Footsteps: School of Hard Knocks

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but this week's outreach was the best ever.

you would think i'm just saying that to make this ministry sound bigger than what it is....
no lie.. this outreach was the best ever...

That's the business that God specializes in - BIGGER AND BETTER!

Prior to anything starting... i picked up my buddy Steven Sutton. We met John Walsh of OPERATION NEW HOPE to get insight on resources available to help people find a job (who have recently been released from jail).

He prayed for us and a positive outcome for the outreach.

Tonight was really crazy...

you had every news station at city hall as the new budget was being heavily debated...

the team met up at the piano that's right outside the library.

I was joined up by Jared, Ronny, Dustin, Amanda, Steven Nolan, Steven Sutton,  and a guy named Adam that saw us "preparing for something" and just wanted to join us.

"I don't know what yall about about to do, but I want to do it too!"

It was our highest Jacksonville attendance in Jacksonville since we started!

That was really a TRIP!!

We had TWO CASES of bottled water, materials for PB&J's, and a FRACTION of the clothing donations.

We split up in teams and hit up Hemming Plaza.

We ALL had opportunites to reach out to people. No one was really 'shadowing' anyone else.

Everyone was ACTIVE.

USUALLY, the park closes to the public at 8pm.

However, I presume, because of the fuss at city hall, police officers were barking that the park was closed at 7pm....

...which was kind of good because we hit the plaza quickly.... LITERALLY gave out a case and 1/2 of bottled water in about 10 minutes... a hat.... shirts... socks... a pair of women's shoes... lotion.... and mouthwash.

it was like a BLITZKRIEG!

we then went to location B

Which is located by the Sulzbacher center... which is RIGHT by the jail....

as we approached the location... we heard this RAUCUS....

it was guys in the jail playing basketball...

in a way... it was a beautiful sound...

very acoustic.. energetic...

.. no profanity... just pure recreation....

.... in a jail house.

In this small area was the sulzbacher center and the jail...

after going to Haiti... nothing really surprises/scares me about experiencing "raw humanity"...

In a courtyard area near the center were picnic tables where people can commune 24/7

there were some guys freestyling to a beat.

they were having a good time. ..

Adam was on a bike and beat us to this location as we all drove.

He was freestyling with the guys and was just having a good time.

There were homeless people sitting on the curb outside this center.

A fire truck and ambulance was at this center because there was some sort of health emergency.

There was a DCHD (Duval County Health Dept) Motor Home station outside giving HIV tests and just closed as we got there.

On the quest for knowledge (and how we can possibly partner with sulzbacher to help the community) I went into the main entrance of the woman's dormitory to ask information.

A lady at the desk gave me a lot of good information.

We went outside and kinda felt like 'that was it' for the night.

We went back to the corner where we originally stood and all talked.

I'm REALLY impressed by Steven as he was SO personable with people. he stayed WAY beyond anyone's expectations with people and REALLY REALLY sat there and shared the love of Jesus with the homeless..

VERY VERY inspirational.

(afterwards he and I really started brainstorming on many many things)

 

I always like to flip the script and ask people who participate...

"well, what's your prayer request?"

That always catches people off guard because they're so mission-minded that their own requests are wayyyy in the back of their mind at that point.

We prayed for Adam and it was awesome!
You could tell that he had SUCH an awesome heart for God...
He was even wearing a necklace that had the last supper on it... (very cool).

However, his mentality was one that he felt that he had to get himself right before he comes before God to live for him.

The ENTIRE group really gave great input on living for God.

It was awesome!!!!!

Meanwhile Steven (sutton) was STILL praying for this other group.

[Adam busted out an awesome Christian freestyle that was SICCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!]

The night wrapped up.

Jared and Ronny rode in the same car so they went home first.

Everyone else rode in my car (from Hemming plaza) so I asked them THEIR prayer request.

Requests were spoken, including my own, and I did something a little special tonight.

I drove them to the top of my parking garage.

The night was perfect, breezy, and the sky was clear.

We held hands and prayed for the person to the left of us.

The icing on the cake for the entire night is that we ushered in the spirit of God by worshipping Him to this song....

going with the flow in this ministry is paying off....

we're doing all we can at this point in time... and He's doing the rest.

I had more fun on the streets then at my first day at work... (crazy right?)

Footsteps: JACKPOT!

Where do I even begin.....?

Jesus tells us, "Seek and you will find"

We're really just going with the flow in this ministry and I think that's how God likes it.

We just go out and He does the rest.

Through divine intervention, I found this HOMELESS MECCA in downtown Jacksonville.

We thought that Hemming Plaza was "the SPOT"...

Jared and I actually did meet in Hemming Plaza... it was DEAD as a doorknob since it rained that day.
nobody likes to sit out in the rain..

It had stopped raining about an hour before we arrived. There were less than 5 people out.

The first people to approach us were a couple: Lynette & Dwayne.
Lynette's Prayer was to get her life right and get off the streets.
Dwayne's... a job.
I prayed for her... Jared prayed for him.

She asked for a bible as well.

As we were walking away, I noticed her dreads and complimented her about them.

"I do dreads" she said.
(I was wearing a skull cap because my hair was looking WILD!)
I pulled it off and asked if she could do my hair!

she replied, "Sure!"
"How much do you charge?"
"$10"

[i think time stopped when she said that......... i couldn't even fathom that. if you go to ANY salon in town and ask for dreads... you're looking at $40 mininum... $60... even upwards to $100!!!]

I was just real humbled by that and set up an appointment to meet her again the next morning.

about 2 more people approached us. we distributed water and sandwiches, prayed, and went to the new SPOT!

I found the spot the day before on an adventure that the holy spirit sent me on (i'll have to do a video about it... VERY powerful).  The day before there weren't too many people hanging out.

But when Jared and I went to this place, there were upwards of 30 people hanging out in this one area.
It was kind of segregated in a way.
Jared and I didn't care.

The first people we encounter were a couple: meet Daniel and Sharmayne. Young couple. We prayed for them, offered them food and water, and just hung out for a bit.

An older man by the name of Vernon wanted prayer to just get home to Augusta, Georgia. He had travelled from Seattle and wound up here....

... then up comes this little old lady that everybody simply calls "Mom"

She was nice... sweet... and homeless.
She loves giving hugs... we hugged twice. .

She's one of those nice old talkative ladies that you'd see in publix... she had a disposable camera and liked "taking pictures with her friends".

her husband died in April.
her son was out there as well... he was about in his 40's.

who knows if that was her blood son or not...

with the passing of her husband in April, you wonder if he was out on the streets with her, if they lived a 'normal' life in a home, or what..

she was upbeat... but you wonder if she was kinda delusional or in denial... it's really hard to tell.
i've never really met anyone who was homeless and SO upbeat.

maybe she had that joy unspeakable...we all took a picture...

Daniel, Sharmayne, myself, "Mom"

Daniel and Sharmayne both had issues with their legs. Jared and I prayed for them both.

Afterwards, Jared and I "went into the hood" (which was really just going across the street where young black teens were hanging out). They were hype about getting water and I think we ran out of sandwiches by the time we got to them. We prayed for those who wanted prayer and the general census was for jobs.

No matter HOW INTIMIDATING people that we approach may seem to be, asking if they need prayer REALLLLLLYYYYYY neutralizes the situation and makes the biggest man turn humble.

Psalm 14:1 says 'A fool says in his heart that there is no God'

with that being said... the homeless ESPECIALLY know that God exists......

time after time again... we'll ask people if they need prayer... you'll see in their eyes that their expression changes... it's like they're looking down a deep hallway... they'll look down.. and then there's the 50/50... yes or no...

when life is tough... you kinda give up hope on being positive.... so when someone asks you for prayer...  emotions are stirred... which is a good thing in my opinion..

then there's the people that i like... they're usually older... you ask them if they need prayer and they'll blink quickly, turn their head to you and say "I can always use prayer".

I LOVE THAT............ it lets me know that they're wearing that Helmet of Salvation and still carrying the Sheild of Faith.

Jared and I then went across the street to where more older men were hanging out.

A slightly humpback man was talking to other guys about a doctor's visit to where he waited about 7 hours to get 5 Lortab for pain.. he says, "5 lortab... i pop 6 of those and don't feel a thing... thanks for the wait doc"

Jared and I were just standing there haha.. then offered water and prayer....

Up comes these two guys.. James and Bill... or as James called him 'Wild Bill from over the Hill'

they were a little inebriated...

We asked for prayer and THEY formed a cirle and prompted to join hands... I was praying and James would kind of concur with rhymes sorta haha...

"yes Lord, and tell the Po-po to GO-GO!"

It was kind of funny.

I can sympathize with them all... being that I have smoked and would drink heavily... when life sucks... you just want to 'get high' to "forget your problems"

Nobody really wants to get on what I call "the bridge" (I'm making a video message about that).

The night was a success... for going with the flow... things are going VERY VERY WELL...

super excited about what's to come..

Thanks Jared for coming along.. Love you bro!

Breakfast in St. Augustine

Footsteps: Call of Duty!

 truth be told... downtown jax is really beautiful... the air was perfect.. not too warm... AND there was a breeze.

the plaza was SUPER PACKED this evening. the most people we've seen in one time.

packed out plaza

before all the team could even assemble they got SWARMED as they were holding sandwiches and water AND BIBLES donated  to Amanda Todd (how awesome is that?)

this week I was joined by A2DJ

Amanda Todd, Amanda Lenhardt, Dustin, J-RAD! [A2DJ]

I thought that it would be nice if we could do a mini-devo before we got started and distributed items..

BUT, our presence was made known by the couple of people that came to us and it was IMPOSSIBLE to get into the word because people were approaching us asking for water.

I say it week after week but tonight was awesome! [for many reasons]

we were armed with bibles, sandwiches, bottled water, blankets, one (1) men's polo shirt - large, and a small insulated lunch bag.

The latter are odd items but donations that were given out before the end of the night.

I'm really glad that my buddies came along and answered the 'Call of Duty' of spreading the good news.

I'm in one of the most INTENSE seasons of my life.

But going out and answering this call really made my "problems" seem inexistent.

["The Son of Man came to serve not to be served" right? - Matt 20:28]

we like to focus on praying for people, establishing relationships, and providing all that we can.

we swept the plaza passing out waters. there were literally about a good 50 people+ out.

Dustin had a package of bottled water (about 24 bottles)

 and I bought some from the store before heading down.

They were gone in about 15 minutes.

One dude drank a whole bottle in about 10 seconds.

"you were thirsty huh?"

the lot of the people really thanked us and blessed back with "God bless you's".

[And if you give even a cup of cold water

to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.

Matt 10:42]

Doing these outreaches really puts me in that Haiti frame of mind... but these are Americans.. IT'S CRAZY!

Some of the people are drunk... smoking weed right in front of us...

we're just trying to be ambassadors of Christ.

2 weeks ago Jared and Amanda got in a conversation with a lady named Marie.

Tonight I met her significant other - John.

John's deal is that he's in love with Marie - vice versa.

He's 21 years older than her.

he met her after she became pregnant with another man's baby and stuck by her side.

The state took her baby because the babies' father kicked her to the curb and she was on the streets.

The street is def no place for a newborn right?

well John's prayer request was to get the baby back and a place for Marie.

She's Haitian, speaks 7 languages, has family in arlington [area of town in Jacksonville],

and is residing there now.

I offered to throw their empty water bottles away..

John pointed to his bag of empty cans/bottles and said "we keep them".

I told him that across the plaza are about 10 crushed cans on the ground.

he said, "yeah, they tried to fight me for 'em"

The rest of the group were scattered about in different conversations.

Towards the end of the night two skaters come rolling up.

Meet Adam and Ryan.

Their stories are KRAZY!

[no lie, everyone's story is intense and crazy...

you never know what's going on in someone's life.

not just homeless but EVERYBODY!!!

Everyone needs a Savior!]

Ryan's 34... by looks you'd swear he was in his 20's.

he's on the fence about his beliefs

and had a lot of four-letter words sprinkled in here and there.

His prayer was simply for his 9 year old daughter Eva and her well-being.

his daughter lives with her grandmother... the mother wasn't mentioned.

Adam's story is OUT OF SIGHT!!!! [pictured above, far left]

I didn't get a chance to talk to Adam much because I was talking to John.. when the group was praying for Adam one guy asked to borrow my cell phone.

Long story short.. Adam's step-dad is an ex-cop that's raping Adam's sisters and beating his mom.

[when I hear stuff like that.... i'm like... "WHAT??" I think of movies... TV shows... anything but REAL LIFE... but it's real...it's Really REAL!]

Amanda prayed for him and Adam and Ryan rode off to the bus station to catch the last bus out to Orange Park. [once again making me want a facility or a shuttle to help people and get em to where they're going...]

afterwards, we all rode the monorail again...

this time to debrief about the evening, read some scriptures from John 5 and Hebrews,

and we expressed our prayer requests to each other.

I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing this, but one of Dustin's prayer request is to be able to recall scripture faster so that he can minister to others more efficiently.

It's QUITE the challenge sometimes when you're ministering to the homeless.

They often know the scripture, don't want to hear from a robot Christian, and expect an answer right then and there!

J-RAD, Dustin, and I layed hands/prayed for each other while riding the train.

the night ended well and I really can't thank those guys enough for their time and just being there!

I feel that this is a special group and there's a lot of growth happening within us.

I feel that God tests us everyday in different ways.

This ministry is like a pop quiz with every person in a 1st Peter 3:15 kind of way

Always be prepared

to give an answer

to everyone

who asks you

to give the reason

for the hope that you have.

You have to be a quick thinker, a GOOD LISTENER, and pure hearted

(they can smell fluff a mile away).

Hemming Plaza - Downtown Jacksonville

Footsteps: What do you do?

Another awesome homeless ministry took place this week.

I was joined by my buddy Jared.

This week we had CLOTHES, CLOTHES, AND MORE CLOTHES!

In addition to clothes, there were also peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that Jared provided.

Special thanks to my buddies Jonathan Zack and Ivan Mendez that provided the clothes.

there were t-shirts of various sizes, two pairs of shoes, socks, hats, jeans, slacks, a pair of gel soles (Dr. Scholl's ["are you jellin'?"], face cloths, and other snack items.

When we first arrived downtown at Hemming Plaza, Jared and I prayed.

Before we could "set up shop" this one dude called "Georgia Boy" (whom we helped with shoes in a previous outreach) saw us coming with bags and immediately knew who we were, and what we were about.
He was the first to get up and approach us as others may have just thought that we were passerby's with bags in our hands.

We went to an empty table and laid out all the items on the tabletop in organized piles of like items and the conversation with 'Georgia boy' began.

I didn't really get to know Georgia boy too much last time as we were having an intense conversation with a man named K who was near him, towards the end of the night, in a previous outreach.

This time we got to know him more, asked for prayer request, and he really let loose with pressing questions regarding his walk with God.

"What do you do when you know you're doing wrong and you do it anyway knowing that God is going to punish you?"

I brought up Romans and how the things we don't want to do we do... and the good that we want to do... we do the opposite sometimes and that we're all human. but, there's power in forgiveness, repentance, and wearing that armor of God. There were a LOT more questions and I just came at him with the word like Bruce Lee. (it sucks that I can't minister to myself like I do to others... but Jared reassured me 'that's why we were designed to encourage each other and have relationships with others.)

Jared got into an IN-DEPTH conversation with a man name Lewis.
Lewis used to be a minister.
No lie... he could have been a guest speaker at the Man Conference at Celebration Church!
that's just how much of the word of God that he knows.
he was literally spitting bible verses out LEFT AND RIGHT!
it was really encouraging to hear.
However, he's voluntarily sinning and knows he's not living right.
The conversation continued with Jared and Lewis as I was distributing sandwiches to people across the plaza.

Two ladies approached our table as Jared was still talking to Lewis and got some of the smaller sized shirts.
One of the ladies appeared to be.. let's just say.... very fidgety.... she didn't stay still for one second.

she was rubbing her stomach and saying something to the effect of how "this baby has got me tired"
they grabbed as much as they wanted, got some PB&J's and went on their way.

as I was passing out PB&J sandwiches, I met a man named (or nicknamed) 'Free'

"Would you like a PB&J sir?"
"No, I had too many of those in jail."
"Do you have any prayer requests?"
I prayed for him... and our conversation began.

I generally like to shake people's hands to humanize them so that they know that I acknowledge them as an equal. However, 'Free' had scars on his thumb and around the top of his hand.
So I just gave him a fist pound.
He came downtown because he literally got in fights every other day while living at the beaches.
He's about 5'4 but was in the military, was in jail, and used to MMA fight.
'Free' would get paid to beat up homeless bullies.

Yes, there are HOMELESS BULLIES.
(supposedly, there's a tattoo'd guy at the beaches named Oz who "runs the beach" as far as the homeless are concerned)
'Free's friend was beat up by this Oz and defended his friend's honor by seeking Oz out.
It was reported that Oz was next seen wearing a neck brace........

Pretty much, his family lives up north.
His dad has 3 houses: 2 in the states and one he's building in the Phillipines with his new filipino wife.
His brother is in maryland and his sister is in the military here in Florida. (soon to be a senior chief).
"you don't have contact with your family?
"I dont' call them."

In my mind, i was like, Dear God, I wish I had a facility to get him off the streets.
"do you need anything? clothes? food?"
"No, but I'll sit here and talk with ya"

more often than not, most homeless people want/respect that more.... just having a simple conversation with someone that cares to hear....

Free and I talked about many things...
his prison diet.
why he was arrested.
robbery.
betrayal.
him being hit in the head with a hammer (he removes his hat to show me the scar).
his eye condition (the pupils of his eyes don't dialate) and his night blindness.

By this time, Jared's conversation with Lewis had wrapped up and Jared and I just had a listening ear for 'Free'.
he seemed enamored by us... real lighthearted words and body language.
not to necessarily impress us... but to know a sense of belonging and acceptance.

By the end of the evening, we distributed about 90% of all the items, prayed for about 5 people, and encountered maybe 20 people.

'Free' was the last person we spoke to that evening.

I guess the new tradition of this ministry is to ride the monorail afterwards and decompress all that has passed in the evening.

I've known Jared for about 2 years now. We've grown closer as friends recently as I shared my testimony with him and his involvement with homeless ministry. He's real insightful, a good listener, and definitely someone who is helping me through this season of my life. We began to share our ideas for growing the ministry, our own prayer requests, and prayed for each other.

... and that's what it's all about!

************EXTRA**************

Here's some verses to think about:

Matthew 26:11 "YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE POOR AMONG YOU, BUT YOU WILL NOT ALWAYS HAVE ME".

DEUTERONOMY 15:11 THERE WILL ALWAYS BE POOR PEOPLE IN THE LAND. THEREFORE I COMMAND YOU TO BE OPENHANDED TOWARD YOUR BROTHERS AND TOWARD THE POOR AND NEEDY IN YOUR LAND. 

MATTHEW 5:7 BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY.
PSALMS 41:1 BLESSED IS HE WHO HAS REGARD FOR THE POOR, THE LORD DELIVERS THEM IN TIMES OF TROUBLE.

If you would like to get involved with Footsteps and participate in an outreach or have questions please contact either myself or Jared.

Jared - rekiemu@gmail.com

Reggie - rtaylor@fvent.com

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