Los Angeles changed me I went to LA spontaneously again trying to get out of Redding. I always try and get out of Redding, just to find myself wanting to be back in Redding. I feel we have a perilous love affair Redding and I , just when I leave I feel the absence of leaving it behind once more and then get annoyed and try and find ways to cut my trips in half. This time around I had been awake for 24 hours and by 3 am in the morning I was still awake contemplating if I should go to LA. Kristina was on her way to Redding to see a few of us and I was meant to host her , but Alissa had her birthday and wanted to go to Disneyland. It was a catch 22 , LA or Redding. In the end it came down to Kristina or God. Because the heart was so convicted to go…And besides that a traveller never says no to road trips , so I spontaneously said a bold “YES” I wanted to process , the heartbreak of another failed crush , another failed attempt at trying to find romantic love and so my heart was really guiding me more than anything else. My pastor had told me that he wanted me to stay single until the end of first year, I was pretty deviant at first , but one thing that , that man has always done is give me sound advice , I remember not taking his advice in first semester and just running around like a wild horse , untamed and I hit my head a few times. Thank God , that God is a God of second and third chances when we don’t listen to sound wisdom, now I relish in the fact that listening to your counselors and leaders in your life can do you a world of good.
I had heard from friends that LA was a battleground spiritually, but I never actually expected it to be a spiritual war zone. Driving into LA with a bunch of loud girls in a BMW is something movies are made of and it was, we pumped our music and for a second it felt like we were in the movie clueless driving through Beverly Hills. LA makes you feel like you can plan and dream and accomplish, it’s just something LA carries, but in between all of that there is also a deep sense of disappointment that lingers on the streets, many people come to Hollywood to become famous, others found their way to LA because they thought the bigger city would bring them better opportunities and they end up on the streets.
There are thousands of stories out there; there are thousands of people out there, homeless in need of love, in need of help.
If you go to Joan’s on third you will see a list stars people who brace the silver screen, people, just like those who line the streets that are in need of a encounter with love.
When we arrived in LA we stopped over at Hollywood Blvd we wanted to see some of the sights, as we walked on Hollywood Blvd I stopped and walked up to this psychic the Lord had shown me that He wanted her to know His true love for her and so I walked up and asked her if I could pray for her and she said yes she would love prayer.
I have found throughout my life that new age people are almost always open to experience God and so I never stop asking if I can pray for them. As we prayed for her I felt like there was something wrong with her and her husband and she agreed and asked me to pray that their relationship would be restored. As soon as we prayed for her , God broke out on that street , people are extremely aware of each other in LA , they don’t talk to each other all that much but they watch each other , our generation is pretty much the same , we don’t communicate all that much , but we watch each other and as bad as all of the miscommunication , unhealthy boundaries and intimacy problems are , there is also the solution of nurturing the ability to use the very strategies that works against effective evangelism to our advantage. For a newbie on the streets the deep social norms that are engrained into LA culture could be a challenge , it may even be a challenge for well seasoned evangelists because of the excessive boundaries some carry. However , LA is a great learning ground for people who want to be activated into the supernatural.
People are curious by nature and are naturally drawn by experience and encounter. We walked up the street and then approached another woman who has a great stand with poems and art work portraying the love of the Father , Alexa got a word that she had scoliosis and the woman looked at her in shock so we prayed for her healing and she said she was blessed by the presence of God. One guy had his driver stop his tinted SUV in the middle of the road obstructing traffic, so he could see what we were doing on the street. People around us were staring at us…
We could’ve stayed in Hollywood Blvd. the entire night praying for people, that’s how hungry people are in Hollywood. We had to meet up with Sam at his place, but still we were wrecked by the love of God. Later that night Sam , Alexa and I encountered another woman outside a target who had HIV and it just kept happening everywhere we went , God would highlight someone and we would pray for them.
The biggest thing with cities like LA is the fact that you have to look at the bigger picture in terms of evangelizing, there is no middle class in LA but God is in the middle , whether you feel like that is theologically correct or not , that’s just my experience God is guiding both the rich and poor and in actual fact there is no rich or poor in LA just poor in spirit.
Our last day in LA was marked with a bunch of Holy Spirit surprises , we decided to visit Hillsong LA because a bunch of our friends were there helping with the LA church plant. One of our friends drives Justin Bieber’s car and socializes with the whose who of LA. He carries incredible favor where he goes and we spent some time just hanging out with him. As we said our goodbyes and walked towards Sam’s car to get our bags , Sam suggested we pray and as I turned around a thin Ethopian woman dressed in colorful clothes fell on the floor and grabbed my ankles and begged me to let her pray for me , and so she prayed the Lords prayer over me and I sat in that unpaved parking lot on that floor with her in my arms as she cried her feet bruised beyond believe , her tears drenching my clothes , the truth is I didn’t care if my clothes got ruined or what people were thinking , all I cared about was this woman in front of me and what she was going through. I know some of you reading this will already ask questions like “what if she had aids?” or some other disease?
The truth is God is no respecter of persons and we shouldn’t be either. Our group gathered around and prayed for the beautiful woman who had left Ethiopia in order to find a new beginning as a refugee with her husband, her husband had died of a heart attack and she didn’t have a green card so she was left to fend for herself on the streets of LA. There are so many different stories on the streets of LA , but those stories will only be told if we are brave enough to meet the people who carry them. If we are brave enough to love them and that may just mean spending 20 minutes with someone and hearing their life story we can bring a new meaning to revival.
That experience changed my life, it also brought about a set of questions surrounding evangelism. That day I gave away half of my clothes and shoes that I had with me and Amanda and Sam paid for her rent. If we give, we open ourselves up to be more Christ like. Throughout the year I had brought clothes at every beck and turn, clothing is like therapy to me, I buy something new and I feel better again. I’ve done this since I was a teen, I would be unhappy but as soon as I got a new dress or a cute hat I would feel whole again. The experience I had with the Ethiopian woman was God talking to me about giving away things in my life that I was holding on to , so when I got back to redding I gave away 4 bags of clothing to friends. I realized I was holding on to stuff instead of grace.
