I’m still blown away that God would even want us to do anything for him. But to trust us to talk to 12 men this week was truly amazing.
Because I have so little experience with homeless people, I’m sure I’ll look back on these thoughts and see them as callous and immature. But I think it’s good that I have a record of what God is doing in my life through this.
We got to meet some very amazing people. The people we met could in one word be summed up as “friendly.” Many of my misconceptions or preconceptions starting this outreach were quickly corrected. It was my understanding that people on the street were hard to reach, and while there were a couple of guys who may have trouble fitting into some social situations, the people we met were normal.
I got to have some really good conversations with Scott, Mike –E, Mitchell and Rickie.
Scott was hanging out across the street when my Scott took off to see Brian, so the kids and I trooped over across the street to say hey. We were able to give him a Gospel of John, and tell him that we were there because Jesus loves him. I know the approach of some would be to be very forceful about the presentation of the Gospel, but you know, these guys know that there’s something wrong with their lives, I wonder how often they are told that they are loved. We didn’t do anything for the guy, he didn’t even take a potato, but the man who left was different than the man we met. He was elated, lighter. He made sure that we knew it wasn’t “goodbye” only “see you again soon.”
Rickie was not homeless, but he was broke (his words). I guess he hadn’t figured out the resources available in the community yet, because he was hungry. I’ve never seen anyone that hungry. I didn’t even know that level of hunger existed in our country. It’s like the spiritual hunger in our country, people gulp, wolf down spiritual experiences, not even stopping to chew, filling up with the garbage fed them by alcohol, drugs and religion and are never satisfied. Jesus is the bread of life. He is the only one that can truly satisfy us.
Mitchell would have been hilarious, the life of the party, if he weren’t so desperately, tragically needing a change in his life. It’s hard to describe the level of emotion he had towards wanting to stop drinking and wanting Jesus. The Gospel of John thankfully had a salvation diagram in it, but his state of intoxication and the language barrier made it difficult to explain the pictures. Next week we’ll have a Spanish New Testament for him.
God Bless you!
Love Jodi