street witnessing

Today we finished the practical ministry side to Transitional Youth. With our man power we painted their clothing closet, a hallway, assembled shelves, organized and sorted all the piles of clothes for the clothing closet, and sorted our 46 boxes of supplies. All this would have taken the 2 or 3 of them the entire summer to do. In two afternoons we did it and blessed their intern, Steph, and the youth. It has freed up those who live and serve to do the ministry God has called them to without being weighed down.

For dinner our team had a cross cultural experience. We went out and had Lebanese food. It was soooo good. But most people had no idea what was in the food or what they were going to be getting. It was interesting to see expressions when it was set before them on these elaborate gold leaf platters. We loved it. The Turkish coffee was especially a fan favorite.

I have been so blessed by the students and the changes God is working in their hearts and lives. Each one is leaving touched and changed by God. This has been my heart's fervent prayer for this trip. The following is Hannah's words on what God is doing in her.

And thank you so much for your prayers. They are felt and needed. We are going to speak with those living in the gutter and have no where else to go. We are speaking to the desperate and broken and for most on the trip this is a whole new experience to street witness. Keep interceding for us.

Tonight was amazing. I was trying to decide how to start this blog entry, and I can’t begin to explain what we witnessed tonight. Our group came across several people who distinctly stuck out, but one man stuck out in particular. We saw how God works.
We met two men sitting close to a bar when they asked me for money. I then offered them food and our conversation shifted from small talk to the Lord. Scotty and Greg are from the South and have been on the streets for years. Scotty said that he needed the Lord. He has stomach cancer and just was released from the hospital after surgery. All he wanted was someone to talk to. He spoke about how he is an alcoholic but he doesn’t care because he knows God loves him for who he is. He is a Christian and he told us how hard it was for him to be surrounded by non-Christians who ridiculed him for his faith. We talked to him about how we all are sinners and we all have been through situations where we have been judged based on our love for Jesus Christ. He had this particular aura, which we all felt. Katelyn asked him if he had a Bible, and he didn’t, so she gave him hers. As he thanked her, he held onto the Bible and cradled it like it was his most prized possession. We gathered around him and bowed our heads as we all prayed together. At this moment, tears began to stream down his face. After looking into his green eyes, our lives were impacted as we saw the priceless emotion. Katelyn said that when they clasped hands during prayer, it seemed like he held her hand as if it was the hand of Jesus Himself. We left and continued our journey, talking with other people.
We met a man named Josh who at first was very timid and quiet, but as Luke brought up music and tattoos, the conversation shifted. He talked to us about how he didn’t want to be judged by anyone. He believed in sticking to your beliefs no matter what. By the end of the conversation, Josh had taken his guard down and really engaged with us. Meanwhile, Scotty was still on our minds and we discussed going back to the spot where we first met him to see if he was still there, but God was already directing our paths to cross again. As we made our way back to the church, we saw a group of people on the corner and instantly recognized our new friend. The tears were still streaming down his face as we continued our conversation. This simple man only wanted a new pair of socks and a bus ticket back home to see his mom before he dies. After our conversation with Scotty and Greg, we walked away changed and in complete awe of our Savior. We realized God is constantly at work in our lives, and no person we talk to is an accident. For the first time in our lives, we feel like we actually made a connection with someone who doesn’t have much time left on Earth. If he dies tomorrow, I would be glad we had the opportunity to talk about Christ in his last day of life. As we met back up with the group and began to tell this story, Katelyn, Luke, Krystina and I all had tears in our eyes as we realized that God worked through us to perform somewhat of a miracle tonight. Words cannot fully explain our experience, but this trip has been the most rewarding experience of our lives.

Hannah