I want to introduce you to three people. These three people changed my life. And I just met them last night.
This is the third week of myself and other fellow believers going downtown on Friday nights to give water to homeless people and to get to know them. The first two weeks I met a couple of people and the conversations were awesome. God has already been changing me through praying for, listening to and loving my neighbors on the streets. It has become almost routine for me and others to go downtown and give a little love to people that are struggling. I honestly wouldn't trade it for anything. It is always a unique experience every week. The people I met the past two weeks are nowhere to be found the next. People move on, and I am excited for them and praying that they are making steps to being off the streets. I am kind of selfish however because I wish I could come back to the same spot and talk to the people I met the week before and catch up, just like old friends! This is not the case however. The truth is that I might never see any of them again even though I want to.
These three people I am about to introduce you too, I will never forget. And I'm serious about that.
The first person is a woman named Patricia.
We found Patricia sitting on a bench in front of the Public Library downtown. Patricia caught me by surprise with her openness to talk. She seemed to have no reservations and immediately sparked up conversation. From the information that I gathered, she had been homeless shortly after a divorce with her husband who had left her nothing. Other than that, I have no clue how she started living on the streets (she assured us that this was temporary!) mostly because she did not want to talk about herself. She wanted to know our story. I chuckled and told her that I came to hear HER story and not talk about mine. We compromised a bit and after we told her our normal spiel about college and majors, etc. she asked me to sing her a song. I have to admit that it caught me off guard but I did it! sang a couple verses of Amazing Grace, which she loved. Patricia I found out was a Christian. After prying her to tell us about her life, we learned that she was a writer. She wants to write love stories. She told us that she had finished a nine chapter romance story called "Only in your dreams". She pulled the original manuscript which she had written on some notebook paper. We asked her to tell us what it was about and she did, with lots of excitement. I wish I could tell you what it was about on here because It was a beautiful story. After that, we just spent some time discussing one another's dreams for the future. Patricia had a dream alright. Her dream is to write books. Unfortunately being on the streets with little resources, her nine chapter novel has not been noticed or read by many people at all, let alone being published. The most beautiful part of meeting Patricia is that she inspired me and my friend by telling us that our dreams can never be too big or too small. Patricia told me that I should go to New York and make it big there...which got me laughing but anyway I told her that my dream is to help people like her make their dreams come true. Whatever that means for me, I don't know but I do know that Patricia gave me hope, a hope that I intend to spread around this city.
The second person I met was Kenny Matthews.
Now...when the four of us prayed fervently for God to lead us to people and prepare the hearts of our future friends, I honestly did not know what I was getting myself into.. I was already blown away and blessed by the conversation with Patricia, but nothing could have prepared me for the next gentlemen sitting by his lonesome next to the walls of Century 2. I see Kenny there, sitting on the ground with his food, that I later learned, he just pulled out from the trash can. We approached him slowly not knowing what to expect but BAM! when he caught site of us, exclaimed "Yall come over here! I need a prayer!" What?!? lol....ok so lets breakdown my thoughts at this point. A: How does this guy just assume that we are Christians? B: What makes him think that we will want to pray with him? Let me remind you that he did not simply ask us to pray for him but it was more of a demand! Now, Of course I am a Christian and yes. I would love nothing more than to pray for this gentlemen. But my thinking is, we could have been ANYBODY! What makes him have the faith to know that we came to pray for him before we even uttered a "hello." So he held out his hands for us to hold and we prayed. We prayed for his little brother Fred, who Kenny says is lost. We prayed for him to comeback to this circle of brothers and sisters in Christ. Kenny loved the Lord and I believe that with every fiber in me. He had been all over the word, being in the Marines. I don't know exactly how he ended up homeless but he spends his days on the streets praying for Wichita and Its homeless population. Kenny told us that he is glad that we spend time with the homeless. He mentioned a pastor a few years ago that used to bring some guys to hang out with the homeless. That pastor asked Kenny what is the one thing that homeless people in Wichita need the most right this moment? He said..."socks." I thought that sounded pretty practical. It got me thinking about how much it must suck to wear the same pair of socks for a long period of time. So they went out and got lots of socks and handed them out over a period of time. My friend Jess was thinking the same thing I was and then asked "So what is it that people on the streets need most today?" Kenny thought for a moment then uttered..."Prayer." That blew me away I was thinking "really?" I honestly did not expect that to be the one thing that homeless people need but you what? Kenny is right. Kenny said that we've gone beyond socks. Its time that we as a community of believers pray for our brothers and sisters on the street. alot. What did I learn from Kenny? I got pumped up is what i got!! By this time we were in awe of the work God has already done for these people and the work He is about to pass on to this generation. Are you ready?
I know this blog has been extremely long but I still have to introduce you to one more person.
Quincy.
Quincy is a 26 year old African American male who we found sitting on a bench near the library. Quincy was pretty quiet and slow to respond sometimes. We did get him talking though. He, like Patricia, wanted to be a writer. He has written a few short stories but what he really wants to write is Epic stories. How cool is that?? My friend Jess felt a stir in her heart from God and asked Quincy if he would like to walk with us to find some people who need some water. He said yes and we were off. We walked for almost an hour with Quincy. I need to pause for a moment and let you know that I have never seen more pain in a persons eyes. Never have I seen more lost hope in a person than I found in Quincy. He seemed a bit distant. But we didn't give up yet. We kept asking questions and he would always answer. We talked and talked and talked but most importantly, we experience life with Quincy. Walking with him was so perfect and was all he needed. Every smile he cracked (which was pretty rare) made me really happy and I thanked God silently each time for my new found friend. We learned that Quincy had just gotten out of jail three days ago. Family was no where to be found. He is all alone. Sometimes I tend to feel alone when i'm sitting in my bedroom bored and there is nothing to do, but Quincy? He was truly alone. At least until we met him. We did nothing more than walk with him, talk to him, We even got to singing as a group as we walked, jamming out to some Jackson 5 and some John Mayer (John Mayer was one of his favorite musical artists). It was getting pretty late and we were all tired. I could tell that our short time with Quincy was coming to an end. I asked Quincy as he yawned. "Where are you planning to sleep tonight?". This question immediately produced the answer that was so real, so raw and so heartbreaking for me. His words were..." I don't know. I will probably try to find a bench or something." After he said that, It was all I could do to suppress tears. The rest of our walk, I was not really there. Inside, I was hurting. I knew that alot of homeless people slept on benches. I did. But to actually hear my friend Quincy say that he was planning on sleeping on a bench, I couldn't handle it. We parted with Quincy on a street corner. We prayed with him and said our goodbyes. We got in my car, and we drove home. On the way home, we saw Quincy one last time. He was sitting on a bench by the street with that same look of lost hope and pain in his eyes. I couldn't handle it anymore. I was crying silently the rest of the way home. I dropped off my friends and when I got home, I sat and I cried some more. Tears of anger and frustration came until i could cry no more.
I was crying out to God with questions like, "How did the world become this way?" "This is not what you intended for your children God!" "When will things be different?" I had a very hard time sleeping in my bed that night knowing that Quincy was sleeping outside on a bench with no protection from anything. God has stirred something within me to begin to search for answers and solutions. I hate that I have not anything more to give than my love, time, and water bottles. I wish there was more I could do. I don't know when or if I will ever see these people again.
My friends, don't be discouraged but be encouraged. Yes, I was angry last night as well as sad. But I know that God will use my anger to begin the process of change. I don't know what that will look like but in the meantime, I will be downtown again next Friday with even more Love and even more water bottles. Friends, This world has gone beyond socks. What it needs now is unceasing prayer. And the world needs believers who are "doers" of the Word of God and not just "hearers" of the Word. So lets do it. Whatever it is that God gave you a passion for, whatever your heart is broken for, whatever God is telling you...Do it!
