Week Six of the Journey - Phoenix, AZ

We arrived in Phoenix on the evening of February 4th and were on the road to California by February 6th.  It's not that we didn't have a place to stay.  We did.  We stayed at the Dream Center, a five-acre former resort center that has been turned into a center that provides Christian-based residential rehabilitation program, shelter and care for victims of sexual exploitation, affordable housing for single men and women in transition, as well as distribution of food and clothing throughout various Phoenix neighborhoods where the predominately poor reside.  (That's their official description!)

We had called ahead of time and were given a nice efficiency apartment on the third floor, got our visitor badges and went to our room.

In general, the dream center is a pretty amazing place.  They have a rescue project to help get prostitutes off the streets, a place for pregnant teens to come and have their babies as well as a place to stay until their babies are 6 months old.  They also have transitional living space for families, rehabs centers for alcoholics and drug addicts and so much more.

Though there really isn't much to tell from our time in Phoenix, we did meet a really great volunteer at the Dream Center.  His name is Benjamin, and he has been at the Dream Center for over 3 years. He was an awesome tour guide, and took us an a long tour of the entire facility.  After the tour we asked Benjamin to tell us a bit about his life and what brought him here.  He was very interesting.  He was only 31 but had a really long story to tell.  He’s been in prison, shot at and hit several times, stabbed multiple times and was in a gang.  To talk to him now you would never know it.  The Lord has really changed his life.    I thanked him for being willing to tell us his story and he said “I just want people to know the Lord can change their lives too.”

For some reason though, we just didn't feel as connected there as we did the other places we have gone.  It was clear pretty quickly that the Lord did not have an agenda for us there.  We have to remember that this is the Lord's plan, that He knows where we are to go and whom we are to meet.  It's not that we were treated poorly, I don't want to send that message at all.

But this scripture came to my mind "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town." Matthew 10:14

So we shook off our feet and headed on to Palm Springs, CA.

Sammie