Downtown 5/25/14

"For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat."  Isaiah 25:4

It's was a beautiful Southern California afternoon (sunny/70 degrees).  Yet despite the beautiful weather, there are still many people on the street in need.  I only interacted with a handful of folks and the relief on their faces made me glad that I made this trip.  I had prayed beforehand that I would bring joy and peace to people today and it's always an honor when this happens.

The last couple of trips I haven't seen Antonio and Leticia and then the last two Sundays I haven't been able to go either, so it had been well over a month since I've seen them.  Leticia's first comment was, "Long time, no see?"  They both seemed to be doing OK, but Leticia really wanted me to pray for them before I left and she held me tightly while I did.  There have been trips where I've seen her alone and she says Antonio is 'off'.  I've also seen him away from her sleeping on the sidewalk.  I think she gets very worried about him when he leaves for several hours.  I can really only think of one reason why he'd be sleeping during the afternoon. During my time with them another man named Robert walked by and I was able to help him too.

I drove a few blocks away from them on 17th St and found another man named Robert sitting on the sidewalk with just a backpack in the shade.  He told me he was from the Atlanta area and everything he owned he had with him!  I gave him some burgers and water and asked if he needed some socks.  He had a pair on, but he probably had worn them for quite a while.  While getting him the socks, he saw a couple of blankets on the seat and asked if he could have one.  "Of course" I told him.  Seeing his need I asked if he could use some canned food.  He told me "Sure" if it wasn't too bulky and hard to carry.  So I gave him some cans and had a bag for him to carry them in.  He was pretty happy about that.  I had asked him if he was an Atlanta Braves fan since he was from there, but he said he was a Dodger fan.  I told him the pitcher for the Dodgers had thrown a no hitter earlier in the day.  We chatted for a while and I prayed with him asking God to protect and preserve him.  He had told me that he found out his uncle had died the day before.  He also told me I made his day.  It was my favorite encounter of the day.

I stopped one other place off 14th and Paloma.  Youngsta (remember him?) and a tall skinny woman were there.  A couple of other men, Tyrone and Lee, came by.  Everyone got to look through the clothes in the car and got something to eat.  While I was there another car, a Cadillac Escalade, drove by and handed out some food too.  I had initially noticed Youngsta having great difficulty walking.  When I drove up he was sitting on the sidewalk with his shoes off.  When he walked over to the car he limped badly.  His right toes seemed to be swollen.  He lifted up his pant leg and his right leg is really crooked.  He said he had been hit by a tractor trailer rig a long time ago.  It looked like it had been run over at some point and never healed correctly.

Well, all the food had been given out and I started to drive down towards McArthur Park.  As I drove down 7th I noticed the roll-up door with the "I am Legion" words on it not there.  Then I saw that the door had been rolled up and the 'store' behind the door was visible.  Actually, there were a couple of glass walls behind this door, but no stuff and no one was in there that I could see.  Perhaps someone's getting ready to open up an new store there.  I'll keep you posted.  When I got to the park my Spanish speaking friends weren't there.  However, some other groups were there.  In fact, there were three different guys preaching in Spanish.  I prayed and talked with each one of them before leaving.  I actually never did get to preach, but I did get to pray for the people listening.  I was a beautiful day at the park with lots of people.  A perfect day for open air preaching.  --Until next time.  John
 

 

Downtown 5/4/2014

Well, it's been ten days since I made this trip and only now do I have a chance to write about it.  I prayed to bring relief to people that day (it was a hot one).  I met Arthur right about where I had seen Carlos and Kimberly the week before.  Another young man named Alexander was on Essex right off of Washington Blvd and then right around the corner and on the next block west was Solo and 'Youngsta'.  I had last seen them behind the auto parts store on Washington a couple weeks back.  As I drove away from them I saw Grant (another man I know from the place under the freeway on Wall St where I had the last BBQ).  Mixed in here was a drive down the dirt alley between 16th and 15th where I've had some other BBQ's.  When I first drove down there I saw one man in the alley.  As I continued to drive on down, I saw one and then two other men and they were trying to get another man on his feet.  When I finally got to where they were, there were a total of five men there and I didn't know any of them.  One man seemed to have passed out and two or three of the others were attempting to revive him.  I offered them some water which they quickly accepted, pouring one of the bottles over the man's head, saying he had passed out due to the heat.  I ended up giving out about five bottles of water before leaving.  One of the men made it clear he didn't want me around.  He was the one not involved in trying to revive the guy passed out.

When I got to McArthur Park I didn't initially see my other friends there, but then I did find them in a slightly different location.  I stood behind them while they preached.  During this time there was a man about 30 or 40 feet away talking loudly in Spanish.  At first there were a couple of other people he appeared to be talking to, but after awhile he was by himself and continued to talk loudly.  He had a little two-wheeled basket/cart like people take to the store when they have to walk there.  He kept talking on and on and loudly too and from time to time waving his arms.  It was more than a little annoying, although when it was my turn to preach I really didn't pay much attention to him.  After a while a few onlookers gathered because he was kind of making a scene.  I finally asked Rosalla what he was talking about.  She told me that he only believes in the Old Testament.  Then it finally clicked, he was Jewish.  I then noticed the cap he was wearing (his skull cap kind of blended in with his hair color-gray).  I was now a little ticked off and wanted to just go over to him and start reading Isaiah 53 out loud to him, but, I really don't know if he understood English or not.  Now I know that Jews interpret Isaiah 53 completely differently than Christians do, so it may have just provoked more anger and hostility.  When I told Rosalla what I wanted to do she simply said, "We just need to pray for him."  She was so right and I was so proud that that was the attitude of my friends.  I'm sure they had a much harder time ignoring this man because they could understand what he was saying.  In the end, I realized we now had something else in common with Jesus.....we'd been rejected (heckled) by a Jew.  I count it a blessing to be included in the sufferings of Jesus.  --Until next time.  John