The King's Daughters - Palm Springs, CA

After only a two day stay in Phoenix, we hit the road to drive to Palm Springs, CA.  Palm Springs was a stopping point for us.  A place to take a day off (a much needed day off after 6 weeks on the road, driving and ministering to the homeless!)  We planned to stay in Palm Springs for two days, and had budgeted to stay in a hotel for those two days (the only real way for us to completely unplug.)

We arrived at our hotel, and were so excited to see how beautiful it was.  Were we in the right place?  We had booked our $49 a night hotel off of hotels.com, so we weren't really expecting much.  As it turns out, our $49 a night cheap hotel was a $300 a night resort!  (That's what happens when you're the daughters of the King; you get treated like princesses. :)

I just gotta tell you though, that you never know where the Lord will place you to touch someone's life, and that's just what happened to us there.  We were so tired that we decided to get help taking our luggage to the room.  I drove my car up to the porte cochere and Will, the bell captain, greeted us with a  beautiful smile and said “How can I help you?”  Sheepishly, we asked him to take our luggage to our room.  

I was almost embarrassed to open the doors to my car.  Two women on the road for a year – we had to bring ALL our stuff…..ha ha.  He just smiled and loaded it all up.  The cart was full!  Kathy followed him to the room while I parked the car.  When I got to the room, Kathy was talking to Will and said to me, “He was homeless until today.” 

She said as they were walking to the room and talking, he asked what we were doing on the road and she told him our story.  He looked down and started telling her about how he’d been through a heart breaking divorce,  and had lost his company and his home.  (Man did that sound familiar!)

Will told me more of his story.  He said that after 27 years of marriage, his wife had moved off to Arkansas and left him.  She took over $5000.00 out of his checking account and left him with $80.00 and nowhere to live.   He ended up in a transitional home.  He was working 3 jobs trying to pay off the bills his wife had left behind, and one night he thought he was having a heart attack and ended up at the hospital.  The doc told him that if he didn’t let go of some of the work and stress, he would have a heart attack.  

I shared with him that I understood because I'd had someone leave me after over 15 years,  and that I also thought I was having a heart attack, but it was just the stress and anxiety of what I was living through.  I told him he just had to turn it over to God, and he said “I did!”   I asked if I could pray for him.

We all held hands, and I began to pray.  I prayed for his health, stress relief, clarity and wisdom on what to do next and for him to let God take care of him.  I told him how much God loved him and not to worry.  When I was through praying for him, he was wiping tears from his face.  He hugged me and was so thankful for that prayer.  He left and went back to work.

The next night, we were in the lobby of the hotel about to go eat.  Will saw me and ran over and gave me a big hug and said “Thanks so much for that prayer.”  His face was shining and smiling, different from the day before.  I knew God was with him, and I was so happy.  It showed me what a prayer can do. (It's why I pray with everybody I can.)  

I wish I had a picture of him to show you,  but I don't.  But I have a picture of his face and his big beautiful smile in my heart because he blessed me.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you . . . when we got to the hotel, they were sold out of the $49 rooms so they put us in a suite for the same price!  And an awesome hot breakfast was included for free.  It’s a hotel where Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball hung out when they were living.  It was beautiful.  God has a sense of humor…he treated us just like what we are….his princesses.  To the King of ALL.  Hope you enjoy this story, we felt like we were in heaven on earth.   Now we are rested and ready to battle against Satan for more people for the Kingdom. 

Sammie

(just for fun, I thought I'd show you guys why we appreciate those gas cards so much!  Keep 'em coming!)

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

Week Five of the Journey - Tucson, Arizona

We left El Paso and headed for Tucson, Arizona, by way of New Mexico.  Kathy (my traveling companion and fellow missionary) was just so, so excited about this part of the trip because she grew up in these woods and just went on and on about getting some green chili.  So of course, we stopped and had some for dinner.  (She's so cute.)

Pastor Roy (we called him King Roy)

We weren't worried about going into Tucson, but we were certainly wondering what God would do because we did not know a single soul there. We cruised on into the city on January 26th (we're a little behind in our postings, but our technical difficulties have been a bit overwhelming!)  and met up with Pastor Roy Tullgen III at the Gospel Rescue Mission (GRM).  Not only would we be working with Pastor Roy, but he would also be our host for the week.  We stayed at the Transition House at the mission, which for us was like a luxury condo.  We each had our own room with a private bath, full kitchen and even washers and dryers! What a blessing.  We were welcomed as family and settled in for a wonder-filled week.

There are so many stories to tell in Tucson that narrowing them down has been nearly impossible.  We are blessed to have a writer back home in Texas who helps us tell our stories, and she even said that knowing which stories to tell was a difficult task.  So we've narrowed them down to a few, but just know that for every story you read here, there are so many more incredible stories we didn't share.

We went to church on Sunday morning, and then that night I got to give my testimony at Chapel at the Women's Center.  I played my Gods Girlz music (this music is so amazing and different from most Gospel music.  The girls here just loved it!)  We danced and sang for 20 minutes.  I told the story of all I have been through and God's faithfulness to me through it all.  I, of course (as always), shared surrender and how to give “it” to God and let Him take over.  As always I asked this question “If you died tonight, do you know if you would go to Heaven or Hell?” Then I asked “How many of you know for sure you’d go to Heaven?”  Hands went up.  Then I asked “How many of you are not for sure?”  Some hands went up.   Three beautiful women surrendered their hearts to Christ.  

What a fun fruitful night at the Women's Center.  Thank You Jesus.

On Tuesday night, we were at the Men’s Center where I shared my testimony.  It was very powerful that night.  It became very quiet while I was speaking, as their focus shifted from their problems and on to my story.  Eight men came to the Lord that night and many more came for prayer after that.  One of the men brought me a cross and said “My mom gave this to me to give to someone special.  You are the most Godly woman I know other than my mom.  She would be proud I gave it to you.”  He is truly a light at GRM.   Another blessing is that a group of them laid hands on me and Kathy and prayed for us. Never did I ever imagine that my story would be something God would use in such a powerful way.  Sometimes it really is just so humbling the impact it has on those who have such incredibly difficult lives.

Wednesday night I was in charge of Chapel again.  My voice was gone because I've been speaking so much.  I remember saying “The devil just thinks he’s going to get me. I can whisper the Lord’s message all day long!” and I did.  I talked again about surrender and how important it is and how God loved them no matter what.  We studied Jeremiah 29:11, word by word.  I had the girls help me read it because my voice was so bad. As we went over the verse, I stressed to them the Lord has a plan for them, plans to prosper them and not to harm them.  He has plans to give them Hope and a future.  Hope has been the word that I’ve tried to share in every single place I have been allowed to speak.  I don’t care if it’s on the radio, one on one, in a class room, in church or on the streets.  HOPE is where it starts.  I had 6 girls come to Christ for the first time that night.  Oh happy day for the Lord's kingdom this week.

As I mentioned, there were just so many stories to tell, but we can't tell them all!  (Remember, it took us a week to LIVE the stories!)  But I want to tell you one more story.  It's a long one, but it was so special, so God ordained.

Michael, from Conroe, TX

I had met a young man named Jonathan at the Men's Center.  He'd asked me to come that night to hear him play the piano and sing.  We seemed to have really connected, so I really wanted to honor his request, but I also really wanted to go back to the Women's Center and say goodbye to my girls!  We got to the Men's Center in time to get a front row seat and hear him play.  It was so beautiful that everyone applauded when he finished.  When he had finished, a man walked up to me and I recognized him.  I asked, "Are you from Conroe, Texas?" and he said, "I KNEW I knew you."  It was my friend, Michael, that I had fed on the streets and ministered to for a year.  I could see that he was broken, and he smelled of alcohol.  I asked what he was doing there, and he said "I just left town (Conroe) and hitched a ride. I was just wandering down the road and ended up here.”  

His eyes watered up and he began to cry.  He said “I tried to kill myself this morning.  I put a rope around my neck.”  He started weeping.  You can’t tell me that this wasn’t a Divine Appointment from God!  He was so happy to see a familiar face.  He was really lost and needed a friend.  At that moment, I knew why I was having a conflict within about going to the Women’s Center or the Men’s Center.  God wanted me at the Men’s Center, not only to come to support Jonathan but to see Michael, to speak God’s word to him and pray with him.  

I spoke in detail to him and prayed.  He began to weep even more.  He needed more support than just me.  I went and got all the Christian men I knew there to rally around him with me.  We all laid our hands on him and began to pray.  We prayed for God to do a work in him to let him know how much he is needed and loved, not only by us, but by God.  ALL the men kept saying “Just stay; we are here for you.”  As I left for the night I knew he was in good hands.   

This is the 3^rd person now that I’ve met since I’ve been out that I knew from back home;  one man in Austin that was even at my Launch Party when we left;  then in San Antonio I heard somebody call my name, and it was a girlfriend, Liz, from my Sunday school class; then here was Michael in Tucson.  I wonder if all these were coincidences???  As we know, there is no such thing as coincidence.  God had put these people in my path again and I am thankful evermore.  It is really a small world after all.  Can’t wait to see what happens next. 

(I didn't even get to tell you about my radio interviews!  Don't know how the Lord will use those, but trust that he will!)

And one more quick story (sorry, I just have to tell you this one!)  This is me with Pastor Larry from the Sober Project Church.  He let me speak at his church and at the end of the service, they took a love offering for us IN A TRASH CAN!  Then he told me to open my purse (I was praying there was no trash in that can!) and he poured it all into my purse.  We don't have too many love offerings taken for us out here on the road, so it was pretty humbling to see my purse filled.

Please do take the time to click on these links and read about these great ministries to the homeless.  We'll be telling you more about the Gospel Rescue Mission and their amazing staff.  Watch for those posts.