Alright. It’s been too long. There has been so much happening within the children’s ministry at the Garden and after not writing one thing they just started accumulating and here we are, months later, with A LOT to show for the past few months, but I’ll try my best to go back later and fill you in on the details.
Tonight was 3rd Wednesday. Every 3rd Wednesday our church gathers at Long Beach Christian Fellowship for a prayer and worship night. Last month was the first month the kids attended and, to say the least, they got ROCKED by the Holy Spirit…they cried their first tears of joy. Absolutely amazing. (I’ve been trying to get the boys to write up their experience…still working on it. Keep you posted. haha) So after that they were so excited and expectant for tonight.
To bring you up to speed, I have had the privilige of discipling a few of the girls for one hour every week. We usually just hangout, talk, share a meal, pray, read some scriptures. Last week I really wanted to demonstrate the power and intimacy of listening prayer so we spent about 45 minutes in silence. We drove up to Signal Hill to look over all of Long Beach and talk to God and journal. In the midst of this Kirrah came to the realization that God not only knows and cares about her, but He knows and cares about every single person in Long Beach and the rest of the world. She came up to me and asked if we could feed the homeless next week. DONE. I called my friend, Katie, who has a ministry called Bag of Hope and we planned to take plastic bags with water bottles, crackers, toothbrush, etc. inside to people we saw on the streets. That ended up being today, 3rd Wednesday.
We prayed and went out and the first person we saw was a man named Vince sitting on the corner at the freeway off ramp on Bellflower in Long Beach. We parked, grabbed a bag and walked up to the man. We sat down with him on the sidewalk and talked to him for about 20 minutes. It came out that we “went to church”, the girls and I got to pray for him and as we left I casually said, “Well, if you’re not doing anything in 30 minutes you’re welcome to join us at a worship night.” He agreed. Tonight he was completely overwhelmed by God. He told me about his past in ministry and how he was burnt out and turned away but basically knows that God is after him and he has been avoiding it. According to him he will be calling me (or Greg) on Sunday for a ride to church. We shall see! God only knows how the girls touched that man’s heart. Be praying.
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Another story from tonight, a woman was walking around in the lobby area of the church before the night officially started.
“What time does this thing start?”
I told her “7″, she thanked me and I went inside. A few minutes later she had wandered inside and I noticed her walking around alone, looking confused.
“Have you been here or to the Garden before?” I asked her.
She said no, but she was meeting a friend. We talked a little more and the service started. After singing a few songs we broke out into small groups to pray for the world, Japan, our city and one another. The kids spread out into different groups and Kirrah and Taty ended up in her group. After the worship ended she came up to me and asked if I was in charge of a ministry. I told her about the kids.
She said, “What do I have to do to get involved in the children’s ministry?”
I started to answer, then..”Wait. Did you say you have been to the Garden before?”
“No,” she said. ”But I don’t even need to go to the main service. I just want to come and hang out with the kids. Kirrah and Taty came into my group and prayed better prayers than I did and I can just tell by observing all the kids tonight that they are different.” She wants to come to the Garden because of them.
What!?? So amazing. Who says kids can’t bring people to Christ?
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I’ll be better about this.
-Alex
