Last Night at the City Rescue Mission

Last night I had the opportunity to go with a group of people from Lifechurch.tv downtown Oklahoma City to a large housing facility for homeless people. It was my first time there, but this group goes once a month and has been doing so for three years. It houses men, women and children from all walks of life. Lifechurch.tv comes once a month to do a church service. They bring in a live worship band, and then will show a message via video. They invite the people to come to the service and offer games and activities in a separate area for the kids.

Upon arrival we were told that the projector was broken, and so there would be no video for the message that night. As soon as I heard that, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to go and tell the leader of the group that I could share my testimony with the crowd if he wanted me to do so. After a couple minutes of debating if that was really the Lord's voice or not, I decided that I could obey, and the leader could always say no if it wasn't meant to be. So I walked up the leader, introduced myself and offered what I had been sensing. His eyes lit up and said that would be great.

As it began the place started to fill up and soon almost all the chairs were filled. I'm not sure the exact number, but my guess is that there were between 150 to 200 men and women there. Some young, some old. Some looking well put together, some not. Some looking pretty down and out.

During worship I had a moment when I felt like I was touching upon the very heart and life of Jesus. Reaching out to the unlovely, talking with the forgotten ones, sharing a night with people who probably have done some pretty rough things. Listening the their stories and offering them something that will quench their soul's eternal thirst.

After worship the leader of our group got up and spoke about the prodigal son, and the love the Father has for those who have gone astray.

He then invited me up. I had not prepared, had not had time to be nervous. My only prayer was, "God speak through me. God speak through me." I began my story, the story that God has weaved together to make me who I am, and it truly was Him who was speaking through me. The words were effortless as I told them about the events leading up to me accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. The story just flowed as I convinced everyone in the room that they were not there by accident; that God had purposed them to be there, in that chair on that night. And the Holy Spirit just poured forth as I invited those who had never accepted Jesus into their lives and hearts to do so right then. At least 6 people raised their hands and responded to my call to action. And over 20 came up to the front for prayers and bibles. Our box of bibles was empty within a couple of minutes.

Afterwards, as the group from Lifechurch.tv debriefed together, there were some incredible stories of how lives were touched - both at the shelter and in the hearts of the people that went.

In these last 6 months or so, my daily prayer has been, "God use me. Use me to speak, use me to encourage, use me for your Kingdom and your purposes."

I cried tears of joy driving home from the event rejoicing over where and how He decided to answer that prayer. Not at all as I had expected. I am going to keep praying those simple words; what an anticipation it is to think about what will come next.