As Christians, we kind of stay in our little safe Christian circle and forget that there are actually people out there who are lost in every aspect of their lives, and hurting, and that if we stay within the walls of our church or Christian groups, those people will never know, never have an opportunity--I don't just mean getting people "saved" but just reaching out and blessing them and encouraging them, showing Christ’s love the way He did. Last night was a real eye-opener. It helped me realize that the "lost" aren't just a group of people, but real individuals and real faces and real lives. I went out on the streets of Dallas, Texas to hang out in the homeless district just to see what kind of conversations could stricken up. No, it's not the best part of town but I was in a group of three friends, one being a guy.
#1
As we get there, my group just started walking and this guy came up to us, and started talking (slightly intoxicated). My initial reaction was “drunk man; RUN!” I've never been around anyone drunk before, but he wasn't very intoxicated and was completely coherent. So he just started talking and we talked with him, explained we were in college at a Bible school--he was very impressed and encouraged us to keep up the good work. We just started talking about the different things in his life, how he had grown up in church and drifted away, how after talking to us he wanted to get right, so we asked if we could pray for him right then and there. So we held hands on the street corner and took turns praying. I wasn't sure what I would pray, but you know that verse that says God will give you the words as you trust Him and just speak? God is so faithful and that's exactly what happened. But what caught me off guard--this guy started praying for us, and he prayed REALLY passionately; we weren't expecting to be prayed for, but he just went right on and took his turn. Afterwards he told us how much better he felt, how he felt changed, and refreshed and wanted to start doing better--said he needed to get back into church, hopefully he will…who knows. By the end of our conversation though it was so weird like he seemed noticeably more sober--one couldn't even tell anymore he had been drinking. Even if it wasn't a "life changing" conversation and prayer for this young black man, we at least planted a seed, showed him we cared--and who knows, maybe it was life changing. His name was Maurice.
#2
This one is funny. We were walking past these benches and people were just sitting doing nothing, and this one guy was on a phone and he said, "Hey, how are yo?" We were the only ones passing by so I assumed he was talking to us and I turned and said, "We're fine, thank you! How are YOU?!" Then the guy I was with turned back to see the one on the phone and tripped, to which the phone guy said, "What are ya’ll on?" (meaning drugs) I just wanted to get out of there because I was so embarrassed, but then the guy in my group yells back "We're on Jesus, man!" So this girl next to the guy on the bench yells, "I want ya’ll to pray for me." So we turn and go to her to talk, I sat next to her, found out she was having a hard time in school, didn't have a phone because it got stolen, etc. She was just stressed out in life. It was a good talk, we merely had a conversation, no "preaching" or anything. So we turned to the guy who asked us what we were "on" and asked him if there was anything we could pray for him about. The five of us held hands and prayed together. It felt like a long prayer, and when we all said "amen," we heard a several other “amen’s” from people around us on the benches who heard us praying. The two we prayed with just spoke about how much better they felt, how they could just "feel it.” Everyone was black around us, and I think the three of us 3 white folk praying hand in hand with blacks made a statement—I like those statements. One man who had heard us wanted us to have three bus passes that were only good for that night. We took them and they became our ticket (literally) for meeting another person. These two people’s names were Dalishia and Germane.
#3
We saw a homeless, very old looking white man sitting at a corner and went to offer him a bus pass, which he accepted. He was only going to be 68 on Dec. 11th, but he looked 500 years old! We could hardly understand him, but he told us all kinds of stories about his family, his past life, were he was from, different dogs he'd had, and so on. He just needed someone to listen to him, which we did VERY attentively since half of what he said we couldn't even understand. I think he was almost blind, his eyeballs were really cloudy on top. Somehow we started talking about faith. This man said he was a Christian, but he began to cry as he told us about his family. It turned into an all out bawl; he was embarrassed and said grown men shouldn't cry, but we told him it was okay, that was a sign his compassion and love for his family. What could we do for him? Once again, we prayed, only not holding hands this time but in a four-person hug, as the man cried. Again, God gave each of us the words we needed to pray specifically for him. He looked hungry so we offered to run get him something from McDonald's and bring it to him, which we did. His name was Lloyd.
#4
When we can back from McDonald's, there was another black homeless man sitting next to the old white man. He saw us give him food and said, "What are yall? Christians or something?" "Well, Yes sir, we are. Are you a Christian?" "No." We met him and found out a little bit about him. The people in my group asked if he would like to become a Christian, to which he said he would, and prayed the sinner's prayer with him. I'm not sure he understood what he was doing, I hope so, but my groupie didn't exactly explain things to him beforehand, which aggravated me so much because I don't think the words of the sinner’s prayer are magical words and once you get someone to repeat them after you, that you've done your job and are done--it's meaningless unless they truly understand. Salvation is a heart condition, a genuineness decision of belief in the deepest part of one’s soul. We gave the man some church info for a church nearby; hopefully he will go check it out, he seemed like he might actually go. His name was Jerry.
It was just so cool to see God work and open doors one after another. And whether or not we helped change anyone's life last night, we at least touched them and planted a seed. It surprised me how willing and even eager people were to talk about spiritual things on a personal level, I’ve just never thought to bring it up with a stranger. Mostly, I learned that with everyone, whether Christian or not--it means so much to just hang out for a bit, talk to them and listen, and offer to pray for them. I have so much to learn still—and I don’t agree with the method implemented by my group in many instances—but it was a cool first-time experience, and I’m learning more about people and humanity by interacting on the streets every Friday nights.
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