On Monday, January 23rd, a team of 7 people gathered together on this beautiful crisp morning to make 160 lunches, and a generous donation of socks from Mullen & Filippi Law Firm. We were filled with great joy and excited to see how God would use us today. This is our first time going out for the New Year, and our first look after the rain storms that flooded our friends out of the canals. At our first stop off of 99 & Anteros we met and prayed for Trina. Her request was for opened doors for finances that will help her come out of homelessness. Dione’s request was for strength to persevere and restored hope. There were a few other tents in this area but the people didn’t come out because of the cold.
Our next stop was off of Broadway, where we got the sad news from Johnny that his partner, our friend Ed had just recently passed away. Ed had struggled with health problems for the past couple of years. Johnny was very sad and we were able to pray for him and ask God to comfort him in his grief and be renewed with hope and health himself. There’s a man named Victor who is a longtime resident in this homeless encampment. Victor only speaks Spanish and we haven’t always been able to communicate with him. Today we had a couple of Spanish speaking sisters who joined us. We were very thankful because at times, it can be a barrier for us. Today, Victor was not in a good mood and he didn’t want anything from us. We blessed him and left this area.
As we traveled down Broadway, we saw and prayed with our friend Vicky. She moves around often and will appear every couple of months at this particular spot. Her request was to find a place for shelter and to stay positive. She was very thankful God sent us to encourage her because it can get very lonely and hard out there. Across the canal, our friend Stacy was still under the bridge, even with it being full of water. When Stacy came out, she walked up to us with tears in her eyes and saying she’s had enough and feeling very defeated and hopeless. We hugged her and assured her that things will get better because God loves her and His plans for her are good. It’s not easy for our team to see our friends so down and discouraged. Life is already hard for them, and then discouragement will intensify their circumstances. While we were in this area, we saw our friend Aaron who will be giving us his testimony on the 30th and we look forward to that time with him. Across Waterloo Rd, our team met and prayed with JoJo for a place of her own that is safe. We prayed for God’s favor with the landlords regarding her dogs.
Our next stop is behind Ernie’s Store where our friend Tony has lived for a couple of years now. Our team prayed for healing for Tony’s back and for his heart to come into alignment with God’s plans for his life. While here, we met Beth, who has been homeless for two weeks. As our team was listening to her, the Lord kept highlighting her and our response was to start making calls to see what we could do. She’s in recovery and didn’t want to fall back into addiction because she’s wanting to move forward. She shared that she has SS and an inheritance to do something with. We exchanged numbers and assured her we would be in touch. We still had to finish taking out the rest of the lunches to other encampments. We left that area so excited to see what God was about to do.
As our team headed down Waterloo Rd towards Wilson Way we saw a few encampments along the tracks by Harbor Freight and we pulled over. There hasn’t been anyone in this area for a while and as we walked up on the first two people here, their heads were covered. It was a cold morning and as we gave them a lunch, we asked the man what his name was. He said “James,” and as we handed the second person their lunch, we caught a glimpse of their eyes. Suddenly we recognized them and asked if this was our dear friend Priscilla who we haven’t seen in a couple of years. She smiled and said yes. Hallelujah, praise God! It was so good to see her and she really looked good. Her prayer was for some upcoming court dates. We all thanked God for reconnecting us. We had a few more stops in the Mormon Slough area and while we wrapping it up we got a call from our Pastor that a woman from our church said that it would be ok for our new friend Beth to park and sleep safely in front of her house and use her bathroom & shower! Woohoo praise God for guiding us to help her. When we called her to give her the good news, she couldn’t believe it happened so fast and was in awe of God! She shared she’s never been a religious person but that she’s been seeing that with what exposure she’s had of Him, He’s helping her. That’s our Heavenly Father! He’s that good, kind, caring and full of love and compassion. What a wonderful way to start off the New Year of bringing hope and the presence of God into the streets and hearts of these beautiful people we call friends. Thank you again to Mullen & Fillipi for their generous donation of socks, and to the rest of our supporters who help financially and prayerfully. We appreciate you and pray for you too. Please continue to pray for us as we go out and bring the good news to lost and broken. (Isaiah 61:1)
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