This is the first of (prayerfully) many expansions from this Ministry. If this particular region continues from the team the Lord has chosen, they will be authoring/sharing what GOD, The Father is doing in Lemon Grove.... but as for now, I shall share what we experienced on this day.
Amanda, James, Dina, and myself all met with the home of The Brown family. There we met with their home fellowship group, eager to go out as foot soldiers for the sake of Jesus Christ. The previous night they had spend time building these goodie bags that we could easily pass out once we hit the streets. The Lord provided the following items for the packs: Socks, toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, bottled waters, bars of soap, and of course small Gospel tracks, including the book of John.
Weeks before, I had 'scouted the land' and discovered that majority of the neighbors hang out near Food-4-Less, we once we were all prayed up, we made a caravan to see who was waiting for us. Our first encounter was with 3 gentlemen who were happy to meet us. Each received a bag and an invitation to dinner at a near by park. Then another guy showed up, got the exact same items and invitation too. There were close to 15 of us, so we decided to break up in groups and do some foot work spreading out.
My particular group did not have any more run-in's but other groups did and even got the opportunity to pray with some folks. After about an hour, I ran over to pick up a generous food donation from Papa Johns Pizza. Our rally point for dinner was a local park in the historical part of Lemon Grove. Once we got set up, slowly came walking around the corner was one of the guys who accepted the invitation for a free dinner. His name is Rick.
Rick was full of helpful information regarding the locals in the area. He confessed that nobody else would be attending our dinner, due to the location of the park behind next door to the Sheriff's station. (I understood why, but only because I have some time under my belt.) Our friends had a good time getting to know Rick. I hope that he felt comfortable with us. I know he enjoyed the hot pizza! He allowed us to pray for him and his physical healing.
We certainly did not want all this food to go to waste, so we opted to drive around and just depend on the Holy Spirit to direct us where He wanted us to go. By this time, the sun had set and the coolness of the night was starting to creep in.
We were led behind a liquor store. There we met a group of guys all drinking some booze. Surprisingly enough, they already had a Papa Johns Pizza box with them. The alpha of that group was named "T". He was very suspicious of us at first, even hesitant to accept anything from us, but eventually opened up and admitted that the pizza box was empty. He was hungry. One of the 4 men sitting with him, needed a blanket. Surely enough, one of the volunteers had one readily available to bless him. The man couldn't believe it. He even shouted out: Thank you GOD, and said he loved us. It was neat for our new team to see the pleasure that something so simple could bring to somebody who is in need. It's all done in love and under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our next encounter was our last for the night but only because it took a decent amount of time. We met 2 younger men slouched behind another liquor store beside a dumpster, drinking some beer. They too suspected us to be Police, but I assured him we are only there to love on them and tell them about Jesus. The first guy, Sean, claimed to be a Christian and a "weekend drinker". He wasn't really trying to hear what we were talking about. His friend, Henry, was more interested in hearing about this love we spoke of....
Henry has alot of hurt deep inside him. He told us that he tries to hurt himself when he drinks because he cares nothing about his own life. We prayed with Henry. As we laid hands on him, huddled around, he started to convulse and shake violently. I continued to pray without ceasing or interruption. I'm confident that something unseen and spiritual was happening in our presence. Henry broke down and started crying. I took a step back and wanted the other 2 men with me to experience this, as this would be their regional Ministry (if that's what GOD plans). Before we left for the night, Rudy told me that Henry and he prayed again. It was then that Henry fell to his knees. We do not know whether Henry will remember what he experienced this night, but we pray that GOD would make Himself known to Henry and to Sean.
This was a great experience for the home fellowship. I know that this Ministry can be a real culture-shock to most, but I guarantee that this group will never see "Homeless people" the same again.
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