Monday, August 26, 2013

Downtown 8/25/2013

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name.  And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." --Hebrews 13:15-16

In yesterday's church service the message was about worship and praise in the context of being spiritual warfare.  I'd don't think I had ever seriously considered worship and warfare together in quite this way, although I've heard the idea expressed before. Hebrews 13:15 was one of the verses used in the message, but when I read the next verse this morning, well, I had to include it too.  Anyway, more about this message later....

It was another hot day in Southern California.  Temperatures in the mid to upper 90's around here.  It was difficult to sleep during the day(after working all night), so after 3 or 4 hours I just got up.  I was pretty excited about Sunday's trip because I felt I was being led to a different direction/adventure today.  I finished getting everything together for the trip and arrived downtown at about 5:15 pm.  Once again, like last week, I drove to the small alley where I saw Rico and Miguel a couple of weeks ago, but they weren't there.  I had given Rico the address of the Dream Center that day, I hope she found some stabilizing help there or somewhere else.

So I drove over to Trinity St and there I found Antonio, Leticia and Julio and then another man by the name of Bruce showed up. Remember I hadn't seen Leticia the last two trips, but she was there Sunday.  Also, Alex who was down the block a hundred yards or so had a friend with him by the name of Victor.  Victor spoke a little more English than Alex so it helped greatly him being there.  Alex referred to him as his "cousin", although he said they technically weren't related.  I had given Alex the address and phone# for the Dream Center last week.  He didn't go there (it would be quite a lengthy walk), but he did see a Dream Center truck driving by earlier in the week.  I told them that there is a food bank on Paloma St and Washington Blvd.  Perhaps, that could be where the truck was going.  Without mentioning the name of the founder of the Dream Center, Victor said he had heard Matthew Barnett speak a couple of times, probably at the Angelus Temple.  I was amazed that he knew who he was.  Just so that you know who he is, here is a partial quote from his recent blog on June 3 this year...

"I remember the first day I ran a bus to bring the homeless to church.  I also remember the first mass exodus.  I was told that bringing the homeless to church on a Sunday would be ministry suicide.  The church demographic would not attend a church like this.  Temporarily, we paid the price.  Nineteen years later it's been the key to consistent growth.....No matter how big the church gets, no matter how many services we have, if we don't fight for the homeless and suffering we've missed the point."

Well of course, I couldn't agree more.  After praying with everyone on Trinity St I drove around the block to Wall St.  This is the site of last month's BBQ and where a bunch of people now live.  In fact, I only had four burgers left after Trinity St, so the main draw was a trunk full of clothes.  Also, I gave someone a toothbrush and toothpaste, and I must have had four or five others asking for them too.  Luckily, I had enough for the ones asking, but I'll have to bring some more next week.  One side of the street is where Willie, Dave and now Larry (who sleeps in his van) live.  The other side of the street there are about 6 others living, including Louis, another Willie, Tom, Joe and some others whose names I haven't memorized yet.  I must have given out 75% of the clothes I had with me.  Willie and Dave wanted to know if I was doing the next BBQ next week!  I had told them we would have another one soon. Now I had to tell them we'd have to wait until after my schedule changes back to days at the end of next month.  Before I left, I walked back across the street under the freeway where the other group was staying.  As I walked up, I'll never forget the 'other' Willie had toothpaste dripping from his mouth (he was in the midst of brushing) as I told them sometime in early October we would have another BBQ.  I lifted up my arms towards them as if to give them a group embrace and gave them a parting prayer and blessing.  On two streets and one block, all the food, most all of the clothes and all but three bottles of water were given out.  "Lord, please bless me with more of your resources to help these people."  Now as to the next adventure....

Let's go back to the church service Sunday morning.  During the worship and praise time (also called the singing part by some people) there was a woman, about thirty-ish I'm guessing and looked like Aretha Franklin or Ella Fitzgerald at a similar age.  And man could this gal sing!  She didn't take a back seat to those two in the singing department.  I didn't get the name of the song because I was pretty mesmerized by it, but one of the lines in the song was, "I'm pouring out my praise to you."  I went on youtube to try and get the song name, but the songs that came up weren't the one I heard.  Anyway, as I'm listening to this woman singing this song and realizing that her 'gift' is obviously a voice that can sing well and inspire others in worship and praise I was suddenly "hit" with the question, "What gift do I have that I am using to bring praise and worship to God?  Then the next thing that comes to mind is the sight last week at 7th and Alvarado where I witnessed the street fight with about twenty guys fighting in the middle of the street.  For this 'old white dude from the suburbs' that wasn't a sight I will soon forget.  I realized my 'gift' is one-on-one personal relationships.  I now knew what I was supposed to do.  Go down there Sunday, get out of the car and walk around!  What was I supposed to do?  I didn't know really.  Try and talk to people and bring what I bring to that relationship.  Obviously, it would be apparent that I'm not from that 'hood'.  Maybe that would be something I could use to an advantage.  Anyway, I was pretty excited about the prospects (this added to me being unable to sleep I'm sure).  So now with the 'normal' part of the trip done, I headed down to 7th and Alvarado.

  
So the signal in the background is 7th and Alvarado, the foreground is right where the fighting occurred last week and at about the exact same time as last week.


This is the park directly to the left of the first picture.  Through those trees there are lots of people as well as street vendors selling food, drinks and all kinds of stuff on the sidewalks of Alvarado St.  Hundreds of people are milling around on the streets there and throughout the park.  The park is actually pretty big and just driving around it took some time.  There is a sidewalk that circles the 'lake' and fountain area that I walked around.  Below is a picture from the other side of the lake.


Behind where I took this picture is another section of the park and I saw two large groups of people gathered.  I didn't know what was going on there, but they both seemed to be some kind of organized thing.  So it was quite a walk and I had to rest about two thirds of the way around it (my health is not anywhere near what it once was).  There wasn't any place to park on the streets around the park itself.  There is also an underground metro link station on Alvarado St in the background of the first picture.  I found a 10 minute parking lot on the street behind that picture.  So I was kind of leery about leaving my car there and only intended to leave it for about that long, but I kept walking and ended up walking all around the lake and my car was still there when I got back.  I'll try and find a more suitable place to park next week. So that's the first obstacle, where to park.  The next thing is English is not exactly the primary language spoken here.  However, you may recall the church on Cloud Nine Alley.  I had started prayer-walking on Sept 19, 2010 down Cloud Nine Alley.  Six weeks later, a church was planted in an empty warehouse building and I'm standing in it speaking to the congregation (Blog Nov. 1, 2010).  The congregation was Spanish speaking and the pastor brought someone up to interpret for me.  It is one of my most cherished memories of this ministry.  So I shouldn't consider language as an impossible barrier.  After all, I'm sure there are many around this park area that speak English.  But we will see.  I also remember when I was talking to the guys at the Dream Center last week.  They said that Matthew Barnett, on the 15th anniversary of the Center decided to spend a night on skid row.  He was discouraged from doing this (isn't that what everyone's initial reaction is to anything adventurous?).  He ended up taking his bible with him and when people saw his bible they kept coming up to him asking him to pray for them!  That was going to be my plan Sunday, but when I first left my car I didn't intend to be gone that long and then when I got back to it-it was time to go.  So next week that's the plan after I scout out a new place to park the car.  Be praying for this new opportunity.  I've been praying that I could be God's weapon of choice to a spiritually dark place.  I've now received my assignment.  This week is the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" march in Washington DC. I guess I have a dream too!--Until next time.  John

PS.  Remember you can click on the photos to make them bigger.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Downtown 8/18/2013

"Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear." -Isaiah 65:24

I made a beeline straight to the alley where I saw Rico and Miguel last week, however, I didn't see them or anyone else there.  I was hoping to find out if they contacted the Dream Center or not.  I ended up going there (to the Dream Center) at the end of Sunday's trip.  I'm starting to learn something about how the Center functions as well as some of it's many outreaches. There is even a guy who daily goes out and serves people (gives food and stuff) to people living under freeways etc.  Sounds familiar, huh?  The name of that outreach is "Under the Bridge".  I got the email address of the guy who runs it and am hoping to find out what he does with people who are recently  homeless and need some help getting off the streets.  I saw a video a couple of weeks ago of the founder of the Dream Center.  His name is Matthew Barnett.  In the video he tells the story of how things began and one of the turning points was a night where he went to a location in Echo Park around midnight.  Echo Park, for those not familiar with this area, is the area right near Dodger Stadium.  That night he saw the police arresting gang members for various violations and God spoke to him about establishing a place where these people could get help to change the direction in their life.  In addition to that he felt God asking him if he was willing to give up his own dreams of pastoring a 'big church' like most pastors want and instead do something for these people that he saw being arrested that night.  Ironically, he has ended up having the big church, but the path was by way of establishing this Center.  The Center is the old Queen of Angels Hospital, a landmark location in Los Angeles, about two miles from downtown.  On my way there I drove up Alvarado St.  At around 7th I was stopped waiting for the signal to change when I noticed a commotion west of the intersection.  I was stopped a few cars back from the intersection and couldn't see what was going on, but everyone standing on the corners of the sidewalks were looking west down the street.  This street and the surrounding streets are filled with storefront retail stores and the place was packed with pedestrians.  It was about 7 pm.  There is a park on one of the corners.  As I pulled through the intersection I saw what the commotion was.  There must have been twenty men fighting in the middle of the street (most likely gangs).  Police sirens could be heard on the way to break-up the disturbance.  I can only imagine that this was something similar to what Matthew saw that night years ago.  When you think about the direction of the lives of those men involved, it's heartbreaking to think of the lost potential.  Then again, I see it on a one-on-one level each week when I serve the people where I go. At the Center, I was given a list where people can go to receive help from various outreaches in the downtown area.   I'm hoping to start incorporating this into the help I give out each week.

One of the men I saw yesterday was Alex.  I've seen him several times in the last couple of months.  Yesterday, he was reading his bible on the sidewalk on Trinity St.  He was happy to see me and we talked about what he was reading.  His bible is in Spanish and we struggle a little with the language barrier.  However, I asked him what book he was reading and he pointed in his bible to Isaiah chapter 40.  So I got out my bible and he showed me where he was reading and he read it to me (in Spanish while I followed along in my English bible).  Later, I told him about the Dream Center and gave him the address and phone number.  Next week I'll give him some of the places on the list of outreach programs.  I hope we can find a place for him before the cold weather starts.  So after giving Alex the usual food and water and some shirts I left some cans of food for him to save for Monday.  He was overwhelmed with joy over that.  I really really like this guy.  I pray things will work out well for him.

Up the street from Alex was Antonio and Julio.  I haven't seen Leticia the last two times I've seen Antonio.
Both times he's simply said, "She's not back yet."   Although both men were happy to see me, Julio seemed particularly happy.  I think he's pretty lonely and just needs a friend (don't we all?).

After that I drove around the block to Wall St.  I haven't seen Willie since the BBQ last month.  I've driven by a few times, but no one on his side of the street was there.  Yesterday, not only was Willie there, but Dave Parker who I haven't seen since the BBQ last October.  He had been staying in a location where it was impossible to park the car nearby.  When I opened up the back of the car so they could look through the clothes, that brought everyone from the other side of the street over.  Louis and a few others from the BBQ last month came over and a lot of clothes were given out.  I got to pray individually with just about everyone.  It was a pretty cool time with these folks.  In a month or so, I'll be switching back to working days and will have Sundays off.  So I told them we'd do another BBQ in October.

One last encounter I wanted to mention.  It was actually the first guy I saw Sunday.  He was walking down San Pedro I think and he had the look of being homeless and hungry.  His name was Alphonzo.  After passing some food and water to him through the window he said, "Dios la bendigo" (God bless you in Spanish).  Luckily, I'm familiar with this is Spanish or I wouldn't have known what he said.  How blessed I was to have helped him.  I felt like God had specifically pointed this man out for me to help.

Before I finish this entry, I wanted to comment on the verse I opened with.  It's one of my favorite verses in the book of Isaiah and is centered on God being able and willing to provide for us in advance.  I have been praying that I would eventually be able to do more than just provide temporary relief to the people I meet downtown.  There will always be a need for the temporary relief I give.  Some of the homeless will, no doubt, always live on the street, however, my heart goes out to those who I can see that just "don't belong" there and don't want to be there.  Some have adopted life on the street as a lifestyle and aren't too concerned with finding a way out or have long ago given up on finding a way out.  Others who haven't lived this way for very long and are still hoping to find their way back into society deserve whatever help and direction I can give them.  It's to this end that I looked into what help the Dream Center can provide.  We'll see where this leads.  I'll keep you posted. --Until next time. John          

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Downtown 8/11/2013

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." --Ephesians 2:10

What a blessed trip this was.  I happened to be talking with a friend of mine on the way into Los Angeles.  When I got there and was ready to start reaching out to people needing help, I asked my friend to be praying that I would reach people that really needed help.  Within minutes of hanging up, I met Andre, sitting on the sidewalk next to his shopping cart on 15th St near Broadway.  After helping him with some food and water and then praying with him I started driving east down 16th St.  As I got a couple of blocks past Los Angeles St I saw a man laying down on the sidewalk.  I had already passed that street so I had to circle back around which probably took almost five minutes.  As I approached that street I remembered a very small alley just west of that small street that you can reach that small street from.  I have only driven down that alley once before and that was 4 months ago or so.  I remember it because I drove down it from the other direction and  this alley is so narrow that it's barely wide enough to drive your car down it.  What made it memorable then was a dog with the biggest head I've seen in awhile got up and started towards me from behind a chain link fence.  It looked like a pit bull....I kept driving that day.  Today I thought I'd come from the other side so the dog, if it was there was on the other side of the car.  As I passed that spot where the dog was, a woman and a young man (maybe he was twenty, but I doubt it) came out from a hole in the chain link fence from the building next to where the dog had been.  I didn't recognize the woman at first, but she recognized me.  Her name was Rico and she remembered me from when I helped her with some clothes in an alley about 3 miles east of there and several months ago.  That day I found her looking through clothes that had been dumped in a dirt alley.  That day as I pulled up to her I asked if she wanted to go through the clothes I had in the back of my car.  I remember her telling me about her situation that day and that she would rather be homeless than to be at home and get beaten up by her boyfriend.  I asked her today if she had ever gone back to him.  She said, "No way!"  I was proud of her and should have told her so, but I think all I said was "Good."  I let them both go through the clothes in the car and gave them some food and water.  I asked Rico if they were staying next to the building behind the chain link fence where they had come out from, but she said, "No, we stay next to a dumpster around the corner (near where I had seen the man laying down originally).  I took a picture of it as I drove on out.  However, I asked Rico if she had ever heard of the Dream Center.  When she said she hadn't, I googled the address and gave it too them.  I told her they could get help there and these people would help them get on the road to self sufficiency.  I'm going to keep checking back with them.  I so much want her to find a safe place to live.  We had a group prayer before I left them.  So do you think it was just by chance that I had to drive around the block and come up that alley just as they were climbing through the hole in the fence?  The picture below is where they stay at night.  I wouldn't be surprised if they sleep behind the dumpster so no one will notice them if they drive or walk by.  And the man I had originally seen laying down on the sidewalk?  His name was Adolfo and yes I helped and prayed with him too.

Before getting too far down 16th St, I found Johnny.  I had helped him a couple months back and at the time he identified himself by the name of "Joker", until it came time to pray for him, then he wanted me to know (and pray for him) by the name of Johnny.  I also remember at the time he was going through a dumpster that was right behind a Pentecostal Church on Washington Blvd.  And they were having a service there at the time too!  I drove on over to Trinity St to look for Antonio and Leticia.  I only found Antonio.  He said Leticia hadn't gotten back yet (from wherever it is that they go during the day).  It was a little earlier than usual for me to see them.  The last man I saw was named Mario and he was on Washington Blvd next to his shopping cart.  He was hungry (as everyone I met today was) and thanked me several times for the help.

After Mario, all the food was gone.  I wished I had had more to give out.  I think all the food was gone in less than an hour and I got to pray with just about everyone.  This is why I love making these trips on Sundays, the people who need help are easier to find and its easier to talk with them.  I had missed going last Sunday, but went down on Wednesday, four days ago, in the early afternoon.  That's a very difficult time to go, but still people need help during the weekdays too.  I remember vividly, the last person I helped Wednesday was a young girl of about 16 or 17 years old.  She seemed way to young to be alone and she had absolutely nothing with her.  No bag of clothes or anything.  Her name was the same as my wife's name and she was barely older than my daughter.  I kept thinking, "She is somebody's little girl."  I need to get into a working relationship with places like the Dream Center so I can get people that I meet on the street that are so vulnerable some help.  Pray for me that I can find people who will help.  Until next time. --John