This week we went to Atlanta for a day of ATL (Ask the Lord). We went into three groups, and you just ask the Lord for guidance in what He wants us to do. Before we went down there, we sat in prayer and just listened to God, I was a little frustrated because I wasn’t hearing Him. We took the subway down to Atlanta and I was really nervous about talking to people, I haven’t done a street ministry for a while and felt a little out of it. When we got down there, I just walked. I didn’t have any idea of what God wanted me to do, so I just sat in the park and listened and watched. The second I sat down, I noticed a hippie guy with huge dreads making something in the park. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, and immediately I knew that God wanted me to talk to him. I was still hesitant and didn’t move right away…so God stepped in. Evan, the hippie, gets up and comes to me and asked me for drugs…God has a sense of humor. I ended up talking to Evan for about an hour, just listening to his story and how drugs lost him everything in his life. We gave him food and just prayed for him. It was awesome! After that, I was on fire for the Lord. I wanted to talk to everyone. I headed over towards Underground Atlanta, which is a shopping center, but it’s quite dangerous. On my way I noticed a bunch of people digging through trash, looking for food. That was really hard for me to see, it’s difficult to image that people in the land of opportunity, look through trash for food. We went to Dairy Queen and bought some cheeseburgers and just started handing them out to the homeless. I can still see the smiles on their faces. While we were handing them out, we ran into Joann. She was 51 and never been on the streets before. She felt embarrassed asking for food. We prayed for her and she started to cry, keep her in your prayers if you think about it. It was an excellent experience and I’m glad that God pushed me out of my shell.
On another note, the youth group and Sunday school are really kicking off. Caleb and I are really connecting with the high school and middle school kids. We just got the okay to put together a guys all nighter, which will probably involve Halo and Jesus…perfect combination! Tomorrow Caleb and I are taking some of the guys to a pizza buffet place, which should be really fun! It’s really fun being involved and just connecting with these kids on a personal level. Thank you for your prayer and please continue to pray that we can really pour into the youth lives here and just bring them closer to God!
