Sunday afternoon-9/20/15

"From my darkest to the very greatest of times, God has always been there."  --Posting on facebook from GodFruits --Sept. 19, 2015


It was another hot September day downtown.  I had brought some bottled water on ice and got down there at about 3:30 pm. I had two objectives, one was to prayer-walk around the neighborhood of the burned out church on 27th and Paloma and the other was to give out the bottled water to my friends living in the alley near 25th and San Pedro.  Due to the heat, when I prayer-walked the neighborhood around the church hardly anyone was outside.  Since I found out what happened to the church through the news report still posted on the internet, I knew more than most of the folks who lived around there.  Remember, its been almost exactly three years since the fire.  When I finished walking around the neighborhood I lingered for a while praying in front of the church.  The flyers I had seen last week were still up, but were fading in the hot sun.  I got in my car and decided to give the only phone number I had for the pastor another shot.  I had called it a couple of times on Tuesday and Wednesday, but no one answered.  I tried calling again.  Would you believe it, Mary, the pastor's wife, answered the phone!  I had to quickly give her some kind of an idea who I was and why I was calling before she thought I was some kind of a crack-pot and hung up.  Anyway, the Lord gave me favor and she heard my story of how I started prayer-walking in this neighborhood and found their church. I mainly wanted to make sure she knew that the flyers they put up a week ago were such a blessing to me to see and I felt if Pastor Lawrence knew that God had raised up someone that he didn't know and wasn't even living in the neighborhood to pray for this church that it might be a blessing to him as well.  I realized that these last three years have, no doubt, been a very difficult time for the both of them.  I told her of the quote I read on facebook. I used it to start this blog.  I hope that sometime soon I can meet with Pastor Lawrence at the church site and pray with him for his church.

I left there and went over to the alley by 25th and San Pedro.  On the way over there I saw Becky pushing her shopping cart with one of her dogs walking along side her.  I gave her some water and she encouraged me to stop by to see the others.  When I got there, there were probably 10 people in the alley.  I didn't have any food (well six cans of vegetables), the rest of the bottled water and some clothes in the back of the car.  I got out and opened the back up.  You may remember me telling you about Billy who I met for the first time there about two weeks ago.  I prayed with him and Miguel the last time and noticed Billy had some rather obvious struggles in life.  Sunday he told everyone I was his best buddy!  That is a testimony to the power of prayer for people in these situations. There were others there that I've known for a long time now, Pete, Hiram and a couple of other guys who I can't think of there names right now.  They asked me if I "had a Word for them".  I said "Of course I do." and held out my arms and started praying for them right then.  There was a passage in the New Testament that I read a couple of days ago, but can't seem to find now, about how God will change your desires and passions to conform to his image.  Anyway, I used this verse loosely and intertwined it with how powerful the name of Jesus is in overcoming temptations and difficult situations in our lives if we will just speak His name.  When I finished you would have thought Billy Graham had just spoken.....the prayer was anointed and touched their hearts.  It was all God's doing, praise be to Him.

All in all, it was a short, but powerful trip.  I promised to be back next Sunday.  I'm looking forward to it that's for sure.  Until next time.  John