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

Downtown 5/21/17

"Finally, build up your strength in union with the Lord and by means of his mighty power.  Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil's evil tricks. For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.  So put on God's armor now!  Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks... Do all this in prayer, asking for God's help.  Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads.  For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God's people.  And pray also for me, that God will give me a message when I am ready to speak, so that I may speak boldly and make known the gospel's secret."   Ephesians 6:10-13a, 6:18-9  Written by the Apostle Paul from a Roman prison.

I knew it would be awhile between this trip and the last one (5 weeks).  I had switched back to a night work schedule which means I have to sleep on Sunday mornings when I get home from work. I also had to work a Monday day-shift for six weeks in a row.  I'm reaching the age where I know my physical limits.  So yesterday I was able to go (didn't have to work today/Monday) and with the daylight hours lasting longer it made it a lot easier to get downtown. I still didn't get there until after 5:30 pm. Before leaving, as I was saying goodbye to my wife, she asked if there was anything specific that she could pray for.  My response went something like this.  "Pray that I would meet people whose hearts I can connect with God and meet their needs." With that I left and headed down to Compton first.

Compton is still a work in progress for me.  I haven't had a break-through with the people there yet. There is one parking lot off Central where I've had some contacts, but yesterday I was rebuffed.  It would be easy to just skip going there, but I feel it may take more prayer and perseverance before a real break-through occurs and people start looking forward to me arriving. Please pray for me and Compton, California.  After driving around a bit there I left and drove into Los Angeles.  Since I'm coming from the South side I stopped by the burned-out church off 27th and Central.  There is still no progress there either.  I'll keep praying there too.

I drove on up a couple of streets to 25th and San Pedro.  I saw Becky and Connie there on the same stretch of sidewalk where I had the dinner a couple of years ago.  I gave them food and water and let them look through the clothes in the back of the car.  Connie asked if I would pray for them.  I asked her if there was something specific she wanted me to pray for and she said, "Yes.  Pray that I can leave here with my daughter."  Connie is old enough that her daughter is, no doubt, an adult now too. I'm sure she's looking towards her daughter as a way out of there. Just before leaving, as I was standing by the back of my car closing things up, I gave them a group hug and told them they were two of my favorite people down there.  They were both very happy to hear that.

With that I drove on up to 16th/Venice just east of Los Angeles St off the I-10 freeway.  This little street is called Santee and dead-ends against the freeway.  I've ministered to a lot of homeless people here. This is where Hope lives.  I drove to the end of the street where a couple of guys were sitting next to their make-shift shelter.  I got out of the car and opened up the back so everyone could go through the clothes.  Other people came out of their shelters and there was a small crowd gathered around my car, Hope was there too, as I handed out sandwiches and chilled water (it was a hot day even after 6:30 pm). One of the men whose name was Dewayne thanked me for coming down.  In fact, he said it twice to make sure I understood how thankful he was for me coming there to help them.  Towards the end, a man (about 40-ish) rode up on a bicycle.  I usually see him around 14th St, but there he was over here and greeted me by saying, "Hey Pastor".  I had just closed the back of the car up, but I opened it up again so he could go through the clothes.  He told me a lot of his stuff had been stolen (a very common occurrence on the street).  At this point he and I were the only two left standing at the back of my car and he told me about a couple of things that happened to him and asked my opinion.  He told me he had been down in Irvine at a friend's house and was on the computer and all of the sudden he felt like someone had taken their finger and swiped it against the back of his neck.  He turned around to see who it was, but no one was there.  Then over on 14th St he was in his tent and the same thing happened again, yet no one was around then either.  He asked me, "What's happening to me?"  I told him that he may be experiencing the presence of evil spirits.  He sounded very disturbed about it and somewhat fearful that they would be following him from Irvine back downtown.  I'm not sure if he asked me if I could do something about it or I told him to let me pray for him, but I was going to pray with him no matter what.  I prayed that the Spirit of Jesus would enter him and with that, the darkness would be forced to leave.  That darkness could not stay in the presence of Light.  I know there was more to my praying over him than just that, but that was the main point of concern.  When I finished, he said, "Man, thank you.  I felt a real connection with God when you were praying."   Yes, "connection" was the actual word he used to describe what he was feeling while I prayed for him and the very same thing my wife and I talked about before I left on this trip.  This man really seemed greatly relieved.  He told me that he used to pray all the time. What better target for evil spirits than someone living on the streets who prays.  I'm going to start going back over to 14th St and follow up with this guy.

I left there and drove a couple of streets over to Trinity St (yes, that is the name of the street), where Antonio and Leticia hang-out.  Before leaving, Leticia urgently requested I pray for them.  I had one sandwich left after that and gave it to a guy under the freeway a few hundred yards away.  There were actually a couple of  men there, the other guy got a couple of chilled bottles of water at least.  It ended up a good trip. ---Until next time.  John