By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

Today, I traveled to downtown Winston-Salem to share a meal and fellowship with many brothers and sisters.  We set up two tents with tables and grills near a homeless shelter and lower income section of town and began to cook a late lunch for anyone and everyone that wanted to join.  Several people had also brought used clothes to give away to those in need.  We had a couple djembes and a guitar showed up a little later allowing us to play music and provide rhythms for those wanting to listen or dance to the drums.  One man named Anthony took a liking to the drums, playing along with the others, and conducting our whole musical performance with the waving of his hands.  He also enjoyed himself with a little dancing and singing.  It was such a blessing being able to meet people and simply sit and listen to them, starting a conversation in a genuine way of wanting to show love and care.   I was able to talk to a man named Harold about his battle with drug addiction and his hope in sobriety and the start of each new day.  We talked about the dreams and passions God has given me and what I hope to do after graduating school.  He gave me advice about how to approach addictions and what was needed most by those in poverty.  Another man named Joe talked to those gathered around him about what profession and trades we should pursue.  He said I should be a nurse.  Joe also shared that he was seventy-six and addicted to cocaine.  One of the first men I approached was David, who was very kind and gentle hearted, with a very appreciative spirit.  We talked about his interest in new age and gothic music and his other musical tastes such as Sublime, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana.  He shared that he was a chef by trade and used to work in large restaurants, working on the floor, making special orders.  He also shared that he had wealthy family working on Wall Street.  There was a refugee from Liberia as well.  He told us stories of fleeing from country to country in Africa, running from the rebels.  He said his daughter was captured by the rebels, but he never said what had happened to her.  He shared that when he was granted a visa to come to the US, he lived in NY and NJ where his four children became involved in gangs.  He spoke of the unfriendliness of the North and the high cost of living.  He shared that he visited a relative in NC and was able to learn about lower income housing and moved his family down south, where all his children were able to disassociate themselves from gangs.  His story was such a testimony. We were also able to pray for healing for our brother Ron.  Ron’s back was severely injured, with many vertebrates out of line.  As a body, we were blessed with the opportunity to pray for him and believe that God is and will continue to heal him.  Right before walking away, Ron shared that fifteen years ago doctors told him he would be in a wheelchair in the near future, and now fifteen years later Ron is still walking.  I am continually amazing at God’s blessing and how He shows His love for His people.  There is hope in the broken. There is hope in the immense love of God.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”