Monday, September 26, 2011

Downtown 9/25/2011

"...for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness." ---Lamentations 3:22-3

A few minutes ago I was reading a letter from a baseball manager thanking the team's fans for their support during the year (the team had just been eliminated from playoff contention). It was a pretty classy letter and it got me thinking how thankful I am to be on God's team. Despite my human frailties and sinfulness, He still uses me. How cool is that? Two thousand years ago, to cover sin, a person would have to continually take an animal to the temple for the priests to slaughter because only innocent blood would work. Now we claim the blood of Jesus' more perfect sacrifice to cleanse and recleanse us of our sins. It is the free gift we Christians keep talking about, but it wasn't free for God. It cost Him dearly. Yet His willingness to provide a way to repair our relationship with Him has always been in place. That is why the prophet Jeremiah could make the statement I quoted above. "His mercies are new every morning,"...if we ask for it. It continues to amaze me that our Lord and Savior can use a sinner like me to do His work. What a privilege it is!

During last week's trip downtown I wasn't listening to His call and direction until the very end of the trip. Then things started happening almost immediately after I did. I wondered after I left what the trip would have been like if I had obeyed His calling and went directly down to the recent focus area from the start. Last night I wasn't going to repeat that mistake, yet God had something else in mind and it was simply amazing. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I could use something to keep the hamburgers warm. Since then I received an insulated bag (one that was better than the one I had) and a box that I could plug into the cigarette lighter in my car (do they still call them cigarette lighters?). So last night I loaded up the ice chest with water and ice and my new box and bag and headed down to the Jack in the Box on Alameda. In an effort to try to hurry and get down to the focus area, I decided to go through the drive-thru which turned out to be a mistake. It takes too long for them to cook twenty hamburgers and the line behind me started to back up. So I parked and went inside to wait for them. While waiting a man by the name of Michael who used to live by the 4th St bridge came in. It's quite a ways away from where he usually stays so I was surprised to see him there (it had been a few months anyway). He recognized my car and came in to see me. As we walked out to my car carrying the box with all the burgers, there was another man standing outside that he recognized. He called him over to us. While I was putting the burgers in the insulated bag another homeless man by the name of Clark came up and before I knew it about 3 or 4 other homeless men and one woman came up also. I had opened the trunk to allow them to take whatever clothing items they needed. I prayed with all of them, some in the first group and others one on one. It was as unexpected as it was unbelieveable. By the time I left the parking lot of the Jack in the Box I had given away about 70 percent of the burgers and water! If I had stayed in the drive-thru line, I would have totally missed the opportunity. As you know I frequent that place almost weekly and never have I been able to help that many people at once, let alone in that parking lot.

Well, Michael needed a ride down to where he is staying which now is at an SRO building (Single Resident Occupancy). I think he probably got in due to his being a veteran. I don't think the rooms have bathrooms, they are just a room and the 'hotel' is full of other people who are in the same situation. You have to get on a waiting list to get one and I don't know how long you can stay there on the government tab. Anyway, the place was down on 5th and Los Angeles St and right near where I was going anyway. After dropping him off I headed over to Wall and 8th. I had the rest of the burgers in the insulated bag and got out there and started meeting the people on that street. The first man was Dennis from Texas. Well, you probably can guess what happened next. After I finished praying with him a woman walked up looking for help. She and her husband 'live' in one of the doorways across the street every night. Her name is Deena and his name is Edwin. I had helped them the first night I went to this street. At the time I think I said that she seemed very receptive to me but Edwin seemed like he really didn't want me to hang around. Deena told me that Edwin had told her to go see if I could help them out so she came over to me. I ended up giving them some clothing (there wasn't a lot left in the trunk at this point) and walked back over to him with Deena. He was listening to the football game so I asked him what the score was. In talking with them, they told me that often times people will come by and give out food, but that they never come over to their side of the street, that's why he sent her over to me. So in about 10 or 15 minutes I had given out the last of the burgers and had the opportunity to pray with everyone! Awesome!

For the last couple of weeks I have made it a regular routine to pray daily during the week for not only the people I have helped the previous week, but also for those I will meet the next week. I've been asking for God's Holy Spirit to go before me to prepare the way and to soften the peoples' hearts that I will encounter. God's presence was probably never more evident to me and His Spirit at work than last night. It just amazes me that He uses me. Until next week. --John

Monday, September 19, 2011

Downtown 9/19/2011--The Benefit of Listening to God

Last night's trip was one of those trips mixed with frustration and moments of joy. The first half of the trip seemingly was unfruitful. I was down in the area of my recent focus, but not quite on the couple of streets that are definitely the ones I'm 'supposed' to be on. I gave out half the food to homeless people who were in need, but something just seemed to be missing. One of the men was named Jeremiah. He was all alone and had almost no possessions. His shoes were off exposing some unbelieveably dirty feet. What an opportunity for a foot washing ministry! When he stood up his pants kept falling down because he had no belt to hold them up. Of course, they were several sizes too large. I had a pair of pants closer to his size in the trunk that I gave him. I also couldn't miss the opportunity to tell him about "his" verse in the bible. Yeah, that one, Jeremiah 29:11. Another person I helped in the first part of the night was a woman named Betty. I had pulled over a ways away from two men on a corner because there was no place to park near them. There was also some police activity nearby and I didn't want to be parking illegally. One of the two men on the corner was in a wheelchair. I had seen them and driven around the block to get back to them, but by the time I found a place to park they were crossing the street and I wasn't going to be able to track them down from where I had parked. While stopped there, a woman came up to the car and started to ask for some help. Her name was Betty. I'm not sure why she stopped in mid-sentence so I asked her if she needed some food. After giving her help with the food and water, she asked me for 50 cents. Now I have been told not to give out money to anyone, but is 50 cents really money? I gave her the change off the floor of my car, it was slightly more than that. Another man named Jeff was digging through a trash can on 7th and Los Angeles St. I was able to help him too, along with about three other homeless folks on other streets who were just walking around. However, something just wasn't right up to this point and I knew it. Deep down I knew what it was too.

One of the objectives of this trip had been to find the street and stairwell where I saw Jose and Rhonda a couple of weeks ago, but after driving around for awhile looking I never found them. During all this driving around I had gotten sidetracked from the initial objecive of these recent trips which was to just go down to the street where the homeless were sleeping in the doorways off 8th St. So after a short break I drove over to Wall St and 8th and got out of the car with the bag of remaining hamburgers. The first guy I walked up to was a man named Arthur from Alabama. We talked for a bit and he was thrilled to get some food. While talking to him, another man walked up. He had been standing with a couple of other men and asked if I had some food because they were hungry and homeless. His name was Jose. Well, I hadn't really finished with Arthur yet so I told Jose to wait just a moment so I could pray with Arthur first. Then I walked with Jose back to his other two friends. Wouldn't you know it, but another woman walked up to us while I was with them. She got in on the group prayer session too. I had to walk back to the car to get the cold water for everyone, including Arthur, but everyone was really appreciative. It made me wonder what I missed out on by not just going to this street to start with. I had been putting it off for over an hour and had seen very little results (ie. real conversations with people and prayer time). I finally listened to what God had been telling me to do and the trip changed immediately. If only I had listened and obeyed sooner. It reminded me of Jesus' words to the Pharisees, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me..." (John 10:27). Until next week. John

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Downtown 9/12/2011

"Then the owner of the house...ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the towns and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame'. 'Sir,' the servnt said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.'" Luke 14:21-23 from the Parable of the Great Banquet.

Well, some things came up Sunday night that forced me to make this week's trip on Monday morning. As you know, if you've followed my blogs for awhile, going on a weekday is totally different than going on a weekend or even at night. However, it still is an opportunity to serve people who need help. One of the things that was so strikingly different were the streets where I've been doing the "doorway" focus lately. I practically had to do a double-take on some of those streets I was driving on yesterday because they didn't look anything like they do at night time. During the day, these shops have their merchandise out on the sidewalk in front of their respective stores. There is a mixture of floral shops, garment/fabric shops and fashion shops. You can probably imagine how colorful the sidewalks are with all this stuff out there trying to get your attention to come over a buy something. At night time, the merchandise is all back in the stores, the store fronts have a gray metal roll-up door pulled down to the sidewalk. During the day, the curbs are lined up with parked cars. At night, there are no cars and only homeless people on the sidewalks. All this happens during the daytime a block or two from the skid row area. When I prayer-walked the skid row area yesterday there were still several hundred homeless people milling around those streets. One latino man I saw was walking on San Pedro Blvd going north. When I got back to 6th and Wall St I saw this same man who was now crossing the street going south on Wall St. He stopped at the southwest corner there in front of the El Paso/Tijuana Bus depot. I had been praying the whole time for God to highlight someone for me to help. I figured this was the guy. I had a bag of food in my hand during the walk, so I gave him the bag. I told him, "This is for you." In broken English he replied, "Thank you." At this point I was right across the street from where my car was parked in front of the police station. I had noticed a woman sitting on the sidewalk 30 yards down the street from where I was. She was going through some bags that she had on the ground and I felt she was another one I was to help. I walked over to my car and got another bag of food and two bottles of chilled water. When I gave her the bag and the water I told her the same thing I told the man on the corner, "This is for you." She replied, "Oh, thank you sir." I'm not sure why she called me sir because she looked as old as I am. I then asked her what her name was and that's when I got a reply I wasn't expecting. She said her name was. "Sweet Dreamer". Yeah, honest. I had the other bottle of water in my right hand, so I reached out with my left hand to shake her hand and said, "Well, it's nice to meet you." With that I turned around and walked back to the man at the corner who I had given the bag of food to and gave him the other bottle of water. Again, he said, "Thank you."
On the way down to this area I was able to help two men. The first man, Art, was sleeping on the sidewalk and he at first refused any help, but then changed his mind. He told me he was waiting to take a bus back to Texas. I'm not sure where he was going to catch a bus there because he wasn't near any bus terminals. The other man was Robert, who lives off Alameda St. When I first saw him yesterday he was walking down the middle of Alameda which isn't a good place for a man his age. However, after I drove around the block to reach him he had made it safely across the street to where he usually hangs out. After giving him some food and water I actualy heard him say, "Thanks" in a very quiet whisper. Robert never talks very much, so this was a lot for him to say. I told him I loved him and I'd look for him again soon.
The last two men I saw were both familiar friends. One I hadn't seen is a few months and had heard he had gotten into some legal trouble. I was glad to find out it wasn't true. His name is Willie and he used to live in an alley with Tara Lee. He told me that some people (other homeless folks) had come by and knocked over all the stuff where Tara Lee stayed (it was just a few feet from where we were). He even covered up the bag of food I had given him because he didn't want anyone else coming by to see it and try and take it from him. He told me that he and Tara Lee had been wondering what had happened to me. I told Willie, when I switch back to the day schedule and can come down on Sunday's during the day we'll have another barbecue. I told him we'd pick a day and they could invite all their friends to come by. In thinking about it later, since I wouldn't be able to do this until November we could turn it into a Thanksgiving day barbecue! I'm looking forward to it. The last guy I saw was Doug, who I had seen last week. He was going through a dumpster when I drove by. He hustled over to the car and I passed some food and water through the window. He knew I couldn't stop there, so he quickly said, "God bless you." and I drove on.
During the middle of my prayer-walk on skid row I had gotten a phone call that made it imperative that I make it home by 2:30 p.m. Although, I made it home in plenty of time it kind of put me in a 'rush' kind of mode the rest of the trip. It wasn't until this morning that I realized I hadn't prayed with any of the people I had encountered. Even though I had prayed a lot before and during the trip, the main goal of these trips is to pray with the people I meet. Giving out food and water is really only of secondary importance to me. I had put notes in each bag of food and I pray that those notes will be of value to each of these people. Until next week. John

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Downtown 9/5/2011--Labor Day night

'The commandment we have from Him is this; those who love God must love their brothers and sisters' also." 1 John 4:21

I don't think I could possibly convey in this writing how incredibly moving last night's trip was. I've had some memorable trips in the last 2 1/2 years and this one ranks up there with the best of them. This was the third consecutive trip specifically timed to start as the sun was going down. I got to the Jack in the Box at around a quarter to 7 p.m. The guy inside who took my order noticed the bible tucked under my arm (I figured I could read a little bit while I waited for the 20 burgers). His name was Juan and he told me he was starting school to become a pastor. He hoped one day to be able to preach the gospel like me! What an auspicious start! He asked if I would pray for him. When I walked out to the car and started organizing the food and everything for easy access I noticed two men going through the dumpsters at the recycling place just on the other side of the fence. My car was parked right opposite to where they were.
The photo I took is kind of dark so you may not be able to see much. Their names were Earl and Mike. Mike said he had been working at recycling since 4:30 a.m.
After praying with Mike and Earl, I drove over to an alley off Hooper St. This is an alley where some of my best friends down here have stayed, but no one has been living there for several months now. I keep checking each week anyway. As I drove back down 14th St. I noticed a man inside a fenced vacant lot. It turned out to be Doug. I hardly recognized him at first, he must have lost 50 lbs. or more. I have met with Doug many times in the past, one of the more memorable ones was on April 4th of this year. You might want to look at that blog again. He had prayed and asked God that I would come by that day. I took some pictures of Doug and they are on that blog. He was in terrible shape that day, both physically and emotionally. The next day he ended up in the hospital due to his diabetes. They were contemplating amputating his legs, but he recovered quick enough so that was unnecesary. He told me last night that the hospital healed him physically, but I had healed his broken heart and that had given him the will to live again. I was humbled. I have prayed continuously for greater spiritual gifts to serve these people (from 1 Corinthians 14:1), but haven't seen any visible results. Last night was confirmation of answered prayer. Doug and I talked for quite awhile. In addition to the food and water I gave him a shirt. He turned down a blanket because he had three (they were filthy and so was his shirt). He told me to give the blanket to someone who needed it more. I'll let you know how that turned out!
About two hundred yards down the street from Doug another man was sitting on the sidewalk. His name was Jerry and he was from south Florida. He has been out here for five years, but from the looks of it he hasn't been doing too well. He was overjoyed to receive some burgers and water. I asked him if he needed any socks or shirts and he told me he did. When I came back with them, he showed me a nasty gash just above the top of his sock. It must have been painful. I had already prayed for him, but I prayed again specifically for God to heal that wound as quickly as possible. Jerry was very thankful I came by. I also left him with a can of food for the next morning.
By now it was completely dark out. As I drove west down Olympic Blvd I saw Alan pulling his shopping cart with a mountain of stuff on it. Alan looks, not only homeless (which he is), but like a hermit too. The only time he ever actully spoke was the day a year and a half ago when he told me his name. Since then it's been mostly grunting noises and nodding if I ask him questions. So when I saw him I turned around and drove back to him and called out his name loudly. He saw me and stopped. By now he was in the middle of Olympic Blvd with his cart. He hustled over to me and I gave him a couple of warm burgers and cold water. I asked him, "Isn't this great?" He actually said, "Yeah" twice and hurried back to his cart! I told him I loved him.
Last week I had a great visit with 3 folks on Olive St near Pico Blvd. I drove over there to see if they or anyone else was in the area there. The man pictured was the only one around there. His name was Paul. He was sleeping when I walked up, but when I asked if he was hungry he woke up in a hurry.
He started eating the burgers immediately, not stopping when I prayed for him. I guess this is how most of the world goes to sleep at night--hungry. I was glad I was there for Paul.
I was able to help three others in and around the "doorway" area downtown. Eventually, I had two hamburgers left and was driving south on Wall St. I saw several people on the right side of the street, but happened to glance over to the left side and saw someone bedding down for the night under a stairwell. Something inside me said, "There's the one you want to help." I turned around and drove back there. After parking at the curb I got out and asked if they needed some food. I could tell by now there were two people there. They said in unison, "Yes, we need some food." It turned out to be a couple, Rhonda and Jose. They had been homeless now for 3 days. I was sorry I only had two hamburgers left, I wished I had more. I did have four cans of ravioli, so I gave them that along with some chilled water bottles. When it came to clothing, Jose said he had been wearing the same shirt for the last two days, so I gave them both some shirts and sweaters. I then asked if they needed a blanket. They told me they had only one small one. When I handed a brand new one, still in the zippered plastic bag,to Jose, I could tell he was overwhelmed. I was also thankful that Doug had turned it down earlier! They were truly thankful I had come by. I prayed with them standing right there at the back of my car for God to watch over and bless them and fill them with His presence. Again what a privilege it is to pray for people in their time of need. While we were standing there, another man had walked up and was waiting his turn to talk to me. He asked if I had any more food left. Well, I had just given out the last of the hamburgers and canned food to Jose and Rhonda. I did have some packs of cookies left and some water so I gave him some of those. I then remembered, just before leaving the house, my wife had given me a bag and told me briefly of it's contents. One of the things in it was a bag of snacks, so I gave him that also. The man's name was Ted and he told me I had prayed for him a while back, not too far from there. After Ted left, I walked back over to where Jose and Rhonda were. We talked a little bit about their situation. I asked if they had any family or friends they could ask to help them out. Jose told me they did have some family, but he was too embarrassed to ask. I talked to him briefly about what he could do, based on some of my experiences with prayer. I acknowledged that sometimes family relations can be strained, but I encouraged them to pray and ask God to soften the hearts of the people involved. I told them I have personally experienced God work to change people's hearts through prayer before and told him, with confidence, God can do the same for him. I prayed again with them for just this very thing to happen.
Well, with all the food gone, I drove over to Cloud 9 Alley. I got there just as the church service was ending with their prayer time. I joined in with them. It was a most memorable night. --Until next week. John