Week Three: We are All Called to Serve

As I’m on the street,  I see these homeless people, so many of them Christians, that have so little but are so in love with God and thankful for what they do have, some as little as a blanket for cover at night. And then we have “Christians” (I think sometimes they treat it as a club) that think going to church on Sunday and sometimes Wednesday is all there is to being a Christian.

I was one of those at one time, so I know.  I think the word “Christian” is used too freely.  I love to use the words “disciple for Christ.”  A true disciple is being a student of Jesus and follower of Him.  It’s also one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As I think of many Christians that go to church and have it all, I wonder why some of them don’t hear the cry of their brothers and sisters unfortunate enough to be on the street. I want to say “Why don’t you come out into the streets and see what the real world is like and see what you could do to help?”  Be a doer, not a talker.  I don’t think they know how blessed they are and how their kids are raised so separated from the real world.  It breaks my heart because I see it every day.

I know that not everyone is called to work on the streets with the homeless.  We all have our calling.  But that's my point.  We all have our calling.  And some of us are not living out our calling.  We are attending church, but we aren't serving.  God created us to serve others.  He created you to serve.

Well, how's that for a sweet gentle entrance into a blog post?

I met some wonderfully, sweet people on the streets this week.  I don't have many pictures to share (it's been a trying week of technology!)  Here is a glimpse of many of their stories:

Josephine: Has been homeless off and on for 20 years.  This last time she’s been consistently homeless and on the streets due to loss of job.  She’s around 55 and has a very sweet spirit.  I asked if she kept warm at night and she said “Oh yes, I’ve been blessed with blankets.”  I gave her a Bible and toiletries, and she put them up with a bag of tortillas someone had been given her.  She’d picked up a stray puppy and was trying to take care of it until she can find it a home.  I prayed with her for healing and a job.

Sky:  A tall thin black man with vision in only one eye.  He’s been on the street a long time and is neighbors with Josephine.  He’s almost blind and not really in good health.  When I asked if he wanted prayer he said he did and said “This is how I like to do it” and knelt on the concrete.  We prayed for his health and for shelter.  He was cold and needed gloves.  I gave him mine because I didn’t have any extras, only those on my hands, so I took them off and gave them to him.  He said “I don’t want no girls gloves,” and I said they were unisex but I’d get him some pink ones if he wanted! He said “That ain’t gonna be happening.”  We laughed and he put on the black fuzzy gloves and they fit.

(Pastor Robert Davis asked Kathy to put Sky and Josephine in our prayers because Sky would often get angry about not being able to see and he’d take it out on Josephine.)

Bob was one of the first guys I spoke to.  I asked if he knew Jesus Christ was his savior.  He shrugged his shoulders and said "Nah”.  I asked if he’d like to know the Lord and he said “I think you only live once.”  I proceeded to ask him did he know, when he died, where he would go, Heaven or Hell.  His answer was “You only live once.”  I went through all the things I knew to say to him;  he was so lost, I felt sad for him.  I proceeded to try to plant a seed in him and prayed that God would help it grow, as he had no desire to think anything outside of the life on earth.  What a lost soul.

Maria:  What a beautiful young lady.  She and her friends came to eat a little too late.  (The night she came, it was 34 degrees outside.  37 people were fed that night, but a dozen or so more did not get food.)  Maria, her girlfriend, her girlfriend's two babies and two guys got there just before the food was all gone.  Brian scraped the bottom of the pot to try to see that they got something.  He warned them to come earlier as he hated to see anyone go without.  Kathy told me there was no more food and the babies didn’t get much, so I went to car and got peanut butter crackers for the kids.  We tried to get the kids to eat something.  While we were doing this I noticed Maria.  She was so beautiful, but you could tell something was wrong.  Along with her pretty face and all her body jewelry, she looked sad.  I gave her and her friend a Bible.  She held the Bible, and I knew she’d probably read it.  

I left her and walked around praying with others while she was eating.  I came back and said “Maria, what I can I pray for for you?”  She looked at me with her sad, beautiful eyes.  She said “I need prayer.  CPS took my kids.”  Because a lot of people were around us I took her by the hand to an area about 10 feet away, and I asked her to tell me her story.  She said “CPS took my 3 kids because I have problems.  I’m in the streets.”  I asked why she was in the streets and she said “drugs.”  She doesn’t have a job and can’t get off drugs.  I asked if she knew Jesus Christ as her Savior and she said she was working on it.  I asked what “working on it” meant.  She said she wasn’t sure.  I asked her if she knew if she died right then would she go to heaven or hell.  I could tell by her eyes that she didn’t know what to say, but she didn’t want to say the word hell.

I said, “Maria I’m going to pray 2 times for you.  The first prayer will be for God to open up your heart to listen to what I’m saying, and I’ll tell you about the other prayer later.”  I proceeded to pray for the Lord to open her heart to know the He loves her and to know that there is nothing that she has done that He can’t handle and that Jesus Christ died on the cross for all our sins.  I told her that I’m a sinner too, and I have to pray for forgiveness every day and she needn’t feel bad about the things she has done, and that she can get out of this.  She kept saying “Oh but the drugs, the drugs.”  I said I could pray the surrender prayer for her right then.  She was right on the edge, but I could tell she felt she wasn’t good enough.  She said she had a Bible with her kids' pictures in it.  She kept caressing the pink Bible I gave her and said “I’m going to read this one.”  She’s just not at the point of letting go, so I will continue to pray for her salvation and that of her children.  Drugs are bad, this is a perfect example of their destructive power and our powerlessness without Jesus.

People on drugs are not the only ones affected, the people around them suffer too.  Her children were taken away because of her addiction.  My marriage was taken away because of my husband’s addictions.  One addiction leads to others making it harder to recover, impossible without the Lord.

We left San Antonio with heavy hearts for all the homeless we met.  But we were joyful for all the wonderful servants that God has in place in San Antonio, Texas.  We leave here headed for El Paso.  Praying God's blessing over  all we have met.