..::David::..

I've been putting off posting this for a while now. I couldn't figure out how to tell this story. But i guess I'll just start typing and hope it all works out :)

Wednesday night in LA we did a homeless ministry. The night had started out VERY spirit-lead. Before we were even to the Cannon--The place where the whole sha-bang went down--I was walking in my spiritual gifts so much to where when i looked at someone, i saw all of their dirt. It's like the Lord layed out their life before my eyes. It was insane. I had never felt my discernment so strong before in my life. Even some the people on the team. I felt so spiritually alert that i felt in-tune with everything that was going on. It was insane.

But that morning i was reading in Psalm 139. And the verses 5-10 really stuck out to me and were encouraging to me. Those verses say, "You go before me and follow me. You have placed your hand of blessing upon my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain! I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If i go up to the Heavens, you are there; if i go down tot he grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if i dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me." And all day Tuesday i was feeling useless. I felt like i wasn't being used by God at all. That i was just another teenager there that hardly did anything--cause it really seemed like there were some youth groups that had ALOT of those teenagers that were acting like teenagers, if ya know what i mean??. So i woke up Wednesday not wanting to do any of the ministries cause i had convinced myself that i wasn't really doing anything. But then when i read this it really encouraged me. That when it said 'You have placed your hand of blessing upon my head' it helped me realize that whenever i talk to someone my words aren't just going in one ear and out the other, but He is blessing my words and my actions. That the things that we do as a team we aren't going to be in vain, we are planting the seed while the Dream Center reaps the fruit. Also when it talked about the Lord has gone before me and will follow me, it showed me how He has already destined people for me to talk to. People for me to minister to. Then when it said 'even there your hand will guide me,' I was really comforted by that cause i don't have to worry about who to talk to or what to say. Cause He is guiding me, no matter where I am, He has gone before and behind! But Wednesday really showed how that was true.
In the vans on the way to the Cannon a few of us just felt like that night was going to be incredibly blessed. That God was wanting to go above and beyond all our expectations. So we started praying, all of us, in the van. We were praying for that night so much in the van! You name it, we prayed for it. It was amazing! I could feel His presence right there with us in the van. Then there were people that were sharing words of encouragement and wisdom and anything God had given them. It was just amazing! But when we got to the parking garage i felt like Paradigm needed to all get together and pray for our Spiritual gifts to be activated within us. Cause it's not something that we can turn on and off like a light switch, it's something that we need to always be walking in, all the time. So we got together in a huge circle and warred for it. After that prayer was when i felt my discernment "kicking in"-- for lack of a better phrase :P so we grabbed all of the pizza, sodas, and the huge cross and were headed down to the cannon. Side note: which is actually a huge cannon on the corner of a lil park area next to the Santa Monica pier. Once we got there we had split up into our groups with protectors. Anthony actually pulled me into his group cause he knew that i didn't feel very safe at all with my protector before. So my group was Anthony, Kelli, Kirsten, and myself. And when we got to the cannon Kirsten and Kelli were talking to a guy, so that left me and Anthony standing there awkwardly watching their conversation. Then i saw this guy with a black shirt and a red backpack. Automatically i knew that we had to talk to him. So i told Anthony, then we went over there to talk. And his name was David. But when we were talking to him you could tell that he had fear, lots of it! He was afraid of living on the streets, and afraid of where he might end up. When we were talking to him we found out that he had just gotten out of jail one week ago, and that he had only been living on the streets for four days. His brother and sister-in-law had kicked him out of their house cause they all got in a huge fight. He kept on mentioning how we wanted out of the streets. That opened the door for us to tell him about the men's discipleship program at the Dream Center. But then we told him it was full, but we can hook him up somehow in the dream center, we'll just go talk to the leader guy for him. Then we asked if we could pray for him, and he said yes. So Anthony prayed for him. Then we had to go cause the service was starting. But he had told us a little earlier that he was hoping to get a coat cause it was really cold on the beach where he was sleeping. So we both had to remember to try and find him one later on. Then the service started with some testimonies-- Caleb/dontay and Bridgette did an amazing job on that! So the service went on and we talked to a few more people. Then we/me and Anthony went to go try and find David a coat or something. And then when the dream center people saw us messing with the clothes they stuck us with the job of sorting everything and folding everything. So that was kind of annoying, but i was happy to do it at the same time. Then we found a coat for him, but he walked up to us to say hi again and tell us that someone already gave him a coat. It was really cool to see that he had come up to talk to us again. I don't know why, but it was cool. So when we talked to him we said that the leader said that the men's discipleship program was full, but they always had people in and out every three or so days. Then we said "so, just stick around for a while and you can talk to the leader that we talked to." Then we had to finished with the clothes. And it took a little while, then we had to pack it up again. But after that since we were done with that and things were starting to wrap up Anthony went to get David so he could talk to the leader and get information about how to contact the dream center about the opening in the next three days. But a few minutes after Anthony left to get David he came back and told me he couldn't find him! So We left Kelli and Kirsten with PNick and we went up and down the park. But we couldn't find him anywhere! It was so discouraging! I felt like that was it, it was over. But God convicted me for thinking that. Cause just because we couldn't find him doesn't deny the work that we had already done. We had already encouraged him, talked with him, and even prayed for him. So it was wrong of me for thinking that it was useless cause we couldn't find him. So as we were walking back i still felt like he was meant to show up again, he was mean to go to the dream center. I just had such a peace about it that i knew without doubt that he was the one that i was supposed to talk to. But that didn't help the fact that we couldn't find him to let him talk to the leader and get information on the dream center. It was still upsetting. But i wasn't going to give up. When we got back to the cannon we looked all around there when everyone was and we looked alot! But he still didn't show up. So Anthony said that he was gonna look up towards the street, so i stayed back with the group. And i had enough of David not showing up, so i just prayed. I was like, 'God, that's it. I know he's meant for this. I know he's the one that i was supposed to talk to. He was the divine appointment! He needs to show up right now!' And right as i said that i hear Anthony yell my name and i see him over by the corner of the street walking back with David, with his new coat and his red backpack. So we took David over to the leader and they talked for a while. Then in the end David got a new coat, a paper with Dream Center contact information, and five dollars for a pay phone and bus fare.
It was amazing! I felt such a peace about everything that had happened to where i could never doubt the importance of myself or anyone else. Cause God can, and WILL, use anyone! :)
And that's my David story....
The~End