10/15/20
The majority of our ministry days in Southern California were ask the Lord days. However, we were never in the same place twice. We went to Santa Monica Pier, downtown Los Angeles, and downtown San Diego.
It was crazy how empty these places were.
I would never in a million years have dreamed that I would be able to walk around these places with an actual social distance radius in all directions. The Californians in our group shared their surprise at the scene. They’ve been to these places before, but they’ve never seen it like this before Covid.
The impact of Covid on this state struck me heavily.
And, yet, I was still inspired by someone at Santa Monica Pier.
He was working in one of the stores at the very end of the pier. I was shopping for magnets, my go-to souvenir, with Erica Everette and Ryan.
In all honesty, I felt a little bit bad for taking some time that day to do my own personal shopping, but the fact was I didn’t know if or when I would have the chance to be at this place again and so I wanted to take advantage. What’s cool is that God used me in this. It wasn’t a barrier to ministry; rather, it opened a door.
You see, store owners and workers are much more likely to talk to you when you buy something from them.
So, I took my few minutes to decide on a couple magnets to buy and then we went into the store.
The store was honestly a really cool place and our little group could tell it had a really cool story. Lining every wall and the ceiling and every nook and cranny of the store were bills of different currencies from all over the world. A few of them were signed. We didn’t learn too much about the story of the currencies, but we did ask. I don’t think this particular worker knew that much about them. This happened to be his brother’s store. We thought it was neat that it was a family run store, and we asked about his story.
Turns out he grew up here his whole life, and he’s a Christian. We asked about how Covid has affected his family and the store, since there aren’t the crowds there normally are.
But he told us that he just has hope because of the Lord.
He expects things to get better.
And he sees that they’re doing okay financially for now; not at all how they normally are, but they’re okay for now.
And then as we encouraged him and praised him for his faith in these difficult circumstances, he got more personal and shared prayer requests for the health of his wife and mother.
And we just prayed for this man. We thanked him for being a light on Santa Monica pier. We asked God to bless him for his hard work and to give him strength to share the Gospel.
We were believers who were given the opportunity to lift up a fellow believer.
Ministry isn’t just about sharing the Gospel with nonbelievers; sometimes, the greatest ministry of all is lifting up a fellow believer so that they can be the one who goes forth and shares the Gospel. We won’t be in Santa Monica on a regular basis, if ever again, but this store will be here, and this man and family of believers will be the ones who are light in the darkness.
That man’s strength is encouraging to me. In the midst of Covid to see him there, still full of hope that things will get better and that this phase is temporary and that God is good and still reigns. It really encouraged me.
And I don’t think he knows that I left there feeling encouraged.
But I hope we left him feeling encouraged that day. I hope we left him feeling like his voice to share the Gospel matters and his family matters and his prayers matter.
That is the day I found myself most inspired during our time in Southern California.
Love your neighbors and share the Gospel with them. Whether they are Christians or nonbelievers, everybody needs encouragement sometimes.
