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.
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