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I hope you stopped by last week and had a chance to meet my friend Rick. He lives on the streets serving Christ by helping those who need help. He shared his heart last week HERE, and now today I post the rest of his story.
When I first started ministering to those on the streets, I had just been laid off my job, lost my truck and my home. Then I lost my temper. I was mad at myself for not being prepared and mad at God for letting this happen.
I soon found myself at the Salvation Army looking around and really upset because I had let this happen again. I had been here before due to my addiction. This time it was just dumb luck or so I thought.
I was in line to eat when I asked God, “What do you want!!!” He very calmy replied “I want you to help people.” Really!!! “Look around God they all need help,” was my foolish reply. But then I did something that changed my life forever. I told God if He brought them to me I would stop and help them.
A couple of days after I had told God what I would do if He did what He was supposed to do, He sent someone my way! His name was John and talk about needing help, Whew!! He was 24 years old and had the mentality of a 12 year old. He was HIV positive and sick with bronchitis.
His brother that he had been living with had gone to prison, and the girlfriend just shipped him off to Texas from Tennese. His other brother was receiving his SSI benifits and he wasn’t seeing any of that money. He was as gullable and naive as a person can get and definitely did not need to be on the streets. I was perplexed to say the least.
I felt God nudge me to take John to the county hospital where he could talk to a social worker. After explaining the situation to her, the social worker informed me that because he had left the hospital he would have to go through the whole process again, this can take 18 hours and up. Then she said to wait a minute she wanted to talk to her supervisor.
She returned with a smile on her face and music to my ears. She said “I got him, and got a great place for him.” That’s when the tears came and my first brushing up against God’s love overcame me.
I had done so little and God had done so much with it. I told her that if anything happened to please call and under no circumstances put John on the streets that I would come and get him.
Later that night I was just about to get in my bunk for the night when my phone rang. It was the social worker. She siad that the plans fell through and I would have to come and get John. What? She then laughed and said she was joking. She just wanted to tell me she had found a better place for John. A place where he would be with people his own age and very well taken care of. They would even help him get all his benifits back!
She paused and then asked, “Why does a homeless guy like you, do what you do?” I told her it was all for God and to give Him all the glory, as I enjoyed the “pay off.”
Why do you stop to bless others? Is it for the “pay off” that Rick writes about? Or maybe it’s because you are more blessed when you give than when you receive? Stopping for someone else blesses the one who stops abundantly! Who will you stop for today?
It’s amazing what God can do when we just stop and serve. I am taking guest posts for this series. If you’d like to submit, please email me at alenesnodgrass (@) gmail (dot) com for specifics. I’d love to hear your story, so link up and share away!
I can't link about it because of the person involved, but this morning I reached out to someone that a lot of Christians are afraid to approach because she is so wounded (and ticked off at Christians). She was overwhelmed and overjoyed that I called her.
She has a long road to freedom, but needs a lot of prayer and holy intervention.
Bless you!
Beth
Beth – Thank you for reaching out to her because you are probably just what she needed. Someone who would listen and love. Great STOP, girl. Thanks for sharing!
Alene and Rick what a great story. This brought me to tears.
I've stopped several times but I would like to say that it is not "the big job yet" but it is those stops where as simple as a listening ear or a hug made a lot of difference. Blessings!
God reaches down when we were yet sinners, maybe on the street and maybe NOT, but he loves us anyway and cleans us up!
Wow, this brings me to tears. Thank you. Amazing, powerful testimony. I do the mission trip thing well — much less so the every day, who can I stop and help today . . . I need to be stirred here. Thank you.