Last Night's Outreach!

Coping and Pasting again. Hey... it's the thought that counts right? ;)

My turn to blog about the outreach again! Yay!

We wanted to make it an earlier night than usual so Jen, Johnny and I met up around Laurie's around 9. We had the weirdest experience driving out to the 7-11 as we had traffic literally stopped for ten minutes for... bicycles. A LOT of them. We approximated about 200. It was nuts! They just kept coming! I am kicking myself now for not grabbing my camera because it was quite a sight. My silly love for Pollyanna then had me quoting, "Two hundred bicycles! Four hundred Chinese lanterns!" ...it was funnier in my head. Oh well... ;)

We got to 7-11 and our doorman was back. I feel like I haven't seen him in a long time so it made me especially happy and encouraged to see him there. We got coffee and prayed for God to go before us tonight, for divine appointments, for Laurie, Daryl, and Julia who weren't with us, and of course, for the bicyclists to be safe.

At the track, things were very slow. We drove up and down the track three times and saw a total of four girls, and got to talk to two.

The first girl was I***** who looked like she might be pregnant, or it was just the dress. She said she has been out there for a year and before had herself on craiglist. She said she told herself she would only be out there for a year so this was her last night. She looked excited when she said it but we could tell she was scared and unsure even as she said it. A runner walked by to ask her if she was doing ok. I racked my brain for a few minutes trying to figure out where I had seen him before. It was M******* whom we had met almost two months ago, my first time out. Daryl was given a word of knowledge for him about going back to school to be an electrician. I***** had said she didn't work for a pimp but just had some guys who watched her, but once I figured out where I knew M******* from, I doubted it.

We saw another girl on a payphone and she didn't look too happy. We decided to walk up and hand her a bag, just in case she was just acting like she was on the phone. I had actually seen her before too my first night. I don't remember her name but she stuck out to me because of her glass eye. She took the bag and then as soon as she got off the phone, she took off down a side street.

At one point we parked and just started walking. There was a Spanish church having service on a corner and it sounded like so much fun! About a block down we saw a girl so we went to go talk to her. S*** said she had been out there a few years now. She was sweet and told us to be careful out there on the streets. When we asked if there was anything specific we could pray for, she said a change in her life.

Sometimes when we pray with girls, they are so distracted or scared or something, that they don't really seem to listen to anything we are praying. They are watching for johns or their pimp, or whoever. S***, on the other hand, was intently praying with us and said amen to agree with things being said as we prayed. Afterward she made some sort of comment about staying close to Jesus. It is humbling when you realize that we ourselves can know Jesus and have an intimate relationship with him, and yet we can all fall into sin so easily and so fast. We all need His grace.

The last girl we saw was walking super fast down the street. We pulled over to decide if we should try to turn around and race far ahead of the street from her so we could catch her. Right then she was stopped by a car. We got out and watched and prayed that she wouldn't get in. She did. I think that's the most heart breaking thing we can witness when we go out at night.

Whether it's 15 girls... or 4... it is still a fruitful night. God had us out at that time and place for a reason... for I***** and S*** if not for anyone else. Even if we only talked to one girl the whole night, it is still worth it.

The War We Fight

“I had been extremely miserable in adolescence, miserable from its very onset, and as I prayed to You [God] for the gift of chastity I even pleaded, ‘Grant me chastity and self-control, but please not yet.’ I was afraid that You might hear me immediately and heal me forthwith of the morbid lust which I was more anxious to satisfy than to snuff out.”
(Augustine, The Confessions 1997, Book 8, paragraph 17)

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Friday night during Outreach, we met a man on the street named Andre. He was riding around on a bike with headphones on and flashing light type buttons all his shirt. I don't remember if he said he was homeless or not. When we asked him where he lived, he pointed to a random corner so I wasn't sure if he meant the houses near it, or the vacant lot.

Either way, we started talking to him and he was a very sweet man. He said he is on crack but that he only takes what he can get and then goes to bed (a night cap?) He started talking about Jesus and how he knows that God is real and that He can save us from anything, even drug addiction. He said he puts no blame on God whatsoever for his situation and knows that he is just following his flesh, instead of what the Spirit would lead him to do.

This hit me for a few reasons:

* He doesn't blame God. He takes full responsibility for his actions. How often have I shook my fist at the sky because of something I don't agree with that is happening? And all to realize later, if I had only followed Christ through the situation, perhaps things wouldn't have happened that way.

* He knows God could save him from his life and his addiction, but he still chooses that life anyway. This made me think of the quote from above where Augustine says, "Grant me chastity and self-control, but please not yet." That's exactly what Andre is praying as he preaches to himself about the life he lives, but won't let God change it! How often have I done THAT? Too many times to count! and for the same reason: "I was afraid that You might hear me immediately and heal me forthwith of the morbid lust which I was more anxious to satisfy than to snuff out." I was afraid... that God might answer my prayers and would heal me of whatever 'addiction' I had... when I was not yet ready to give up the temporary pleasures that these addictions brought.

I found myself in a place recently that I had purposely kept myself in for over a year. I had prayed at times "Oh Lord! Help me! Give me the strength to walk away from this so I can glorify You with my life!" But instead of following through with the prayer by faithfully confessing my sins, getting accountability, changing my life habits with God's strength, I instead kept turning back to that sin... and decided this was just too big for God to get me out of. But when it gets down to it, I knew deep down inside that God could bring me out of it... but I didn't want him to. And even when he finally did bring me out, I, at first, had remorse for finally letting God work through me.

How do we get there? How do Andre and I find ourselves at a place to where we actually don't WANT God to do what He does? Where closeness with our Lord, only possible with a repentant heart from habitual sin, is not our first desire? Where we choose our sin and pleasure that we KNOW is temporary OVER the peace and eternal rewards of walking with Jesus?

I know why. The Bible says it clearly...

"For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells within my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

-Romans 7:22-24



(Picture taken by my talented sister Courtney. Doesn't it perfectly illustrate the truth of this scripture?)

Copy and Paste! (My cheater blog)

Everytime after we do Outreach, Laurie would write a blog about everything that happened. We decided to start 'sharing the load' and taking turns writing the blogs. Here is the one I wrote from when we went out Friday night (two nights ago).

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Hey guys! I just got home but I am not even tired even after my hour drive so I am gonna write about the outreach now that it's still fresh... but if I ramble or it doesn't make sense, it's almost 3am so grace please! ;)

Oh and if I forget anything, please feel free to add to it Laurie and Johnny! (I'll tag more people tomorrow when I am more awake too! hehe)

Laurie and I had dinner as I work in town so soon after, we met with Johnny at Laurie's place at ten and headed out. We did our routine of getting coffee at the 7-11 (sadly didn't see our usual 'doorman') and then prayed in the parking lot. Johnny showed us the jewelry he made too for us to give to the girls. Very nice! We prayed for divine appointments, for the people who weren't able to join us in ministry tonightt, prayer requests on our hearts, and also for all the hearts who were at the Harvest Crusade tonight and will be the next two nights (I am going tomorrow and Johnny is also volunteering there! Fun!)

We were lucky with no traffic on our way to the track but when we got there... no girls! We drove up and down the track once and saw maybe three girls spread out. We drove it up and down again and even they were gone. We went back to the Shell station to pray... and then Johnny bought a taco from the roach coach (see Johhny? Told you I would mention your dinner!) We talked to a couple guys standing around there (we saw one of them buy drugs off another guy on a bike... plain as day)... they kept saying we looked like cops. That made me laugh when I looked at Laurie's beautiful purple hair and I pictured my klutzy self with a gun. LOL

We started driving the track again... and there were more girls than we could count! They must have all been dropped off at once. We parked and came across Michelle whom Laurie, Jen and Johnny had met two weeks ago. Super sweet and we prayed with her about a friend and a guy, S*** and P*** who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

We talked to ALOT of girls... we kind of lost count but based on all the gift bags we DIDN'T come back home with, we are guessing 15-20!

We also met Andre, a man riding around on his bike. He is on crack but knows full well Jesus can take his addiction away. He made no excuse for his addiction and said he knows his flesh does what the spirit does not want him to do. I thought he should totally be a preacher as he was speaking into us all as he spoke! We got to pray with him too.

Some of the girls looked extra young, like Jr High age. It was really heartbreaking. We got to talk to M******* for a little bit and she was really sweet. She looked younger than 20 (the age she said she is), but said she had been out there for about a year. She said she knew she was special and that she knew what she was doing was wrong. I seriously wanted to hug this girl so bad!

We also came across T****** who recognized Laurie right away from another track. The cops tried to talk to us as we were talking to her so the time was cut a little short.

Overall, it was a very fruitful night! Got to talk to a lot of girls and guys! I can't stop thinking of how young they all were either. There's always one thing every time we go out that hits me the most and these girls ages is what really got to me. So sad. I wish they knew how special they are to Jesus... they are His children!

Ok ramble done! Hope it made sense! God bless and thank you for everyone who prays for us! :)

Fun Fun!

This is going to be more like a facebook status than an actual blog, but...

I love my mom and sister! They made my blog so new and pretty!

And... I am reading Matthew (I like making my way back to the beginning of the New Testament again), Hosea (heavy stuff), and John MacArthur's "Safe in the Arms of God" (REALLY heavy stuff)! I recommend them all, especially the God-breathed ones. ;)