My first day in Bellingham was simply amazing! It started with catching up with a wonderful friend of mine, Jon. Everything he is doing out here in Bellingham is incredibly humbling to me. Over a decade ago, the Lord used me to speak a Word into Jon's life about what He has called Jon to do. This brother has taken that Word and all the other things other people have spoken over him and ran with it. Now he has started multiple ministries and now he is ministering to the homeless in the streets on Friday nights, but I get ahead of myself.
After grabbing lunch and catching up with him, we just continued to talk and see different places like Christ the King church where he interns at and serves out of. Just talking more about life and sharing our stories with one another about how God brought us to where we are today. Then we both went and did something very holy and religious. We went and saw The Amazing Spider Man 2. =)
After the movie, it was time to get down to business and prepare for the evening. We went back to the church to get loaded up and ready to serve people. I met another wonderful family, Jason, his son Cody, and his brother Cal. The heart for the hurting and homeless in these people is truly humbling and inspiring, but that's a story for another time. Before we would go and pour ourselves out, we went and worshipped the Lord and filled ourselves so we have a lot to pour out.
We went to a group called Ekklesia. Tonight was a special worship event where all we did was sing praises and worship the Lord our God. I hadn't worshipped like that in such a long time. Totally abandoned with nothing on the mind and no end in sight. Just song after song of praises and glorification of our King Jesus. I love the worship at church every Sunday, don't get me wrong, but even then you just know that the sermon is coming up afterwards. But tonight, it was complete and total worship for 2 hours or so. Being in a room full of brothers and sisters who love the Lord and have come together in one accord to lift the name of Jesus is something you don't forget about. Those moments are the ones you cherish. I didn't know 99% of the people in the room, but yet we can still worship as one body, as one family, in one accord. There were people of all ethnicities and backgrounds, but for those couple of hours, there was only our identities in Christ and nothing else mattered. What an amazing turnout of people. Standing room only in this pretty large hall.
It was now time to hit the streets. Before we left, we just prayed and asked for God's blessings so we could be the hands and feet of Jesus tonight. What a wonderful time in prayer. Being in a prayer circle and standing in the gap and coming together in agreement for God to do amazing things, is something that I haven't done in a long time. Such a fun and wonderful experience again. The place where we were ministering wasn't far from Ekklesia meeting place so we walked there. We wasted no time, we broke off into teams and hit the streets. We walked around the block and anyone that we saw who looked like they could use clothes, blankets, food, etc we just told them where our bus was set up and where we would serve them. Immediately we found small pockets of people to serve. We directed them towards the bus and they all went. We kept walking and sending people to the bus to get some new things. One thing you have to understand is that this bus was pretty big and it was completely full of things to just give away. The donations from people were overflowing and abundant. We could just give and give and give and not run out.
As we continued to send people to the bus, I came across one particular man. At first, I sent him to the bus to get anything he might have needed. Talked to him for a few minutes and went on my way. I ended up breaking off from the group and just walked around the blocks on my own and just talking with the Lord. He directed my steps. Told me where to turn and what street to walk down. Eventually the Lord led me back to that man. He hadn't moved from when I first talked to him. The Lord spoke up and I heard it so clear in my spirit. "Go sit down and talk to him". So I did what any sane person would do. I walked away. Just kidding! I went and asked him if I could sit with him. He was kind enough to let me sit next to him and we just talked for about 25-30 minutes.
This man is amazing. His name is Randall and he served with the US military. He didn't say what war he was a part of, but based on his age and appearance, WWII would be my best guess. I just asked him if I could help him carry the stuff he had to the bus so we could serve him. He refused. He said:
I have already ate and I have a change of clothes in my backpack. I don't want to take something I don't need. I want others that don't have anything to get those things. My philosophy is to kill others with kindness.
So I just listened to him talk for a while. He told me of his beliefs and about how Yahweh supplies all of his needs for him. This guy is living on the streets yet he has more faith than a lot of Christians. He continued to talk to me about the Bible and what it says about certain issues and such. He believes in Jesus, but He doesn't believe that Jesus is also God. This guy living on the streets is preaching me a sermon. His faith in God the Father supplying all his needs and being his banner of victory and all this stuff was amazing. He blessed my life so much with his stories and his knowledge of the Word. There were things he knew and believed that most Christians don't even belief. Things that are 100% biblical. Granted there were also some things that he believed which are inaccurate, but that's ok. God is going to keep working in his life.
I was the one that went out to bless others and in turn, I was tremendously blessed to hear Randall's stories and what he believes about the Word of God. Simply, truly amazing. Before I walked away, Randall said
I am not Homeless, but just houseless. I don't have a physical house, but the entire earth is my home. I live off the land and all it has to offer.
Not homeless, but houseless. That was such a blessing to hear. Thank you Jesus for this awesome experience. Afterwards, I went back to the bus to regroup with the others and ministry was still going on. Washing people's feet, feeding people with cup noodles, giving people new clothes, shoes, blankets, etc. What a blessing it was to see and to be a part of. There were other people walking by and curious as to what we were doing. When we told them, they were shocked. It was such a blessed evening.
But wait, it doesn't stop there! Afterwards a few of us went out to eat dinner. We were now very hungry. Before we hit the restaurant, I was talking with a couple of the other servants that went out with us. Some of them had been doing this for nearly a year and others were newbie like I was. But now, it was a time to talk Jesus. It was time to talk Word with other believers. One wonderful young lady was actively seeking about God and the rest of the evening was dedicated to ministering to her. The stories that came forth from other believers and the questions she had were so great. Now I am in my element and now I'm preaching up a storm and answering her questions about the Bible and God and church views.
I was pretty tired after the entire day of events, but now, speaking life and Jesus, I was ready to go all night. My strength was literally being renewed as Jesus was being lifted up and glorification of His works. She asked some tough questions that are "controversial". Like about homosexuality and abortion. I told her God's views and what He has to say about those things in His Word. She understood everything I was saying and instead of being resistant, it all made sense to her and others around the table. Praise the Lord!
Even though I was the one doing a lot of the speaking, answering questions, talking Jesus, truth and life, I was just as blessed seeing and knowing that everyone else was eating it up and being receptive. Seeing spiritual hunger in these young men and women about the deeper things of God was such a blessing to me. This means just as much to me as it did to them.
Ended the night just talking to Jon again about random things. Just winding down and having a good time with my brother in the Lord. Slept for about 6 hours and now we are up and getting ready to get back at it, serving others and blessing people around us. More to come!! =)