Ministry: “The Dream Center” – Skid Row Outreach
Location: Los Angeles, California; 6th Street and Wall Street
Time: 6:00 – 8:45 p.m.
Facts:
*Skid Row houses several thousands of homeless people daily. (The number of people is heard to be 75,000 plus!)
*Many homeless are disabled veterans, drug addicts or dealers, or unemployed.
*Crime runs rampant on Skid Row; (I walked passed people openly smoking crack pipes and needles of heroine out in the open in plain site. Gang members are found everywhere and on any corner.)
*Skid Row is known to be one of and possibly the most dangerous area in the United States.
I was able to partner with “The Dream Center again for ministry, only this time for the Skid Row Outreach. Several of us, I would say 40 altogether, gathered together to pray then loaded up the vehicles to head out. We arrived on Wall Street and unloaded the drinks and snacks. We split up the beverages, snacks, and people into 2 groups. One group went left, the other group went right.
People laying on their cardboard beds or setting up tents, lined the street. We would stop, hand out the food, ask if they needed prayer, and invite them to service on Sunday. (A bus comes to pick them up, they eat on the bus, then after the service they bring them back.) I got to meet several people and hear some of their stories. I got to pray for them specifically and speak Love and Truth into their situation. A few of the guys I prayed for were Vietnam Vets that are cast aways in the streets of Los Angeles.
As I walk down one of the streets, I see a lady sitting upright leaning against the wall of a building. She is wrapped in a blanket and has all of her belongings beside her. I look down and see two heroine needles laying out in plain sight right beside her. I look back at her and it didn’t faze her one bit to have it just sitting there. I guess as long as we aren’t cops then she is okay. My heart breaks. I pray.
Later I met 2 men that claimed to be born again but can’t get away from their drug addictions. They are trapped in an ever increasing spiral that will lead to an early grave. I heard the words, I try to live for Jesus, but I just can’t seem to stay away from the drugs. I know all too well about how hard it is to quit drugs, but I also know the power of Jesus Christ to save me from those drugs….He did!! So I ask myself why can’t they seem to quit if they have been born again? What makes me different from them or them different from me?
…..ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!! It takes FULL surrender. A giving up of your ‘control’ and ‘rights’.
So what about you? What have you not yielded to God? Are there things in your life that you have yet to give over to God and it is ruling your life? It doesn’t have to be drugs or alcohol. It could be anything. [1 Peter 5:7 says, “casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.”] [Hebrews 12:1 says “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”] We’ve got to give that stuff to God and lay it at the feet of Jesus and in exchange, pick up some rest.
