Jesus on the Streets - February 25, 2024
“It’s really cold today so it will be a quiet day”, that’s what they said. They were wrong. It was a beautiful day to be serving in Brockton! The temps were low but spirits were high under a bright blue sky. Our team of 7 served 84 meals over several hours and provided countless amounts of coffee and cocoa. It struck me today how many of our friends do not struggle with addiction (some do), but they are simply too poor and forced to live on the margins of society, just getting by and in need of a hot meal and some fresh clean clothes. Yes there is addiction, but it’s not all of them.
We had many prayers today:
Mark is praying for a job
Terry now has an apartment (yay) but needs heart surgery and a kidney transplant
Peter is praying that his application for new housing gets approved
Kyler asked that we pray for him during the week
Chris is praying that Theresa stays sober
Tara is praying for a safe flight home for her daughter and family
Cassandra is praying for a new apartment
Reschel is praying for her son Noah and that she and Chris can stop drinking
Luis is praying that his sister Jolanda is healed and gets housing
Rich is praying for healing for his family
Shaggy loaned his bike to a friend , who then got hit by a car. His friend is OK but now he needs a bike.
Jay is praying for his hand surgery
Sal was on fire today as he was sharing the message of Jesus’ love for us. He is praying that negative people will stay away from him.
Rashawn was confused because he thought gambling was bad but he saw that Debbie was using Super Bowl squares to raise money for PMC. Hmmm. Good question!
Jim wanted us to pray for world peace. (That’s often the type of prayer we hear in the beginning. The prayers get deeper each time.)
Mark wants to be reconciled to his wife and children
Rick is praying for sobriety
Scott is praying for a new job and to get out of the shelter
Kenney shaved his head because there are bugs in the shelter. He’s praying to get a place of his own.
Keshawn we haven’t seen in a long time but he’s recently out of the hospital and looks (and talks like) a new man. We are praying he stays well.
Kayshawn is praying to get into detox and then into Teen Challenge. He said we were his only family and wanted a lot of prayer to turn a new page.
Gary drives an 18-wheeler and saw us serving meals. He came over to see what was going on, accepted coffee, and then a meal, and finally shared his heartbreak over the death of his grand daughter. He needs prayer.
We are seeing more and more cameras go up around Brockton and it makes our friends nervous to be under constant surveillance. That said, the day was full of love and joy and we are so happy we got to spend an afternoon laughing and praying with our friends on the streets of Brockton. Thank you for helping us love people!