Today I did an ATL (Ask The Lord) in Little Mexico, a part of Georgia near Gainesville. Little Mexico truly is a Hispanic City, not just an area or section. We stuck out like a sore thumb. We first arrived and met at The Salvation Army where I immediately had to run in to go to the bathroom ofcourse. Little did I know that God would start my day right away. I met a lady named Pat as I walked into the door who asked about my shirt. It said “Sound of Hope”. I’m sure you’ve seen it because it’s my favorite thing to wear for all occasions. She didn’t hesitate to ask me for it because her granddaughter would love it who’s name was Hope. She kept on with Hopes story of drugs and rebellion against her parents. I assured her that her name was no coincidence and that there was in fact still Hope for her life and that all she needed was prayer and strong faith that Christ could intercede and save her life. Pat agreed and said she would keep on praying for her as I promised her we would as well. From there I walked out and met up with the team I’d be assisting, Team Logos. We were ready to go. We prayed and asked the Lord to give us visions and to speak to us on where He wanted us to minister. I had a clear vision of a building, a house/business with a chain link fence beside and around it and trees in the back ground. I had even drawn it out on paper. I also saw a mule of some sort, as well as the scripture Psalm 82 which I had at the time NO clue what it was about. Check it. Purely a God thing, you’ll see. So I asked the team if God had revealed anything to them…. and this is what they got. Strawberries, Eye, Music Notes, Hurricane, random I know, but let’s go. We start to head out, which direction to go? Who better to ask than the little boy Michael who was riding around the parking lot on his powerwheels. Afterall God loves children right? He points to the right so we go. Long story short here I start seeing stallions, mustangs, horses, mules, ALL OVER THE PLACE on vans on the side of the road, on signs, toys, all about a 100 feet apart, as if God was directing us so we followed them. We get to a street with like 3 ways and are confused, and ofcourse a van drives by with a horse on the side so we follow it. We get to a stop sign and there is a house like the picture I drew with a fence, and trees which ALSO is a BUSINESS that sells rasberries…. close enough right to strawberries. I am stoked. Tyson and Amy went to the door and knocked, no answer… bummed. As we start to walk away a van pulls in! Stoked. The man didn’t speak English but a smile for some reason was good enough because as we waited on him to get out I saw a sign at the top of the hill that said Set Free. I was intrigued. We wonder up the road to see a huge white warehouse with a cross on it. The doors were garage style and open so we made our way on in to see church pews and a make shift stage with drums and a podium. We met a few men in there Hal, Troy, and Jeremy who were extremely nice and excited to see missionaries out and about in the city. Without hesitation they invited us to come back in a couple hours (6 o’clock) to have an intercessory prayer with them and more of the guys that come to pray at night. What an awesome opportunity. We promised we’d be back and headed out because we knew God had more in store for us. We followed His lead and headed back down the street. We walked up on a Hispanic store that seemed to be closed but Christina demanded we check it out. Upon opening the door we were quck to see that the owner was a Christian as it was filled with Spanish Bibles, posters, pictures, cd’s, etc. A man gets up from his meal in the back room and makes his way up to greet us with a big smile. His name was Rene. The team immediately made a close bond with the man as they shared a cold drink and talked about their future journey around the world. Rene shared his story and how he was a pastor when he wasn’t running his store that had netted 30 dollars for the day. He asked us to walk out back with him, so ofcourse we did. He took us through the small back room of his store which contained a small 5×5 bathroom connected to a 10×8 office/bedroom/kitchen where I assumed he was living. As we walked out back I noticed an old building that looked as if it had used to be a carport of some sort that had boards tacked on and tin and shingles placed over the sides and then painted. This is where he was taking us. As he opened the door with pride we saw the beautiful place of worship. Rene was so proud. with unmatching pews, pieced together carpet on unleveled floors, unmatching paint on overlapping walls, old speakers hooked up to a boombox, fans taped to the walls for air, THIS WAS A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. It was beautiful. I could end here. It’d all be worth it. But the day went on. We soon had to tell Rene goodbye but promised we’d be back at 6:30 for worship. We headed on down the road now in search for food. After walking for a while the girls insisted that we stop and ask for directions. They’ll never know how bad this annoyed me. Ha. So we go into a gas station that is again hispanic as everything is in this city and as we walk in the girls see a place to eat in the back of the gas station. It was a small vendor set up with a couple of huge pots over a fire with a couple ladies working it. I have NO idea what to order. I don’t speak spanish and they didn’t speak english. So after going back in forth and getting a good laugh out of it I ordered cow tongue and eye balls. Some would say disgusting but I’m up to try anything. I was pretty cool with it until she opened the pot right in front of me and there was the cows head in which she pulled its tongue out and sat it on the cutting block and proceeded to dice it up for me. Eh, I was okay with it I guess. Looked like roast beef. Now for the Ojo’s or eye ball (also seen in a vision right?). If you’ve ever seen someone pluck an eyeball from the socket then ate it I applaud you. It was slimey and well I can’t lie DELICIOUS. Don’t knock it till you try it right. PS- the pupil fell out on my plate and I left it. So after our superior dining experience at the gas station we headed out and Tyson and I used the sun to give us direction to go back and get the car…. So after we walked 4 miles in the wrong direction we stopped gathered our thoughts and Amy prayed that God get us a ride so we could get back to the car intime so we could make it to both church services, AMEN. So we go to cross the street and almost get hit by this huge Ford F-250. I’m yelling at them to come on but no, Christina thinks this is the sign from God. Courtney looks at the driver and says ride, thrift store, please. She signals for us to hop in the bed of the truck. Wow. God is good. So we thank God as we are riding down the road and as we are hopping out of the truck her door opened. A beautiful woman of God, thats fo sho. Her name was Hilda but those who knew her called her Angel. Seriously. She was known for helping the people of the city. I offered her 15 bucks that we had come up with to pay her for her good deed but she pushed it away and gave me 20. Wow. Without hesitation we knew where our now 35 dollars was going, RENE. After hugs and an invitation from Angel to stay with her anytime we were in town we headed back out to Set Free church. We pulled up to the church running a little late but were greeted without question by several men who were waiting for us. We walked to the front and joined hands; the six of us and about 10 of them. TALK ABOUT PRAYER. Preach it brotha. These guys prayed over us to the point that I was shakin in my chacos. Now let me point something out. We (a bunch of white, middle class, pretty people) are in an old warehouse turned church with a bunch of men that were drug addicts, dealers, and criminals that were now strong warriors for Christ that were praying over us cause WE NEEDED IT, and they were right. These men treated us like royalty. They were amazing. I can’t put into words how much of an impact they had on me and the team. After they all prayed with hands held together and high we yelled the Lords Prayer and it was so compassionate. You could feel it. They got our information and several hugs as they poured blessing over us as we headed out. To Rene’s church we go. Man I’ll miss those guys. We pull up to an empty parking lot and immediately got bummed out. We sat around and didnt know what to do. Do we just start having church by ourselves outside, I mean thats what we came to do? We began to pray about it and well what do you know Juanito (Rene’s friend) comes flying in acting like he’s going to run us over, or either he was and I just took it as a joke. He drops a couple guys off pushes us in the door of the Church and says a bunch of things in spanish which I took to be he was going to pick up more people. We were so excited. After a little waiting Juanito gets back with several people, Rene pulls in with his daughter Genesis who was so amazing. Her face lit up the room. She immediately greeted us and welcomed us to the church. Rene started the service and Genesis would translate for him so we knew what was going on. Rene greeted us and had us get up and share our names. Luckily I could say it in espanol. Hola, Me llamo es Matteo. They all laughed for some reason, but I thought it was good. Rene told us “the church it is small, but it’s heart is big in the eye of God.” They then sang songs in which I couldnt understand but luckily God hears no language barrier and I knew it was beautiful worship so I prayed and soaked it all in. They then invited us up to sing songs in English to participate in worship… little did they know we were very involved. The gesture was amazing, and Christina and Michael got up and led Shout to the Lord and Amazing Grace. After we sang Rene preached about ministry and it was so touching. Infreakingcredible. We told him that we had to get back even though it was midservice. He stopped and had everyone lay hands on us and they prayed. I have NO clue what they said but I felt love, hope, compassion, and mostly I felt God. As we left we received hugs from the whole congregation as well as I love you’s. And several called me their brother. They told me I always had a home there. It was so tough to leave and I don’t even know how to end this blog but with this. We all need God, those of us that think we don’t or think we already have Him, I’m sorry but you’re wrong. We can never stop growing. We went out to minister to others today, and got ministered to. We were prayed over. We were shown God’s love. Don’t take that lightly. It was GOD’S LOVE. We didn’t know these people, 90 percent of the time we didn’t even speak the same language. They tooks us in, offered us their best. Showed us God.
