All Heaven Breaks Loose

Last night in place of the usual inner-city Bible Study, a New Orleans pastor visited us and brought his dance, drama, and worship team. Well, you know New Orleans!.... What a blessing they brought with them!

They worshipped their hearts out and loved on our street people. Jimmy Carwash was there in the front row, tears running down his cheeks. Throughout the evening he must have had hands-on prayer three times. He got a new jacket, a blanket, gloves, a scarf and a stomach full of chili and biscuits.

Amy's backyard was full of other friends from the street and neighborhood. Prostitutes stared solemnly while the song about Mary Magdalene's alabaster box was dramatized before them. I watched Amy leading Smiley, one of the two thieves who compete for the neighborhood, up to get soup, while we comforted Beatrice who looked so cute in new glasses and has gone all week long without drugs.

We all notice what is happening to Gail, the sweet lady who has had such a terrible life. Amy first found her very broken from a childhood of being fed straight whiskey in her baby bottle through years of abuse and battering, AIDS and a host of other ailments. Now she walks staight upright and can talk more coherently. Still, she stood weeping as two ladies told her how God had delivered them from many of the same things. The two women had come for the first time. Both want to minister to others.

On their way to the big party, they had gotten lost and circled the block twice, stopping to ask directions of a man walking along the road. The second time they stopped to speak to him, they realized that God wanted them to tell him where hot food was being served. He gratefully got into their car.

It was Eugene, a big robust older man, whom I recognized as one of our Sunday morning crowd from the park! I believe he also may be one God is calling to preach the Word.

While the ladies were praying for Gail, another woman came up, whom they recognized as an old friend from the Sate Penitentiary where they had both given their lives to the Lord. Exciting divine connections!

All evening folks kept arriving as word got out on the streets, as the saying goes, "one begger telling another begger where to find food."

To the delight of our Rob, James and Peter, Maggie's fun-loving friend, 16 year old Marcel showed up with his two aunties. Part way through football with the guys, he left them and came and stood quietly next to Maggie.

He said to her, "Maggie, I know what a person needs to do for God. It's really simple."

Maggie asked, "What is it, Marcel?"

He replied, "To love Him, to serve Him, to not lust, and to not have greed."

Very powerful words from a young man with no daddy, who daily passes through metal detectors into his highschool and walks down the street to his granny's house past guns and drug addicts.

When she got home Maggie just cried because, as they talked, God had allowed her to feel the boy' loneliness and pain...Another worker that our Heavenly Father is healing and calling.

Eventually as the evening wore on, most folks wandered off wearing their new scarves and jackets. Those who remained, gathered in a big circle to cry out to God for Jackson. Jimmy Carwash thanked God for the group, "Ah feel so protected and good rahght here."

When it came time to leave, Rob was in the driver's seat. We drove Jimmy deep into town, to a truck he occasionally sleeps in. Our boys listened wide-eyed as he told them to take good care of their mamma and be sure and grow up to be men of God.

So...the boys are getting practised up for their trip to Africa, and we all can pray for Jimmy that he will get some ID, save his money, and that God will send him forth, free from drugs, alcohol, and the need for that big stick he carries, to joyfully serve God "in the harvest fields. For the harvest truly is great and the laborers are few."