Filed under: 1
Friday night I traveled to Greenville to the Boiler Room for a worship night. The Boiler Room is a worship and prayer house located in the heart of downtown Greenville. As we were driving through downtown I noticed a man standing in a large window of a loft with his hands raised and immediately was confused as to what he was doing. I watched him for a minute as we waited for a light to change and realized he appeared to be worshipping. This loft with the large window was actually the place we were headed to. The Boiler Room is located in a loft above a skate shop. The loft is perfectly placed between ECU’s campus and a nightclub called Rehab Lounge, displaying a large martini glass logo. I loved how this house of God was located right in the middle of downtown, amidst ECU’s noteworthy party scene. The atmosphere of the room was pleasant and quickly ushered everyone into God’s presence. As we worshipped and prayed into the late hours of the night, we began to hear the club music from beside us, and what a beautiful sound it was as the praises of God’s people were laid over the club’s music. We were proclaiming God’s provision over the city as we worshipped above the busy nightlife of downtown Greenville. We cried out for the salvation of the nations. During worship, there was a time to sing your own song to God, to let a new song arise in your spirit. I began to sing “I want to know Your face, every detail. I want to know Your heart, every beat.” As soon as I said I want to know Your heart, I began to weep. God’s presence came over me and I heard Him whisper, “It’s broken.” My heart was breaking with God’s. Since that night, God has been showing me His broken heart and His love for His broken people. I have seen Satan’s power over others. For the past two nights, I have been kept awake by neighbors in the dorm having sex. It is disheartening. Those I pray for, I have seen Satan take greater hold of. I believe God is showing me how broken His heart is for His people. I pray that as God continues to show me His heart that He will continue to give me hope and joy in His final victory and the promise that one day His glory will be revealed amoung all the nations and every tongue shall confess that He is God.
Let us continue to pray for God’s broken people, that were will be redemption.
Let us continue to rebuke the enemy and declare he has no power.
His love is powerful, it never stops. It never ends.
Filed under: 1
Today was such an encouragement.
Today was the first day of classes of second semester at UNCG. My last class of the day was Intro to Community Leadership. It’s a small class, with less than ten people including the professor. The professor is a gentle and kind white man. The rest of the class consists of black women. Being the only white woman, I was a little intimidated at first, but after we began to talk and introduce ourselves I became more comfortable. Everyone was relatively young, except one woman named Pam, who was probably around my mother’s age. After sharing about ourselves, I learned that Pam is a director of an emergency homeless shelter for women in High Point. I was immediately drawn to her. I learned that she had taken a class called Community Connections, in which she was able to interact and work with students with special needs. It was a joy to hear her talk about working with the students and it made me long to have those same interactions. After class I asked her about the class and she said she would gladly email me the professors name and information. I am really looking forward to the possibility of further developing my love for people with disabilities. I began to tell Pam of my desire to work with the homeless and she shared that she would be heading to the streets and homeless camps in the next couple of weeks to record the homeless population of the surrounding area. I told her I would love to come and help. I really hope I am able to go with Pam and see several familiar faces and meet new ones. Meeting Pam and being in Intro to Community Leadership gave me hope and new direction for this semester. I love it when Jesus sends me people that have similar passions and confirms my own passions He has given me. I am really looking forward to learning from each of the women in class and actually being an minority for a change. I think it will be very beneficial.
Later in the evening, Lindsay and I walked to Walgreens. A homeless man was standing with a sign by the road, outside of Walgreens. I immediately felt a desire to go and talk to him, so I approached him and asked him what his name was and introduced myself. His name was Paul. I asked him if he needed anything, if I could buy him food or anything from Walgreens. He thought for a minute and then said he could use some barbecue chips. I went into Walgreens and returned with a large water bottle, peanut butter crackers, and a bag of barbecue chips. He immediately smiled when I walked out and thanked me for the food. He had such a gentle spirit and kind heart. As we began to talk, he shared with me that he had owned six houses in his life, one being destroyed in a fire. After losing his house, he lost his job, thus being unable to support himself. He is a plumber and carpenter by trade, which reminded me of my dad, since he is a carpenter and has dealt with unemployment. He shared that he smokes cigarettes, but doesn’t do other drugs. I asked him where he stayed and where I could find him to hopefully see him again and help him financially in the future. He says that he stays at the Weaver House at Greensboro’s Urban Ministry Center. He gave me the number of Weaver House where I could reach him. He is working towards staying in a motel, but cannot find the money to do so. I told him about how Philip and I had helped a homeless man named Willie stay in a motel the previous semester, and told him hopefully I could be able to help him as well. After learning more about him and his story, I asked him if I could pray for him. He gladly took off his hat and held my hand as we prayed. After we prayed, he shared that he prays often, getting lost in prayer. He spoke of God and his relationship with the Lord. I invited him to 24-7 on Sunday and gave him directions to the new church plant. He said he would try and come, hopefully bringing several friends in his same situation. Getting ready to leave, we hugged and said good-bye, wishing each other a good night.
The way God worked today amazed me. It leaves me with joy and hope. He continually confirms His calling on my life. He brings people to me and gives me the boldness to talk and pray with strangers. God is good.
Filed under: 1
at God’s mercy and His hand on my life. The way God has protected me, protected relationships, and the way He has brought redemption to certain circumstances. He has protected my heart and is continually working to draw me closer to His heart. I feel like God is bringing me into a state of santification. God worked in a drastic, frightening, but beautiful way in me last night. God showed me the truth what sin is and the fruit sin produces. It was a strong spiritual encounter that put the fear of God in me, but also allowed me to see His loving, restoring hand draw me back to Him. I feel this overwhelming sense of thankfulness to God, for answering prayers and loving me the way He knew best. Tonight I’m sharing in worship with Jonathan David Helser and I can’t wait to met God and truely thank Him for what He has done and what He is continuing to do. He is good.
Filed under: 1
Luke 13: 18-19
Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
The kingdom of God is for the birds, the least of these, the unclean.
Filed under: 1
Since when did going against the culture or a rising social norm label people as uneducated?
What is accepted by society is not what we should always follow.
John 15: 18-19
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
Romans 12: 2
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Filed under: various
For the past couple of days I’ve been at home on fall break and Philip [who I am now dating] has been in Durham at an event at the Rutba House called the School for Conversion. The School for Conversion is basically a teaching and learning weekend for those interested in or wanting to live in an intentional Christian community [http://www.newmonasticism.org/]. Philip’s weekend in Durham was coming to an end Sunday afternoon and I decided to head to UNCG to spend time him with and hear about what he had learned from the weekend. Philip and I headed downtown for our first date since officially starting to date Friday before he left for the Rutba House. We ended up drinking chai tea and hot chocolate at Cheesecakes by Alex sitting and talking with each other about our weekends. After sitting in the outside seating for a while, a very polite man approached us asking us if we had any money we could spare to help him, but both of us had no cash, only debit cards. After discovering that neither of us could help him financially, the man left fairly quickly, leaving us feeling helpless and unsure how to help the man. Philip immediately felt that we should try and find the man again, hoping to offer him company and perhaps a prayer and encouraging word, but the idea did not make it any further. Not long after meeting the first man, a familiar voice and face appeared, asking Philip and I if we had any money we could spare. The man was a homeless friend named Willy Brooks we had a met several weeks prior when serving pancakes out of our friend Chase’s Jeep. We had set up a pancake breakfast on the side of a road and Will had showed up to eat. After realizing that the man was Will, we invited him to come sit with us and figure out if we could help him. He said he needed cash and a place to stay for the night. Will informed us that there was an ATM down the road and Philip decided that he would go to the ATM and give Will money that would hopefully be spent on a hotel room. As we were walking down to the ATM, I was quite frankly unsure if this was even safe or reasonable. It was dark in the middle of downtown and we were walking with this man we barely knew to withdraw money from Philip’s bank account. If everything went okay and we did give Will money to help him, how would we know that we are not only fueling a possible addiction to alcohol or drugs that many other homeless people fall victim to. Will was very afraid of the cops downtown and did not want to be seen with “two white folks” at an ATM; he said the cops would think he was pestering us and that the cops would stop him later and basically harass him and ask for his id and call downtown to see if he had a warrant or a reason to arrest him. So as Philip and I head to the ATM, Will keeps walking down the street to wait on us after we withdraw the money. Philip and I are both unsure if we should even be doing this or if this is the right thing to do, and Philip suggests that we should pray and ask God what to do and to bless the money that we give Will, that he would use it for positive and not negative. It was encouraging to see how Philip immediately turned to prayer and asking God to help us because I often lack prayer with God at simple moments like this, when the obvious solution would be prayer. After praying, Philip decided to withdraw forty and give Will twenty. When we go to met Will and give him the money we ask if we could pray for him and he gladly agrees and we all form a circle to pray with him. After Philip prays for Will, Will begins to pray for us, and he thanks God for us and he then begins to recite scripture from memory and it was such a good feeling to be able to pray with him and hear him talk with our Father. We all talk for a while and Will shares his dream of being a professor and talking at a university before we all leave and head opposite ways. Walking back to our car, Philip and I just shared in the delight God had given us in that we were able to help Will and talk and pray with him. Philip and I head back to campus to finish watching a movie we had started earlier last week, and in the middle of watching the movie, Philip’s phone rings and it’s Will. Will is at a hotel and he needs more money in order to get a room. Comfortably watching a movie together, we debate whether or not we want to head back downtown and attempt to find Will in order to give him more money. Fairly quick, we decide that we have started to help Will and we should finish helping him. We head downtown and after stopping for directions, we arrive at the Greensboro Inn to see Will and one of his friends sitting outside the hotel office. Philip gives Will his remaining twenty and Will is able to get a room with his friend Rodney. After everything that happened last night on Philip and I’s first date, I am happy to say that I would have not wanted anything to happen differently. Yes, we could have stayed and finished our movie, but instead we would have ignored God’s call. Like Philip said, when judgement day comes, God will not ask us if we finished watching a movie, He will ask us if we helped Him get a hotel room.
Filed under: FNB
I recently moved to Greensboro in hopes of getting to know people in the communities surrounding UNCG and to begin pursuing homeless ministry. I am starting to write about the people I met and the moments we share in hopes of recording what happens as we look towards building community together.
Yesterday, Philip and I, a friend from UNCG, were able to walk to a local nonprofit organization called the Hive for their weekly community meal held each Thursday called Food Not Bombs [FNB]. FNB believes food is a right, not a privilege and uses donated food from the community or food from the dumpsters of local stores. The food served is much healthier than what a lower income family can normally afford on their own. Yesterday the menu included salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, squash, vegan mashed potatoes, egg salad, Panera bread, a fruit mix including apples, peaches, mangos, and other fruits, and lima beans. As Philip and I walked to the Hive, we met two homeless men, one of which we were unfamiliar with and one we had already met before. The first man we met was a white middle aged man named David. He was standing on the sidewalk by a busy intersection close to campus. We stopped and introduced ourselves and invited him to come eat with us at FNB. As we invited him, he began to tell us a little about himself. He has been living in the woods for 12 years and was very open in sharing that he was an alcoholic. He told us that he stands by his light pole [he has little tidbits , glasses, and branches that decorate the light pole he stands beside each day] until he can make enough money to buy three meals each day at Wendys, which is just across the intersection from where he stands, and money to buy a 12 pack of beer and a pack of cigarettes. After he receives enough money to buy his food, beer, and cigarettes he proceeds to go back to his home in the woods. He told us he doesn’t stay out after dark because people have tried to rob him of what little money he has and he proceeded to tell us about how crack and other drugs make the streets dangerous. He showed us his permit he has to have in order to stand on the sidewalk and hold his sign; he had to go to the police station and prove to the department that he is homeless before he could even stand with his sign. It was really moving to see how honest and welcoming David was to Philip and I; he was moved to tears at just our company and told us he loved us. After we left David, we kept walking until we met Michaelo, a homeless black man we had met from a couple nights before. After sharing fellowship with friends in Glenwood last Friday [we meet and shared worship and prayer with several friends that live in Glenwood, which is a lower income, high crime neighborhood], Philip and I came across Michaelo in the dark near campus. He asked Philip why he wasn’t on the southside and told us his people were sick and needed prayer, so we stopped and began to pray for his sister, whom he said was sick with a heart condition, but abruptly Michaelo stopped us from praying and starting acting weird , wanting me to be in the middle, which we think he was trying to get me alone. We think he has a mental problem, but we both got scared and left quickly, telling him we had to get back to campus. It was disheartening seeing our fear take over us that quickly. But then again yesterday, we see Michaelo from a distance as we are walking to the Hive and recognize him as the man from last Friday night. We cross the street and greet him, reintroducing ourselves and invite him to dinner. As Philip was talking to Michaelo, I just looked at him and at his eyes, to be honest it was quite scary still, I’m not sure if it was from our previous encounter, but I still felt uncomfortable with him. He asked us to pray for him again, this time allowing us to finish our prayer and continue walking, only after stopping us several times, yelling, reminding me to pray for him as well. After leaving Michaelo we pass by a house in the neighborhood and that two wooden posts on each side of their walkway with fake human skulls on each post and a skeleton sign on the door warning no trespassing; it looked eerily like Halloween. Two signs beside each skull declared “NOTHING HERE IS WORTH YOUR LIFE” and “TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT.” It was obvious the neighborhood had problems. When we finally get to the Hive, we help cook dinner and serve dinner at 6. Most, if not all, the people are from the community and come to enjoy a free meal and met with each other. It was amazing to sit down and eat dinner with hardly anyone I had ever met before and be able to listen and share with each other, as community is supposed to be. After dinner, Philip and I helped wash up dishes, and then we prepared two plates to bring back two each of our friends we met on the way there. We didn’t see Michaelo, but we did met a man who said he hadn’t been homeless but for two weeks, and we gave him a plate. We came back to meet David at his lightpole and gave him his plate, when we saw what we had done, he started to cry and say I love you. It was a really touching moment to see him respond in such a way to strangers he had just met earlier. Along with David, his best friend Mo was there as well. Philip had actually meet Mo from last year and shared dinner with him in Glenwood where our friends live. It was great to see Philip and Mo reconnect and share with each together. Mo is from Africa and obviously very intelligent. It was great to see two people like David and Mo, different in backgrounds and education, to be so close to one another. David asked us to pray for him and we all put our arms around each other and prayed in a circle, asking God to heal David’s lung cancer and to help him overcome his alcoholism. It was such a blessed night and a great beginning to this year. I look forward to meeting David, Mo, and Michaelo again and hopefully sharing a meal with them, being able to hear their full stories and learn from them.
