Wow today was spent on Skid Row LA.
To imagine that in the streets of Los Angeles County are living over 40,000 homeless souls; over 25,000 of these live on Skid Row.
Skid Row is nestled in amongst several blocks of the downtown wholesale district of LA. Wholesale florists, fishmongers, shoe stores, and industrial supply wharehouses sit on streets stained with human urine; the odor of which takes your breath away.
As you walk amongst these helpless souls your mind wonders to visions of Jesus walking through the streets of old Jerusalem, where the leprous, the infirmed, the starving would sit in the roadways and at the gates. Our Lord would pass through these groups and heal them and speak words of life into them, so that is what we did on the streets of Los Angeles. We represented our Lord well. On this day we fed over 300 people and had the opportunity to pray with many.
As we walked past sleeping bodies anesthetized with all manner of alcohol and drug we did see nuggets of gold in the form of special people; people with talent and desire, not wanting the lifestyle they are forced to live. One such man was a gifted artist whom we met outside of a shelter. He was drawing with a Bic pen and colored pencils but his work showed a skill honed over many years. We introduced ourselves and had a lovey conversation about life and God. Arthur Richardson has been living on the streets for years moving from shelter to shelter. He’s done nothing wrong but these are the cards he has been dealt. We asked if we could pray with him and he asked us to pray for work, a home, and a new pair of size 13 shoes. He said he knows God and wakes up every morning with a song to God in his heart. What a divine appointment. As we left Arthur that day we couldn’t help with two of his requests, however we did leave him with two new pairs of shoes thanks to the kind donations to the Dream Center Clothes Closet.
Another meeting was with a young man named Robert. We ran quite literally into him on the street outside The Midnight Mission from where he was just kicked out because he succumbed to the desires of heroin addiction and was high. He begged for help, describing his battle very vividly. He said that when he was desiring heroin it was as if a large opposing “devil ” would show up and oppress him into shooting up, and as soon as he did it would turn away almost laughingly and leave him to suffer the affects alone. We took Robert with us back to the Dream Center and he has been given entrance into their year long discipleship and recovery program, which by the way has had no openings recently. Another Divine Appointment.
Jeremiah 22:16
“judge the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this what it means to know me declares the Lord”
