We are “Immanuel on Emanuel” …and this is just the beginning.
A group of friends and myself have started a downtown homeless ministry in Houston and were calling it Immanuel on Emanuel. Immanuel meaning God with us and the place we go is on St. Emanuel Dr. We all decided to go for various reasons and for myself I just wanted to see more of God and Him working and speaking life. So the seven of us head downtown for the afternoon, (Nov. 10, 2014) we park and walk for awhile down towards the third ward… the places people tell you not to go. (Some of the friends that were with us had already been.)
So the first people we stop and greet remember my friends, they were so joyful in seeing them. One of the two men was named Eric, he is homeless but he has a job and he is a Vietnam Veteran, bless his soul, Happy Veterans Day Eric. One of the first things he said to us was, “I saw y’all coming way down the street with your smiles, and I knew you had something to tell us.” He continued in saying repeatedly how he knew we hand no fear… No Fear. Is this not what people should be seeing in us everyday?! God is with us, we will not fear/ We were not given a spirit of fear… (2 Timothy 1:7).
(Zeke on the left and Eric is on the right)
The man that was with Eric was named Zechariah but he said we could call him Zeke, and wow what a humble man. He is trying to seek the Lord with all of his heart and wow is all I can say because our words cannot describe this sight. He spoke from the word to us, asked one of the girls if he could borrow her bible and flipped through it and when he found what he wanted he looked up at us and said, “I have something I want to share.” We are all struck with more joy than we had brought with us, Heck Yes we want to hear!!! He read us 2 Corinthians 4:18, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” He has such passion when he spoke! He said he doesn’t read his bible everyday but God has helped him stay sober for over 2.5 years!!! Praise Him! After we had spoken to him for awhile we asked him and Eric how we could pray for them. We prayed for Zeke and this is what he asked for… “Bless me so that I can bless others.” SO THAT I CAN BLESS OTHERS… This man has next to nothing and he continues by asking for “nothing.” Woe is me for I’m trapped by the chains of my possessions! Eric asked for a similar prayer, it was wonderful.
(Bobby and Hannah)
The next man we met was named Bobby, my friends had met him previously as well, he came over to us with the most warm smile. He was so happy to see us, whether he knew us already or not. Introductions ensued immediately, a firm hand shake and looking at us through his sunglasses, but I knew his eyes were sincere. I had the pleasure of watching Bobby and my friend Hannah interact, they had already built a relationship previously and he absolutely adores Hannah, whether she will admit it or not. But what a joy to see them feast over Hannah’s bible and every word filling their souls. Bobby even started telling us about the Prodigal son, although he didn’t know that that is what that story was called he still knew it. I just loved hearing it from him even though I have heard it countless times in Sunday school and have told it numerous times while working in the children’s ministry. This time it meant more, because he really understood it, he knew it was God the Father that was celebrating over His lost son coming home! Who are we to get upset over the celebration of others despite them messing up over and over and over again running away from the Father and coming back… but do we not mess up too!!! It truly is a celebration, praise God for His love and mercy. If I am honest, Bobby just had a presence about him, and I cannot describe it other than that I seriously enjoyed being around him and speaking with him and that I cannot wait to see him again!
(The crew minus Harley and we’re with the birthday girl, Cindy! Somehow we caught her not smiling… she was smiling the whole time!)
In all of this at some point we met Cindy, it was her birthday!!! She was so happy when she saw us, came over and gave all 7 of us hugs. Later on she began building a fire… which in technicality was an open flame on the sidewalk aka totally illegal! Everyone was worried about it I told them to not freak out, if a cop came they’d most likely just tell us to put it out, as Cindy was saying, “I really don’t want to get arrested!” Hahaha she said it ever so joyfully. She was wonderful, like a grandmother to all of us, and she didn’t even know us! Us and our new friends sang her happy birthday and when it came to the part to say her name everyone froze, I started to say Cindy, but because everyone stopped I lacked the confidence to belt it out (and I cannot carry a tune worth crap, insecurity at its finest… God help me I hate singing and I hate being wrong). But when we stopped she just belted it out herself loud and proud, “CINDYYYYY!” Can you imagine, what would you have done had everyone forgotten your name..? I mean really think about it…
*This is your thinking space*
Cindy had hotdogs and hamburgers to be grilled, so we waited for the wood to be ready to put the aluminum wrapped goodies on the “grill.” At one point when we were checking on the meat, my friend Demi went to help and Cindy practically slapped her hand away, “That rock is hot, be careful!” It was so cute, she was so concerned with Demi’s well being and they didn’t even really know each other. When the food was done, she made sure everyone else had their fill before she even ate, and it was HER BIRTHDAY! We cant even do that and we have all we need and THEN SOME! She wanted us to be full even though she knew we hand plenty to go somewhere and eat… This is Love y’all! to have nothing but give out the most important thing and a vulnerable thing at that, LOVE. You may know, my birthday was on Nov. 6… I didn’t do anything for my birthday really, and it hadn’t bothered me until people started asking towards the end of the day, “What did you do for your birthday?” and when I would say nothing they would get sad for me… The thing is I wasn’t upset until people were upset for me. I did end up going to dinner with the most wonderful friends a girl can ask for, but I also didn’t get anything for my birthday, and I wasn’t upset too much about that either other than there was only one thing I wanted, a pair of boots. (Really cute ones too!) I cant even take them on the race with me… perhaps I’ll shove them in my pack somewhere… But it was stupid to be hurt over getting no physical gifts. Cindy had nothing but “happy birthdays” that could be given and she was happier than a squirrel with an overly stuffed face! And what she was given she gave away for the enjoyment of others too! (I did get the boots, but before that I had to remind myself, as I do everyday, IT IS NOT ABOUT ME, none of it!)
Bobby walked us to the corner and said goodbye for the, who knows at that point how many times, and as we were leaving, I was in the front crossing the street and I looked back at the rest of the group making sure they were good and I saw Bobby, watching us leave. It didn’t hit me until later, he was sad to see us go, he lingered, he wanted us to stay… My words are failing me at this point and I mean literally right now as I am typing, how am I supposed to feel God? This hurts, that’s my brother over there!
*just give that a pause for a moment*
As we walked back to our car, joy and sadness filled us all. We stopped and talked and prayed over what all happened. It was wonderful being in Gods presence, in the coolness of the night. Eventually we got up and kept walking to the car and by divine appointment, a man passed by us and said hello, we said hello back, all of us with great joy. Because of this joy he decided to ask us for dinner money, he had just gotten out of the hospital and was hungry. Instead we said No… we will take you to dinner. At first he was shocked, I think he thought he had heard us wrong. He said ok, and then asked us if we were Christians,YES, this kind of made us all laugh. So we asked him what he wanted to eat, it could be absolutely anything, and he said BBQ. We were all like heck yes sounds good, he said it was too far to walk, he had been walking with a cane. So we told him to come ride with us, so he did. He was so joyful and loved riding with us in the car. We got to Pappa’s BBQ and while in line he looked at me and asked, “Are y’all taking it to go?” If I’m honest I was shocked at first… why would we do that, I told him, “No you’re eating with us!” He gave me a smile, he didn’t expect us to stay, it was late and we were far from home, but that smile showed that deep down he really did want us to stay and eat with him. He was at the other end of the table from me when we ate but him and my friend Harley were having an… intense conversation at some points, but fruitful and full of wisdom, I knew that much. Afterward he got back in the car with us and we dropped him off where he needed to be. Then we finally ventured to go back home, his name was JJ.
All in all, if you read nothing else, I learned that love is something we should give freely and that these people have “nothing” in our eyes but to them they have all they need. I also realized, I’m going to be backpacking and I was concerned about the pack I got because it was smaller than everyone else’s… “What do I do if I run out of room for the things I need..?” That “Small” backpack I have can hold more than everything these people own… I most certainly can do this and minimize all the things I am bringing. Who am I to complain? WHO AM I TO BE CONCERNED OVER THINGS!?!?! They’re just things, Gosh dang it Emma, just MAKE IT WORK.
We went downtown with the intention to bring hope, life and love, instead we got just that.
(Eric with the crew)
