Bittersweetness...

This week, one of our friends was hand picked by God and escorted through the Heavenly gates into eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ. May we all cherish the special moments that each of us got to spend with Dennis.

While I was in Pacific Beach on Wednesday night, I learned they discovered Dennis' body that morning on Mission Blvd. He was no saint... he had his struggles to addiction... but he was a Believer who loved Jesus... and he was truly our friend. Dennis will be missed by many of us!!

In honor of his passing, I came to PB prepared to do a memorial service for his friends. Many appreciated the fact that I even bothered doing it, but I consider it a great honor to do something like that for anyone of them, especially if they are my friends.

GOD gave us an opportunity this week to remind people that tomorrow is promised to nobody, and yes... losing a friend hurts, but through faith in Jesus Christ... we find comfort knowing that this thing we call "life" is but a vapor and we will see our friend again soon, on the other side.

Tonight was very special. It was Christmas eve and I was able to get a number of people together to sing a Christmas carol and have some fun for the evening. The gifts from Danna & Marcy, that I'd mentioned before were given out to every person that came through our line. Nobody left our area without receiving a stocking stuffed with items as personal gifts.

Pocketz, a fellow Believer on the streets, was blessed with a cute & cuddly Christmas present to keep him company from now on: "Ezekiel" (an 8 week old Rottweiler).

The city (with the help of a certain someone) set up a Christmas tree on the boardwalk near the main Lifeguard tower, designed to give the homeless people of the area an opportunity to participate in decorating the tree... just as they would inside of a home.

All of the people joined together with Lisa and signed a Christmas card for Amanda and I. That was such a sweet and thoughtful thing for them to do.

The Lord helped turn a time of emotional distraught into a time of joy & laughter. Through His love, we've helped make it easier for those people to actually have a Merry Christmas this year.

Rain or shine... (Friday)

The poor weather did not prevent us from coming this week. The Lord provided shelter for us in case we ever ran into rainy nights like this.

We were unsure how big of a crowd we've get but prepared for the regular amount of people (average of 100). Once we had the canopies set up, a small number of people stood under them as we finished setting up the meal.

It was a real cozy night with everyone showing enough respect to at least not talk among themselves while the message was being shared, since we were in such tight quarters.

We didn't bring any clothes this week, due to the rain, but we did bring hygiene materials.
James shared an incident with me later this night, about the man named Daniel. He couldn't fully understand how or why we were giving things out for free. I'm sure that somehow, that type of genuine love will not be forgotten anytime soon.

It was nice that the crowd was smaller, because it gave us plenty of food to go around, and it also gave us the freedom to hang out after serving.

I think the absolute best statement made tonight is the fact that we were faithful to come even in the rain. Many did not expect us to show, which is why the crowd was so much smaller.

With next Friday being Christmas Eve, we made sure to announce that we still planned on coming down and wanted them to know that they can count on us being there.