Downtown 5/28/2017

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  The Apostle Paul's letter to the Christians living in Rome and one of my favorite verses. Romans 15:13 

I got a late start to the trip this week and didn't get to Compton until after 6 pm.  When my wife asked me, as I was leaving, what to pray for I said pretty much the same as last week, but a special request for a break-through in Compton.  While I didn't get to help anyone in Compton this week, I did see some homeless encampments at Hooper and Firestone (technically probably north of Compton).  The only problem was it was getting late by then and while there were obviously several people living in the parking lot of an abandoned retail store, they weren't outside their tents.  Etiquette dictates you don't go up to them and call out unless you know them.  I'll try and get there earlier next week. Please pray for this area.  So I drove on into Los Angeles.

This trip was one of those where I only saw a few people that I knew, but helped a lot of single folks getting ready to sleep on the street for the night.  Virtually every one of them was extremely grateful to receive some food and water before going to sleep.  I would have to say that they all would have gone to sleep hungry if I hadn't stopped.

The one encounter that forced me to write this blog was one of the last stops.  It was on another small street just west of Olive St off Pico Ave.  Lawrence lives there.  The last time I saw him a couple of months ago there was a woman staying with him.  She wasn't there this time; he was alone.  One of the best things about getting to do this ministry is the relationships I build over time with some of these folks and Lawrence is one of them.  You may recall from my trip last Christmas Day that he told me a rat had eaten the loaf of bread that he had bought the night before.  Well, this is that same guy.  We talked for quite a while tonight. At one point we were standing at the back of my car and he had gone through some of the clothes in the car. I pretty much only had women's clothes for this trip, but he wanted to look for something his friend might like.  Anyway, he asked me if I'd pray for him because he was looking to visit his Dad's grave tomorrow and apparently, there is a fair amount of internal baggage to go with a trip like this.  I said I'd be happy to pray for him and did. Now mind you, I really didn't know how to pray for this and I felt some internal struggles myself at what to say. I wouldn't say I stumbled through the prayer, but it was, no doubt, a touchy area of Lawrence' life and I didn't treat it lightly and wanted to bring as much peace and healing as I could.  When I finished, although he didn't say he felt "connected" like the man last week, he did say he felt at peace about it and relieved.  He told me, "It's obvious you have an anointing for prayer."  He thanked me profusely for praying for him.  I'll be praying for him again tomorrow from home.  Now look at the verse I opened with again.  "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  I had written this verse down last Monday and probably read it at least once or twice daily this week.  It begins with "the God of hope" and ends with "that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit".  We are to give this hope out to those most in need of it.  Folks living on the streets are part of that group.  After we trust in Him, he will fill us with joy and peace so we can be used to give out His hope.  What a privilege!

With that encounter, I only had a couple of sandwiches left to give out and found Carlos on a corner a couple of blocks away.  When I gave him some food and water he was so happy I thought he was going to get in the car with me.  Maybe he wanted to. Anyway, it was a nice way to end the trip.       -- Until next time.  John