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Showing posts from May, 2009

Street Ministry - Marion/Harrison Street neighborhood - 5-14-9

This was a beautiful evening.  The strong thunderstorms of the night before had washed the sky to a distilled clearness.  It was so very clean and fresh and blue.  We have had nearly perfect growing conditions this spring and everything is so vibrantly green.  Add to this the hours just before sunset are known in photography as the golden hours, for the light of the sun is so soft and warmly rich.  A soft breeze gently caressed the trees making walking a deep pleasure. I was alone tonight.  I'm not sure where Terry was and Carey never joined up with me.   It was a perfect evening to be out, but the people were somewhere else.  I don't understand.  Last week I was so very busy on these same streets.  Tonight I was virtually alone. I always park near the Congregational Church at the corner of Third and Marion.  One of my first stops is always the large four story apartment building on the north side of Marion Street.  There was a lone lady sitting drinking beer up on the first le

Street Ministry - Middlebury Street neighborhood 5-12-9

Tonight it was Terry Wallin, myself. . .(and drum roll please!!!) Brother Larry Evans.  I was so excited and glad to see Brother Evans tonight.  He was such a blessing to have along. I am so sorry if you get tired of my enthusiasm, but tonight was a really great great night of ministry on Middlebury Street.  I was especially wanting to have a good night for Brother Evan's sake and we had a good one. Zoe and David, a regular stop on our walk, are having severe financial problems.  In addition Zoe lost a close friend this week and is emotionally quite fragile.  Kathy (another friend in the neighborhood) showed up just as we were getting ready to pray.  David is having quite an attack of gout and was sleeping.  I told Zoe that we would stop and pray with him later on our way back to the church. Rejections take a toll on me and to me the damage seems to be cumulative.  The longer I do street ministry, the more I almost flinch at expected rejection before I even talk with a person.  I h

Street Ministry Report - Middlebury/Aspenwald 5-5-9 & Marion/Harrison Street 5-7-9

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This has been a very busy week and I'm behind on my reports. . . Middlebury/Aspenwald 5-5-9 Again I was alone this week as Terry Wallin is continuing to have back problems.  He broke his back a number of years ago and periodically it flares up in pain and gives him a great deal of trouble.  Please keep Terry in your prayers. The evening was cool and somewhat overcast.  Not lots of people were out.  I stopped and prayed with David and Zoe.  As I passed the apartments at Prairie and Middlebury there was a large crime scene taped off with a number of squad cards and two large step vans, one of which said 'CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION'.  The rumor on the street (later born out by  the newspaper article in the Elkhart Truth  ) was that a young man had been stabbed in the neck and a woman cut.  Both were taken to the hospital.  Both survived.  There was lots of attention toward that.  People were concerned and upset.  Three young men sitting on a car, talking on the sidewalk about w

Of Presidents and Priests and Kings and Many Things. . .

We are coming upon the much celebrated by the media, mini milestone of the 100th day of the Obama presidency.  As a politically conservative, fundamentalist, One God, Apostolic, Spirit filled, Jesus name Christian each day’s headlines cause me greater and greater anguish.  If I allowed myself, I could easily become distraught at the path our country, indeed more than that . . . the path that our entire world has taken. . .   But Mr. Obama cannot be held responsible in a mere 100 days for the position in which we find ourselves as a nation.  He is a symptom, not a cause.  In fact, even his being in office at all is not attributable to Mr. Obama’s particular talents or past accomplishments, but rather to the desperate hunger of the country for a new direction.  His mantra was ‘change’ and that alone is what people wanted. . .change is what people needed, but their eyes are blind to the change required for lasting happiness. . .   Being horribly dissatisfied with our present national and