The forgotten

Hopefully this is a first to a long series of photos from doing street ministry.  When I came out here it is one of the goals I had in mind.  One thing I wanted to do was to get rid of all expectations before I embarked on the experience, but that is very hard to do.  The thing I decided to do was not to sugar coat anything.  I want to describe what its like and express any thoughts that I might have.

I realized why people pretend to not see these people.  They are the outcasts of society.  For whatever reason they have ended up here and its all to easy to just categorize them all as lazy drug users.  That is not always the case, but even if it was the case, why arent we doing something for these people.  We easily judge them because we feel that everyone has had the same life we had.  However not everyone had a family or got a chance to have an education.  Poverty has a vicious cycle about it, one that is almost impossible to get out of.

Once we realize where these people have come from then we can soften our hearts up a little more.  But most of the time we wont allow ourselves to trudge through the trash-filled streets and deal with the smell of urine and fish everywhere.  Nobody wants to be out of their comfort zone.  Its not a glamorous experience by any means.  To be truly honest, it takes the pure of heart to do such a ministry because love is the only thing that can compel a person to love on those that are cast out.  

I pose a question to everyone sitting in their comfort zones...  Is God real in your life?  I asked this the other day and everyone that responded gave an enthusiastic YES!!!, lets see it by actions.  So before you answer that question consider what Jesus said.  He said that if you were blind you would not be at fault but since you claim you can see you will be judged.  If you claim you can see and you claim that God is in your life and working great things within you, then you better be sure.  Where are your actions to prove it?  Where is your fruit?  Fruit is required because its impossible to hide the light once you have it, you are guaranteed to see results of God within you.  

So are you hiding your light, afraid to let it shine in this culture and country?  More to come soon.

Skid Row Outreach

Today we didnt have any rain so the outreach wasnt canceled for Skid Row.  I grabbed my camera and headed out with a few of the guys down to Skid Row.  Little did I realize what Skid Row is exactly.

There are a few things that I learned today.  One of those things is that you can never be fully prepared for new life experiences.  I went out there knowing I was going to see people in terrible living conditions.  I knew it was going to be dangerous and I knew I was going to be out of my comfort zone.  Me being the person I am, these things excited me.  Yet excitement was taken back when I saw that people lived like this.

Everywhere you go you smell urine and see people going about life, just trying to survive.  We went around and found a large group of people to talk with and ask about prayer.  Some received our presence well and others shoved us away.

One man rededicated his life to Christ and we were able to pray over and anoint two other people who were suffering.  One man named Cecil was 73 years old as he said and was in a wheel chair.  I struck up a conversation with him just to be cordial and learn something new.  This man had a great spirit and attitude about him.  We asked him if there was any pain we could pray over and we prayed over his arthritis in his legs.  He was instantly feeling better afterwards and was even able to walk a little bit.  I told him I would be seeing him again.

For me, I find it a major problem that the majority of the church is ignorant of what goes on under our own noses.  We intentionally stay ignorant to these people and they end up paying the costs.

California Update

Some people may have been wondering about what has been going on since I moved away from Charleston.  I havent really been able to keep an updated blog until now so I will fill you in on whats been going on.

I left Oceanside Ca towards the end of the month of January.  I left for Yorba Linda where I would be staying with friends and doing work for them to help pay for the Dream Center.

At this point and time I had no idea how I was going to pay for the internship at the Dream Center.  All I knew is that God provides and that I was walking on faith in this one.  Its very difficult to explain your situation to people when they ask what you are doing and why you are doing it.  When they ask what your plan is all you can tell them is to wait on God.  Most people lose faith in your ability to reason like a logical human being after this point, that is until God shows up.

I filed my tax return and I received the exact amount I would need for my internship.  How amazing is that!  I also took my test to get a California driver's license which I will have soon.  Now I can establish residency and get to go to school and not have to pay out of state tuition costs.  Well, thats just me getting side-tracked, anyway...

I finished all the stuff that I needed to finish in order to be taken care of for the Dream Center.  I was running out of time at my friend's house and I needed to move onto my next step of my life.  This is where my other friend comes in and sets up an interview with a pastor to help move things along quicker to get this internship started, and also a place to stay until it does.  Like I said, God provides.

Thats basically where I am at this point, waiting for the next step to happen.  In the mean time I am connecting with amazing people from all over the country.  These people have a great love for God and for doing ministry.  I finally feel like I am in a place where I can be used.  I will be trying to get involved with the Skid Row ministry this upcoming week.  I want to talk to the people on skid row and learn their stories, write them down and share them with the rest of the world.

I feel something big is about to happen, and I cant wait to see what it is.  One thing I have learned in this trip is that God calls all of His people to be sold-out for Him.  We need to be living for Him and dying for Him every single day.  There is much more to be said, but I will have to save that for another time.

Until then, take care.