Tuesday, March 18

Visit To Santa Ana Homeless Shelter

Today I went with Intervarsity to serve at Santa Ana Homeless Shelter.

So I prayed about it this morning, "Jesus!! Please show up at the shelter tonight! God what they need the most isn't food, it's love and salvation from You! Jesus let Your Holy Spirit fill up that place! Lord if we just smile and hand them blankets and food, then what's the difference between us and other volunteers? What's the difference if we don't share Your eternal life, Your hope, love, and salvation with Them? God let Your mighty hand move today!"

At 4:15pm, I met up with Michael (my small group leader), Natalie (a senior), and Katie (a sophomore). We talked alot on our way there, Natalie shared how Intervarsity helped her to be more personal with God, how her brother went on China mission trips, etc., and I shared Impact's mission statement, my own conviction to evangelize more, what city invasions are, how Jack always tells us that we need to cry out for this generation, etc.

When we finally arrived, I saw the group of homeless people with their carts loaded with stuff, their weary faces, and I became nervous. Ok, this is it God. I prayed silently. Don't let this night slip by without miracles, without the outpour of Your love among them!

So we signed in and made name tags; on mine I wrote: "Hi I'm Alice. God Loves You " with a big smiley face, and I slapped it right on my jacket.

Our first task was distributing blankets. As the people came in, they get checked and scanned by guards, they show their ID, sign in, get a ticket, and use the ticket to obtain blankets. I smile real big and greeted the people with "Hello sir, hello ma'am, here you go, God bless you!", most of them said thank you and left with the blankets. Some simply snatched the blankets without a word, some complained that the blankets were too tacky, some were angry that there were no towels left (there were only 25 towels for men and 25 towels for women to shower). One man made fun of my name tag, chanting in a sing song voice, "I'm Alice. God loves you, oh I'm so happy", I didn't know how to respond and my partner actually burst out laughing. Ha, real funny.

Then a big African American woman came towards us, her face down cast, with one hand holding on to her right cheek, and one holding out the ticket. I gave her a blanket and asked, "What's wrong? Are you ok?" She replied that her teeth hurts really bad, so I asked whether I could pray for her. She simply said "Yeah let me get settled down first" and walked away.

After a while I saw her sitting down against the wall on a mat, holding her cheek, her stuff all around her, and her spirited son running around. When there wasn't so many people, I went to her and asked her, "Hey, how are you feeling? Your teeth still hurt?" she said yeah and that she was exhausted, that she didn't sleep for two nights, and that she went to the emergency room last night, but they didn't do anything to treat her, they just gave her some medicine. "Can I pray for you?" I asked again, "God can heal you. You know, a friend of mine once prayed for a guy without knuckles and the knuckles grew back right on the spot! Another time, a guy with a cast and crutches were prayed for and he got completely healed!" She replied that she believes that God heals and that she's a Christian. So I put my hand on Felicia's (her name) shoulder and commanded the pain to leave, for God's kingdom to come upon her, for God's love and peace to fill her and let her know that He'll provide for her. Then I asked how she felt. She said that it feels better now, but the pain wasn't completely gone. So I prayed for her again, and I asked her did she feel something when I prayed. She said "Yeah, I can feel the pain lifting away both times you prayed for me." PRAISE THE LORD!! I offered to pray for her again, but she wanted to get food first. So I went to get food for her and her kids.

By now the gym was filled with people. There were families, couples, old man and woman, some nicely dressed, some wearing rags; lots of people were crippled and limped around; there were really young kids, barely ten, running around, laughing, playing. There was a kid named Joey, such a sweet boy, with large eyes and a bright smile; he ran to us and happily announced, "I'm gonna be nine this April!" As I looked at the sea of people, my heart broke and I fought to keep the tears back. Oh God, they need You! They need love! They need someone that cares!

As I helped out at the food line, I greeted each person warmly, they all gratefully accepted the food and thanked everyone, some people stared at my name tag and this tall man told me, "God loves you, too Alice. You know that?" I got to know some people, and they talked about their lives.

After everyone's fed, I wandered to where some people were watching a basketball game on TV. Then I asked this elderly man besides me, "so which team do you like?" The man smiled at me, he had such kind eyes, and we started to chat.

His name was David and he used to play all kinds of sports: basketball, baseball, football, and he won fourth place in a big tournament, then he got sick. "I was diagnosed with lymph node cancer two days before my 50th birthday, what a gift," he chuckled dryly. David was in the final stages and had suffered countless chemo therapies that made him lost his taste buds, made his body age faster, though now he is in remission and feels a lot better. I offered to pray for him and told him that God can heal and shared some testimonies of divine healing. "Oh I pray," David replied, "I pray alot, I don't kneel down, I don't say it out loud, but I pray" Then he fished out a small, wrinkled piece of paper from his wallet and showed it to me, "I've carried that around for years now". On the piece of paper were Bible verses: "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Isaiah41:10)...

I read the verses out loud, then David explained how God has helped him, and his eyes welled up with tears. " Can I give you a hug? " I asked, "Sure" David said. So I hugged this fragile man and prayed for him while still holding him, and we said amen together. I told him God is going to heal him, and he said he believes that too. I offered to bring the Intervarsity people over and pray for him, but he really didn't want to.

It was time to leave, we said goodbye and some people told us to come back soon.

God watch over Felicia and her children, watch over little Joey and his brother, watch over Mario, watch over Peter, watch over Tony, and watch over David.

Lord thank You for this night! Thank You for opening my eyes to see that there are so many people who needs love, and that I've been so richly blessed.

6 comments:

Sarah Wang said...

HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH!!

Alice, remember you've always wanted that great love for lost souls that would ache your heart and wet your eyes? And the love to love our neighbors as ourselves no matter if they are smelly, dirty, lowly or ugly?
God surely is a faithful God who answers prayers! :)

I can't describe how proud I am for what you are doing for God's Kingdom! God is definitely wayyyy more proud of you than I am. Haha. You go girl!!

Keep encouraged!! I am so happy you found radical God chasers/lovers at your school. YAY!!

Ps. I can't wait to watch WICKED with you!!!!! OMG I LOVE YOU!!

-sala<3

Stephineeee said...

Praise the Lord!!
Alice-ah, my heart just swelled and i want to cry out so much while reading your blog, but i'm in the library right now.

Keep on spreading the love!

the Invaders said...

bring some ppl along...bring those who leave messages here!

I remember that one time I got yelled at by an old fellow when I was sharing God's love at the shelter. It was fun!

johnny said...

that's awesome yo! come on!

jasypants said...

HALLELUJAH! Oh Jesus! I LOVE YOU ALICE. this was soooo inspiring! oh man i wanna go to a shelter! T_T WE NEEDA GO SOMETIME. please please please? :] i want to meet these people. so many places to visit. must. go ..yes yes. LET'S GO ALICE! keep it up!!!

[joy B.] doveseye said...

i'm so encouraged ,alice!!!
you are a big woman of God with a BIG faith!!

keep on glourifying His name! There will be great rewards for you in Heaven!