Ironic??

Homeless Outreach 1/16/10

Call me an Outreach Junkie... I don't care. I will gladly take pride in this obsession. I love it!

A few weeks ago my sister expressed a huge burden on her to reach out to the homeless in Lancaster. Actually, she had been expressing it for a while, but she decided to take the next step in expressing it publicly and asking people to move with her to do something about it. So today, we finally took our first step to do something about it.

Outreach is always amazing to me. I love the comradery it brings with all those who go together. But today was a different kind of amazing. I have never served along side my family. Interesting thought. Of all the service opportunities I have taken part in and of all the years I have known them... 26 years knowing my mom, 20 years knowing my sister, and 13 (or so?) years of knowing Ron... we have never (as far as I can remember) done service together. Crazy! So today was different. We didn't come together because we had a common goal. We were already together and decided on a common goal... together.

We had a group of about ...counts on fingers... nine of us who went out today! We had 100 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 5 cases of water, a few bags of socks, some chips, and 40 hygiene 'goodie' bags... all of which... we RAN OUT OF! Amazing!

We met quite a few people, some of which we got to pray and cry with, and a few who even want to come to church! We had no idea what today was going to look like, where we would go, what we would say, or who we would meet. We just knew we had to do it and we prayed the Holy Spirit would lead us in the right direction. And He did!

Thank you Jesus for your leading. Thank you for breaking our hearts for what breaks Yours. Thank you for Frank, Lester, Joshua, Ivan, Jennifer, Anthony and Ed, and everyone else we met. We pray that You would continue to work on their hearts and in their lives.

Thank you for being you, God. What more could we ask for?

Pending Blogs...

It's funny... a few months ago, I was struggling to think of things to write about. This blog was turning into a place where I filled out random surveys and posted them... just for the sake of posting 'something.'

And now?? I have four 'pending' blogs and about 3 other subjects that I have been wanting to write about.

My friend said last week (not verbatim, sorry), "I used to think life, and following God, meant living a boring life. But once I started saying 'YES' to God, my life has been anything but boring!"

Amen.

Here's to a non-boring life and countless things that happen that I would love to blog about. But... if I had to choose between blogging and living? I choose an abundant life :)

Prostitute Outreach 1/1/10

I think one of my favorite things about this kind of ministry (besides, of course, the honor of sharing Jesus with people) is that every night is different from the last. The people we get to meet, as well as the team who goes out, changes every time so there is always something new to report. Never a dull moment :)

Last night our team was Laurie, Daryl, Johnny, Lilly, and I. We met up at Laurie and Daryl's, prayed, got some coffee (and Slurpee's!) at 7-11, and then headed out to the track around 10.

S*****, the first girl we came across, Laurie, Daryl, and Lilly went to go talk to. Johnny and I stayed back and prayed. We didn't want to freak her out by having five people walk up to her. They got to give her a gift and pray with her.

As we were walking back to the car we saw a man and woman walking together. It kind of seemed like the man was on something but at the very least they both smelled strong of alcohol. When we first approached them, they asked us if we were lost (LOL). We then asked them if they wanted a gift. We had a nail clipper set that the man very enthusiastically took (it's great when we have gifts that the guys will like too!). He then took a phone call so we didn't get to talk to him anymore.

We started talking to the woman, K****, and asked her if she needed prayer for anything. She told us she was out there looking for her daughter, A****, who had just turned 16 the day before. A**** had reportedly ran away from her foster home and was working the track for a man. The heartbroken mother was trying to find her. We prayed for her and she cried a lot. It was so sad.

After we were done talking to her, we noticed there was a very nice silver dodge that kept driving by us. Sometimes the pimps drive by and keep an eye on us... or the girls... or both? Anyway, we made note of it and started to walk back to the car but then we realized it was A****! (Our "Next Top Model" girl) We gave her and her friend M**** some gifts. We didn't expect to see her out so early so it was a pleasant surprise :)

We drove around again and Johnny spotted some girls on opposite sides of the street so we stopped and split. Laurie, Daryl, and Lilly went to the other side of the street first and got to talk to C**. Johnny and I talked to J**** for a few minutes. She took a gift bag but was in too much of a hurry to let us talk to her. She stopped long enough to ask if we had condoms for her and then with disappointment from our answer, said thank you and kept walking quickly. On our way back to the car, Johnny and I came across a girl (who I am guessing was C**) and she said she already had received a gift bag.

After driving again, we saw two girls outside a store so we stopped and all of us but Daryl got out (poor guy wasn't feeling well). One of the girls was J****, whom Jen and I talked to a few weeks ago (the woman who has been working the track for 25 years). The other girl with her was quiet so I didn't catch her name.

After talking to them a few minutes a car pulled up. The girls looked inside and said they had to take off and started walking fast down the street. A guy got out of the car and starting spitting at them (verbal gesture toward the girls in hopes to get them out of pocket). Then he saw us and recognized Laurie and within seconds went from yelling to a happy smiley "Hey!" to us. Wow... business vs personal... two completely different personalities.

Laurie talked to him for quite a while and we started talking to another guy. We didn't catch his name at first but we chatted and tried to give him a pimp tract. Laurie came over and asked him what his name was...

Guy: "Huh!"
Laurie: What's your name?
Guy: "HUH!"
Laurie: What's your NAME??

Turns out the guys name was Hu (pronounced huh). Oh my... that was the best laugh ever! ("Who's on First?" anyone??) But of course he was obviously on something so it's debatable if his mother actually named him Hu ;)

On our way leaving the track, we saw a girl, J***, by the bus stop (we had seen her earlier but didn't get to stop) so Laurie and I jumped out of the car and prayer with her. She wanted prayer for her struggles.

Before I close, Johnny made me promise to mention that at the gas station he had a choking fit. Lesson of the night? Don't drink your Slurpee's too fast. :D


It was a really great night. It is always especially exciting when relationships are being developed with the pimps... that means they will learn to trust us more and we will get more favor with the girls too.

Thank you Jesus! What a great way to start off the new year... loving people ;)