Maybe next time we'll get to do that. As I left Gary a kitten had walked up to us in the alley. Gary said the
kitten's name was Tyson. I took their picture together. It seems somewhat ironic that the trip started with Jackie losing her cat and Gary having a kitten. As I
walked back to the car the three men who had been sleeping on the sidewalk weren't there anymore. Perhaps next week I'll see them again. --Until then. John