Neighborhood prayer walk - 6-19-8

Marion/Harrison Street Neighborhood

No question, by a wide margin this was the most difficult evening of prayer walking that I've been on. We faced more opposition and negative responses, more than than any other 10 evenings put together. That is not an exaggeration. . . I really ask for your prayer support to tear down this wall of opposition to the work of the Lord in the Marion/Harrison Street neighborhood.

So much went on tonight, I cannot begin to tell everything and every one we prayed with.

Melissa Wolfinger, Ryan Barkley, and I walked and prayed tonight. While the opposition was heavy, so were the victory reports. We talked with Cigar Bob for a good while. He was going on about some things that I could not really follow. I'm not sure what he was talking about, but we listened to him for maybe 10 minutes. We asked him if he had anything he would like us to pray with him about, like his shoulder maybe. We've prayed and anointed his shoulder just about every time we've prayed with him. . . But NO!!! His shoulder is healed. He quickly swung his formerly very stiff and sore arm around in a full circle repeatedly. He said he probably would have trouble lifting anything really heavy. . . :) OK Bob, like an 85+ year old man is going to be carrying sacks of concrete or something. . .:) Praise the Lord!!! We joined with Bob again in prayer for peace of his mind and for him to grow closer in his relationship with Jesus.

We next went to the little store to buy our water. The little girl was again sitting on the sidewalk and writing about God at the corner. We gave her fliers and cards. The lady shopkeeper was watching in the direction of Bob's porch as we came into her store. We were kind of talking about Bob and going on about how much better he is doing. The shopkeeper agreed. I asked her how a lady from the holy land came to be in a little store on Marion Street. I'm not sure if she ever answered me, but she did tell us that her uncle owns the store on Middlebury street and that her husband works there. He's the guy I stop in and talk to and give fliers to every Tuesday. That is pretty cool. I asked her to say Hey to her husband for me. We talked about praying for the neighborhood and for the violence to stop. I hadn't noticed it before, but she has a very very big gun on the shelf right behind the cash register. A customer of hers was killed last week by a gunshot to the head (not in her store, but somewhere else in the city).

We left her store and walked up sixth street. A fellow came running across the street after we left a flier on his door, “What did you put on my door? Who are you?” He thought we were Jehovah Witnesses. He is Catholic. He came from Italy in 1958 when he was 11. Both of his parents were killed in 1961. He is a Vietnam war vet and has many mental problems as a result of all these things that have happened to him. He went into his house and came out to show us a gallon size Zip lock bag about half full of bottles of prescription drugs for his mental illness. He said that he takes 31 different pills each day. At first he was very very very negative and angry with us, but the more we talked. . . I kept telling him we were just praying for the drug houses to close and for the violence to stop. . .praying for good things to happen to people. . . I cannot say he ever became warm and fuzzy friendly toward us, but he became much much friendlier. He is going down to Marion VA hospital for a month of in-house treatment. I think he's leaving Monday. He has very severe mental problems. His name is Dustyne. I told him we would be praying for him. He appreciated that and thanked us for our prayers.

Not long after this, I was walking up Marion street when a pickup truck parked next to us and a very bald man with big sunglasses on, got out of his truck and approached us. I thought he was going into the nearby apartment, but instead he just kind of stopped right next to the sidewalk and just looked or stared at me. He lifted his sun glasses and after pausing for a moment said, “You don't recognize me do you?” I had to search my brain for a moment before I knew. . . “Ivor. . .Ivor my friend from high school.” I hadn't seen him for 35 years. Last summer, just almost a year exactly ago, he came to my mind and I did a Google search on his name. I found an email address for him and took a chance that it might be his and it turned out to be him. Ivor and I have been emailing back and forth sporadically over the last year. I've included him in my email list and have been sending him my articles, my pictures of the day and the prayer walk reports, etc.. He said he was moving some furniture, I think for his sister, when he remembered that we walked on Marion/Harrison on Thursday evenings. I think he said he saw us and circled around the block to greet us. We shook hands. I gave my friend a hug. It was very good to see him after all these years. I do not believe in coincidence. . .Ivor there is a reason for our paths crossing. There is a reason for you and I meeting after all these years. . .

Too much happened to write about everything tonight. Tonight was a night of pregnant ladies. We anointed and prayed for several. One lady is going in to have a c-section tomorrow.

We spoke with Julio. His lady friend, whom we prayed with to get a job last week, got a job the next day after we prayed. She was just WOWed by the working of God. She said something to the effect that, “Boy that prayer really works doesn't it.” Unfortunately Julio is back smoking. He's cut down much, but he is still smoking about ½ a pack a day. He was all smiles though. . . very very friendly and we prayed with him again.

We spoke with 3 Hispanic gentlemen, who were drinking beer on their back porch. None of them spoke very much English, about as much as we spoke Spanish, but we managed. We really had a wonderful time talking to them. They like America so much. They think the people are just wonderful. They were very touched by our wanting to talk and pray with them. We anointed one of the men and prayed with him, at this point I cannot even remember about what. . . He wants to come to church. They all want to learn English. We told them about Cathy Valdez's free English classes at the church. I tried calling her to verify the time, but couldn't get through. Later Sister Cathy said she would start giving me her fliers to hand out. The one fellow rides his bicycle past Life Tabernacle on his way to work every day in the industrial park. He reads our sign. He quoted this weeks sign for me in his very broken English. Not knowing that I do the sign, he said enjoys reading and thinking about the message every day as he rides by. That tickled me. I think we must have talked with them for 15 or 20 minutes.

Ryan noticed a young man in a t-shirt and shorts walk by us. I didn't see it, but Ryan said he had a hand gun clearly silhouetted in the waistband of his shorts, under his shirt. . .

We met a young girl, maybe 12 years old writing praises of God in a notebook on her front porch. She shared her writing with us. What a blessing that was.

Another lady was sitting on her porch writing down the words to hymns in her notebook. She showed us page after page of writing. Her notebook was almost full. She had just copied, earlier in the day Psalm 91 in her journal, copied it from the Bible we gave her a couple of weeks ago. The Spirit of God was heavy in the evening air. . . I read Psalm 91 aloud from her journal. . . It was wonderful. She wanted to know if we knew of a Pentecostal church she might attend. “Yeah, we might know of one. . .” She is going to come to worship service Sunday.

Another young man, we've prayed with each week since we've been in this neighborhood. . . last week we prayed for his Grandfather, who was very very ill. Praise the Lord. His grandpa is now very much better. The young man giving credit to God, but his grandpa is driving everyone a little crazy in his recovery at home. We anointed a prayer cloth for this young man to take to his grandpa, to calm his mind and give him peace while he completes a very speedy recovery.

I don't know what all. . . Lots of things. . .One lady met us out at the sidewalk for prayer. She is very troubled and wants her home back. I'm not sure what that means, but I think her home is filled with people whom she does not want there. That is the impression I received.

It was a tremendous evening. It was also a very difficult evening. I'm not going to dwell on the negative, but we really need your prayer support. We are really running into some significant resistance. . .

Dave