Street Ministry.
Every Friday night is Street Ministry. We meet in the main building of the Dream Center at 6:30 pm to pray and pack the vans to “hit the streets“. Street evangelism is the goal, bringing light into darkness and love to the lost. There are students, volunteers and some staff that go out to various locations in the City of St. Louis.
Two popular locations are Tent City where the homeless live in tents along the Mississippi river and another spot is the Delmar Loop which is completely opposite of tent city. Tent city is where the homeless have “nothing“ and may be more open to God‘s love and the saving grace of asking Jesus into their hearts. The Loop as it‘s called is a few blocks of coffee shops, shopping, restaurants and neat boutiques where you‘d probably find me on a weekend with friends. A young crowd who many don‘t know the Lord, but aren‘t lacking the necessities like those in tent city. It‘s a bit harder to evangelize to this group. They are busy, distracted and don‘t have the time to spend talking about a Jesus who saves… what do they need saving from? They‘ve got all they need (so they think – so I used to think). Especially when this Jesus asks us to lose our lives in order to find life in Him. Why would those at the loop want to lose the “good thing“ they‘ve got going on? Whereas those at tent city are more likely to lose the little they have for the hope of something better. So… last Friday…
I was assigned to the Loop. Not thrilled about it because it meant I would be outside the 2+ hours we go out and this particular night it was about 12 degrees. If I were to have gone to tent city we would be outside but there are campfires and a building that a lot of the residents gather in to warm up before they head to their tents to sleep. The other thing about the loop is just getting ready for the rejection of disregarded conversations and bigger barriers to break through in order to simply talk to someone. I don‘t mind talking to strangers… I actually love striking up conversations with people I don‘t know. There‘s something about street evangelism that carries a bit of pressure though. Evangelism is defined as the preaching of the gospel; the work of an evangelist with missionary zeal, purpose, or activity. There typically carries an agenda to lead people to Christ. Early on as we walked the parking lot I told God to help us, I told Him that He knows our hearts and we just want Him to lead the right people to us. We are willing and here for You tonight. You know our hearts. We don‘t want this to be difficult or discouraging in anyway. Please help us to reach Your children. That was my prayer.
I was with Lera and Tim who are classmates of mine. We decided that we just want to BE LOVE to people… which is the essence of Jesus… we went to Starbucks because it was freezing out and got a small coffee to warm us up. This did my heart well too.
I purposed this evening that I was just going to be ME and not have a PLAN to how to strike up conversation and “lead people“ to the Lord. So I talked to Nancy as she made my coffee. Nancy is 19 and just had a baby with her boyfriend and she‘s tired. I told her what the others and myself were doing on a cold Friday night and why we came in to warm up… I told her that we go out on the streets to tell people “God loves them“ and I asked her if she believes in God. She said, “yes“… I told her that He‘s the one to go to when she‘s tired and stressed. She was responsive and thankful to hear kind words. We bid her goodnight and walked out in the cold.
I can do this. I can share the love of Jesus. It‘s just kindness, and allowing the spirit to lead. Well. Here leads the Spirit… we stop by a restaurant where there were outside heaters that we paused at. As I stood there a car pulled up to the sidewalk. A white Lexus, a woman was driving and she dropped off the man. He got out, wearing cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and a nice fur/leather jacket. He got out and directed her how to park the car. It caught my attention. I watched them. She got out of the car and was wearing a light gray sweat suit. Something didn‘t seem right. The guy walked across the street with her tagging behind. They arrived at the restaurant and he opened the door and walked in, in front of her. I could feel her hurt, her feeling of unworthiness. I said out loud to Lera, a friend of mine that “she doesn‘t feel worthy of love“, I then made a statement I didn‘t realize would actually come to pass. I said, “I would go in the restaurant and find her and tell her, God loves her and that she is worthy of love.“ Lera said, “Let‘s pray for them.“ So I prayed that God would meet her, that she would experience His love and know she is WORTHY… Jesus died for her to make her worthy! I prayed that Godly men and women would come into their lives to have a good influence on them. I may have prayed some other things but I don‘t remember now… we carried on walking. We eventually made a loop and came down the other side of the street where the restaurant was that they had gone into. I didn‘t think about it really, until we saw the guy outside smoking a cigarette. I might have said “hi“ to him and proceeded to walk past him. He grabbed our attention by asking if we were college students. We approached him and started to talk. He spoke of being baptized in Jamaica and being a king. We were confused. He said something about Dabu dabu, literally something strange that made him “a king of kings and a lord of lords“… I LAUGHED and said, “Really?!? I serve a KING OF KINGS and the LORD OF LORDS, and HIS NAME is JESUS! (and I believe I kind of pushed him on his chest… when I said the name Jesus) – I think back and don‘t really know why I would do that… nervously I laugh now. Wow! He went on to talk about non-sense and blow cigarette smoke in Lera‘s face. I mouthed to Lera I was going to go inside and find the woman. So I left the conversation and went inside. The hostess asked for my id and I told her I wasn‘t going to stay that I was just going to find a woman and leave. She let me go in.
I asked the Holy Spirit…“lead me, lead me, lead me…” I found her sitting by herself. I touched her shoulder and said, “mam, I saw you outside, I needed to come and tell you GOD LOVES YOU… and you are worthy of His love, His genuine and sincere love.“ I kept rubbing her shoulder as I said this… she responded with a smile, and “thank you‘s…” I left to go outside and knew it was done. As I got outside I saw the guys hands on the shoulders of Lera and Tim and I was peeved. I stepped in to break it up and didn‘t want him touching them. I interrupted and he mentioned being a king again or an heir of some kind… I said something to the effect of ONLY by the blood of Jesus are you and heir to the throne of God. Then I pointed to his belt buckle where there was a cross. I said look you even have a cross on you. It‘s because of the Cross and that‘s it. I cut off the conversation at that and walked away with Tim and Lera. We proceed to pray off anything that may have stuck due to the nature of the conversation with the man and the blowing of smoke in Lera‘s face. (a common witchcraft practice of transferring spirits)… We ended in praising God for divine appointments and the wonderful leadings of the Holy Spirit. God guided our steps and we just had to be open and willing to take the steps He orders.
My prayer was that whatever was said, the touch of my hand, that GOD was continuing to do a work in her. That something settled differently in her spirit that night. That she heard and felt His love in a way that stuck, sunk and really meant something. We prayed that the man would come out of the deception he was so engulfed in and that they would come to know the Love of God.
Tim, Lera and I were amazed at the sequence of events and how God orchestrated it all. I was thankful for the observations I picked up on early on… feeling that “something wasn‘t right“ it all seemed so clear to me… but I really didn‘t know God would take me up on my offer that “I would go in the restaurant and find her and tell her, God loves her and that she is worthy of love.“ I am so glad He did. THANK YOU GOD… for this street assignment on a COLD Friday night on the Loop. Being led by the Spirit… is quite an adventure. NO one will ever convince me that being a Christian, following the lead of Christ is boring. I would laugh and say… sit down a while… go through some blogs… God moves, leads, and directs the steps of a willing heart…
“Willing heart, GO I need you out there…” -GOD. Sept.09
