black SUV had stopped and a couple were giving out bottles of water and food out of the back. It was only the second time I've seen anyone doing that in the nearly two years I've been going downtown. I walked on to 5th and turned east and walked to the next street which is San Pedro. Behind a fence I saw a van parked that had seen better days, but it was a missions van with some phone numbers on it. One of the
numbers caught my eye because it was an 800 number with the slogan 'DO AGAPE' I thought that was a great slogan, 'just do it'...'do agape'. I took a picture of the van through the chain link fence and decided to go around to the front of the building to see what was in front. It turned out there was a church service going on in a little store-front building. I took a picture of that too. I continued
walking up San Pedro and back to 6th St. On the corner of 6th and San Pedro I heard the sounds of gospel music coming out of a corner building. There was no sign out front or anything advertising a church of any kind, although there was a banner a few yards down the street for a 'Set Free Skid Row Church', perhaps this was their church service. I stood there for a few minutes with my back up against the building just listening to the music and looking around. Directly across from this building is the Mid-Night Mission building. A gentle breeze had kind of kicked up a little and brought the smell of urine which permeates this whole area. So here I was, with the sound of gospel music in the background and the sights and smells of skid row all hitting me at once and thought, this is exactly the place where the
gospel needs to be, in the most spiritually dark places around. This was skid row on a Sunday morning. Praise the Lord, he has brought His workers where they are needed the most. I took a few more pictures on the way back to the car, one was of the banner I mentioned.
I headed over to Lincoln Park but didn't see anyone so I headed back towards town on North Main St. On my way back I happened to notice a woman in a wheel chair off the sidewalk about 20 yards back in a driveway area. I had passed by her but decided to turn around and go back and check things out. It turned out to be 'the encounter' of the day. I pulled the car right up next to where she was and asked if she was OK. I quickly learned that she didn't speak any English. Well, she could say 'thank you' and 'yes' but not much else. I had gotten out to give her a bag of food and some water when her husband came up. His name was Javier and he did speak some English. As best as I could understand her name is Alisavel and I'm guessing they are in their late forties. They were from Mexico (no surprise there). Javier told me where exactly they were from but I didn't recognize any of the towns he mentioned until he said Loredo, Texas. That's a place I know of. They have been here many years and for the last five years had a place to stay, but in March they ran out of money and have been homeless ever since. It was heartbreaking. I gave them everything I had to give; food, water, clothes, shoes, and a blanket. It just wasn't enough, I was embarrassed that I couldn't do more. They were living in a very small tent next to a couple of Cuban men I have helped before a while back. I prayed with them and promised I would check in with them next week. They were both very appreciative of the help and seemed happy when I left them, yet I was devastated by their situation and hated to leave them. I started asked God what I could do to help them. The answer came quickly enough...the Church on Cloud Nine Alley!!!
The rest of the day was spent working my way over to that church. I still had a few bags of food left and found a few other men in need of help. I drove down the alley where Tara Lee lives but didn't see any of those folks around.
I finally got to the church at Cloud Nine Alley and parked. It was around 1:30 p.m. and their morning church service was over. There were some people there, but Pastor Rodriguez wasn't going to be back until 6 p.m. No one there was able to advise me on what they could do at this point, but I did call the church phone number on Monday and talked with a man named Robert who said they do have an evangelistic team that might be able to do something for them. We have agreed to try to hook-up next Sunday afternoon to see if anything can be done for this couple. It is essential that I get some people who speak the language involved in this. While prayer-walking in the alley there I ended up seeing Gary. He was the man living in the parking lot next to the church a few months back. It was great to see him. He was riding a bicycle through there and we got caught up on events of the last few months. Gary has been staying with various people and has gotten some temporary work here and there. He looked good and I was able to share with him some of the things happening with this downtown ministry. We prayed together...what a blessing it was.
On my way out of town I drove by where one of my friends lives and he just happened to be there. His name is Will. Billy and James used to stay with him. They have since gotten VA housing in Pasadena, but Will is still staying there in an alley off Pico and Central. Right near where Will was I found two men sleeping on opposite sides of the sidewalk. Their names were Ben and Terry. I gave out the last of the food and some clothes for both of them. Ben got some shoes too, but Terry wore size 16 and I just don't have that size! I think the biggest shoe size I've been asked for is 19! I'm not even sure I've seen shoes that size in Payless or Target. Anyway, both men were pretty happy to receive what I had and we were able to have a 'group prayer' before I left for home.
P.S. The success of any missions work is dependent upon the grace of God and our prayers and petitions to Him. Please be in prayer for Javier and Alisavel during this next week. Let's see what God will do for them. Until next week. --John
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