Friends Think about Their Friends
As an evangelist on the streets and someone asks you for money, you think maybe, or I’ll buy you something to eat. When you get pastoral in the neighborhood, give away food weekly, and they come say, “Hi, I really miss you, I need some money,” you say, “Is that why you miss me? Do you see me as resource or your friend? Because I really want relationship you beyond what I can give you. Besides, you know I can’t give away money out here.” Response: “Ok, just give me a hug, that’s all I need from you.”-They’re learning everyday I go to the store, or hand out food, to be mutual friends. We will defy statistics here that addicts can’t think about anyone else. I wont believe it; they’re my friends. When I expect more from them, they recover quickly.
Food Food Food!
Food, we have gotten a hold of an abundance of food. It is super exciting! We are picking up Trader Joe’s next day stuff under a 501c3 connect through a friend. If that doesn’t make sense, we usually get whatever items that have to be sold by the next day in their store and then we take them and hand them out to the community that next day! These items are usually good another week. The people have just loved it and one of the great parts is that Trader Joe’s is on the healthier end of food products, with no preservatives and all natural foods, so people are getting the best, which also makes us happy. This is an exciting new event for Fiery Love to be able to hand out more food at large on a regular basis. It makes so that we are actually out in the community, whether taking evangelism teams, giving away coffee, or giving away food, four days and sometimes five days a week. Also, any food that we could not hand out we take to a local church who gives away groceries twice a week. This church, Zoe Miracle Church, is right across from where we held our wedding and the cookouts and is very involved in feeding the community. They also feed twice a week; an amazing bunch! I personally am super grateful for this connection to a large food store because of how much it was on my heart to be able to feed and give out of abundance. For awhile, I had been talking to Cliff just about Job and how he always had enough to care for the needy and oppressed outside his home. I had so badly wanted to have our house overflow, that I began to ask Cliff is I can take the leftovers of our dinners to one person outside. We did that, at times that we had enough, and now we have more than enough. We have really been enjoying the abundance of food ourselves. Thank you God! Here’s some pictures we caught today which doesn’t completely capture what it looks like when we set it all out. It is like a swarm of birds around prey and I rarely get to hand out but sometimes just stand back and watch.
Onward Culture Change…
Last night, Cliff and I had such a great time on the streets. Just in general, life is amazing being able to let tithes actually be taken out the window and into newly pregnant ladies hands in the form of groceries. To be apart of these things is just amazing! This same lady asked if Cliff and I would be godparents to her future twins! I know that God’s heart is for the poor, tangible giving to the oppressed and those forgotten. For me, I get to take the rest of my dinner out the door and I find these folks, a special place in God’s heart. I am feeling pleasure being able to go there and be apart of it. I want to be like Job and have an overflow from my house that provides to them!
The streets last night were so encouraging. It all started with being pulled over (while walking) by a familiar cop. He started with questions like, “Where do you live? Do you have jobs?” These are the beginnings of a drug search/questioning of activities in our experience but instead he further went on to say, “You guys really aren’t scared out here?” A paradox, that a man with the legal weapon on hand would be asking us, a young couple on foot carrying an extra container of food whether or not we are scared. Our answer is, “No.” As the night went on it continued to hit me what that cop said. As I chased, literally, drug dealers on their stroll to sell and told them what hints God gave me about their destinies, I realized that we must really believe we have something greater. You see the guns, the shootings, the gangs, the rape, the drugs; it just isn’t as powerful, not as what we have. We have what all those people involved in such things are really after. We have the good stuff and so why should I be afraid? I know if its family they need, true community is in Him and us, the church. If it’s intimacy, his ways are higher and more fulfilling, if it’s a high, I know a better one, and if it’s respect, there is no greater honor than in the Kingdom. If it’s love, we got one with power, if it’s hopelessness, let us heal your sicknesses, encourage you with love that’s sincere. If it’s money, let’s talk provision or better yet alignment for real blessings. If it’s counterfeit, we have the answer. Boastful? I think not. Freely give out what you received and I feel the power in what we have been given, but not in fear, not in the minor stuff. I think about why I will chase drug dealers and I think its because I really feel like I have what they want. It doesn’t really faze me. Heaven is just better and so fear is not a priority, its really minor to the task at hand.
I have to share some of the stuff from tonight because God encouraged me that we, with the help of so many, really are making a difference in that community. After the cops, a couple we know stopped us. We not only loved on them but they loved on us. They began to tell us how the Catholic Church would have the nerve to charge the poor money for soup and then the husband said, “But your wedding, now that was awesome.” (Nothing against the Catholic Church, just exact quoting. They are probably feeding more than us at this point whether or not they are charging). He went further saying, “You guys just don’t know what you mean to the people out here. You are really loved by the community and what you’re doing, man, it’s a good thing.” It helps me to know that they feel it, the difference. I can’t always tell what’s happening until they tell me and when they do, it means the most.
I got to chat with one of the dealers about a word I got for him on forgiveness but hasn’t a chance to give it again. You could see he had a dilemma in his face, and that it was gently received. We also found Pete who had come to church with us yet couldn’t find. This was a good reuniting, as he is connecting with people from Harvest Church. Then we talked to a sort of elder on the corner, if you will. He has many physical ailments and Cliff and I went to show our respect and love on him. Turns out he said he was in one of the lowest points in his life, saying, “You just don’t know.” And we see this man often. He said he almost took a gun to his head but that with us there he feels like God was encouraging him and sending him hope. He was crying, a very tough guy who knows the streets and sells cigarettes (not drugs) day in and day out to try to provide lunch money for his kids, he says. He is very sick. He was desperate for love and compelled to pull through a little longer. Most importantly he let us in, and we imparted the Father’s love, blessing, and presence to Him. We told him we are there to help in any way we can too. Next at the bus stop I noticed a girl looking at me threatened. She then asked, “Do like black man or something? I see you looking over at those men (drug dealing crowd)!” I said, “No, this is my husband right here.” I informed her that I was looking at them because I wanted to tell them who they really are which is not what they’re living. She asked how I would do that. Cliff told her we would ask God who they were and tell them. She then inquired for us to do for her. So we prayed and gave her a word and she like it saying, “Yeah, that’s true, that’s really right!” We went on to her brother who asked for one as well, when a fight broke out between who would receive the next word! The drunken guy next to them who already told us it was false abilities was fighting to be next for a word. And so we did. And he took it and didn’t know whether to crash it down or receive it. Next was the brother and while on his way to catch a bus I tried to squeeze one in for him. His sister reassured us that it was truth. Cliff was later able to counsel one of the men out there and gave the man his number. We realized that we now could use our own cards between how many times we plug into phones and try to find paper, etc. I just love it!
I am encouraged! True change, I felt it. Let’s do some more and maybe next time on video so you can see. Each Tuesday we have observed a Church of Israel group preaching with a mic down the street. Unfortunately what they preach is very honestly this: God does not love everyone and white people do not go to heaven. Next project could be taking my mic out next to them and with every lie, and speaking truth or the opposite next to them! We could take freedom of Speech to the next level. We have also considered buying them gifts, maybe gift certificates. What do you say? Both?
Most importantly, I am grateful for last night’s fruit.
Teaching on Ownership in the Church
Something I have contemplated lately is the importance of each member belonging to a church feeling like they take part or has ownership in that church. I started contemplating it in my own life, whether or not what I have to offer is recognized or whether I have the freedom to play a valuable part in my own church parties. Seeing as though church, really, is just a gathering of people usually for the purposes of God, I think it’s important for each person within that party to feel ownership or apart of that group by offering their individual gifts.
After I had began contemplating the importance of this in my own heart and what can happen when people cannot play a part or feel valuable to a congregation, I then also heard a podcast addressing the same issue. It was Eric Johnson on the Bethel Live Podcast and he began to talk about the beauty of the Church. In it, he describes the need for people to feel and take ownership in it in order for its success. He used the example of the man who began Wikipedia. It began, I believe, as website in which some of the elite would give source information on a subject depending on their area of expertise. But he spoke of the fact that this site did not actually take off until it was open for the public to edit, alter, and add information, etc. Once it was something in which everyone could play a part, it was a hit! People of all kinds could login and bring what they had to offer to it. What does this say of people at large on connecting or committing to a project? It speaks of the necessity of each person to feel ownership in a group project. Church is a group effort.
Within the church as well, each person’s part can look so different. One person may have a gift for preaching/teaching while another may have one of helps. One person may be very successful in seeing the sick healed while another may play the part of administration in which both, not one without the other, can make an organization actually function. Point blank, down to what may seem the least important job is sometimes even the greatest at holding something together and therefore each one must feel valuable in their gifts and talents to play a part for the Kingdom. As Paul says, “Just as each of us has a body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy let him do it cheerfully,”(Romans 12:4-8). Now these are not the only gifts available to men and women, in fact there are more gifts and services listed and suggested in Ephesians 4:11-13 and 1 Corinthians 12:28-31. Paul’s instructions are that we should eagerly seek the gifts (discover what we have and grow in more) and that each one should “…Use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms,”(1 Peter 4:10)(1 Corinthians 14:1).
But one has to feel the value of what they have to offer in order to feel free to participate. I think this is portrayed to members when we give them the freedom to step into their gifts within the body and put a stamp of value when they do. The fact is we all have a place and part in the church as it says: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it,”(1 Corinthians12:27). It is also very important to know that every gift and/or person makes up the body and therefore holds value to the body. Hence, everyone’s gifts are extremely valuable. In the same way the widow whose offering was very small yet meant more than the gifts of the rich, it could be with a woman in the back of the church who has a gift of encouragement and encourages one on the brink of suicide! Both examples could have been overlooked as small and not a major part in gifts or offerings, yet to heaven could mean very big things. This is why we must honor every gift. Also 1 Corinthians confirms this idea when it discusses that, “the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.”(1 Corinthians 12:21-24). I love that last part as so many people who are in the front get recognition for their gifts while many in the back of scenes do not, yet this scripture is saying that the “presentable parts need no special treatment.” In conclusion, “God has combined the members of the body and has given great honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that it’s parts should have equal concern for each other,”(1 Corinthians 12:24-25).
I had been pleading to God to show me how to do “church” on the streets and this is something I believe He has brought to my attention. I began to not only see the need for this in my own life in finding a home, or a church where I feel at home, that I decided it would be a necessary part of outside church for the people out there to feel at home. Not much later I heard Eric Johnson’s podcast, and no later than that was I watching it unfold. We have taken about two Tuesdays now to experiment in bringing church to the people and not just evangelism teams by way of music, worship, and a little open mic. I have wanted to go deeper with these people and be able to speak more fully into mindsets, destinies, and see true culture change. This is one of the areas that I believe I will see it. In the midst of these times, I have been earnestly praying as I go out, “God teach me church.” Do you know what I have seen now, each time? Each time our most common members have been young people and they always want to participate. Whether they are grabbing the mic to sing the latest song and display talents, others want our guitars to learn and others showed off their talents by dancing. Only those groups, the ones who got to participate, have asked when they can come back to do it again. I am learning something. Whether many know it yet or not, or even have the freedom to do so, each has something unique and awesome to bring. They just need someone to value it and let them bring it. That could be church.
Testimonies from Cookout Oct. 31st
Joey Lopes wrote:
Towards the end of the day I saw a man named Reggie sitting at table. Feeling compelled, I went and sat next to him. While I sat with him, a Global School of Supernatural Ministry student came over and began speaking life into Reggie. Reggie told the student that he was full of demons, and in response to this the student told him, “Yes, but the Holy Spirit fills you” (or somthing like that). The student proceeded with a prayer for filling of the Holy Spirit, and then continued her exhortation saying, “Now Holy Spirit fills you. The demons leave. The Holy Spirit fills you.” Reggie recieved that well. The student then talked a little more with the man, and quickly discoverd that there were numerous lies that had been spoken over Reggie (in the form of nick-names). She revealed to Reggie that these names were not true; in response Reggie began declaring, ” Those are not me. I am Reggie. I’m those things no more. I’m Reggie.” Praise the LORD! Around this time, I felt a promting to talk to the man about forgiveness. I did, and the conversation went well. I will not share the details of it here. After this I felt like I was to lead him to Christ. I began by asking, “Have you made Jesus LORD over your life?” In a very honest way, Reggie told me, “Not really.”:) Upon asking him if he would like to make Jesus LORD over his heart and life, Reggie told me, “Yes!” I then began leading Reggie in a prayer of salvation, but feeling compelled to explain the gospel to him first, I stopped and explained it to him. In my explanation, I threw in that GOd is not like his earthly father who left him (I think he died), but He is a Father who is with him, who will make him is son. After telling him the gospel, I asked again if he wanted to make Jesus LORD over his life, and again Reggie said, “Yes!” I then sucessfully led him in a prayer for salvation (stopping one more time to explain something)! Hellelujah!
Testimonies from the people:
