A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

It is hard for me to remember a day with which to compare to today. . .It was an amazing day. . . Sunday Jackie and I brought Mikah, our youngest grandchild to church. We have six grandchildren. Mikah is the third grandchild I have danced and worshiped before the Lord with at Life Tabernacle. There is nothing quite like having a small child in your arms and dancing before God. It is an extremely rare pleasure. . . Mikah's father was in Life Tabernacle's altar a few weeks before with his hands raised to God, with tears streaming down his cheeks, but it has been an uncertain and veering path for Jeff. You can read about much of Jeff's struggle with addiction at his blog: foreverlikethemoon.blogspot. com Jeff had texted me last evening telling me that he wanted to come with me on street ministry tonight. I was surely grateful for that. I haven't had much communication with Jeff in the past few weeks and I was glad for the opportunity of fellowship and hopefully a ch...

Had a very good evening last night. I was by myself. Nothing huge, but I was able to talk and pray with a good number of people. A woman and her two brothers were sitting on their porch by the little grocery store on Middlebury. I have spoken to them in passing as I gave them the flier for a couple of weeks now. This time the young mother asked for prayer more in exasperation than anything else. She said she wanted prayer for her youngest son. . . maybe 4 years old. He was playing on the sidewalk as we talked. She said that he just would not listen to her. As she gathered him in to be prayed for, she decided that the entire family would get a blessing by being prayed for, so she called together her two little girls about 5 and 6 years old, her young son, and her two brothers. I anointed them all and we lifted up a wonderful prayer to God, for wisdom for her, for financial help, for her children to be Godly men and women, blessings to all who know them, for God to talk to her,...

I had a very good night last night talking and praying with people on Middlebury Street. I was by myself. It was a pleasant summers evening. Warm and a little humid, but surely not exceptional for the third week of July. Lots of people were out. As one neighborhood resident remarked, "The street has been very quiet. . .", and that is a good thing. Spent time talking with Ralph, the neighborhood observer. Most anytime during the daylight hours, Ralph can be seen sitting on his porch watching the world go by. He is retired. Sometimes I wave at him three or four times in a day as I travel up and down Middlebury Street in my car. Spent quite a bit of time at David and Zoe's. David's health continues to deteriorate. His head is just covered with tumors. He has skin cancer behind one ear and now is having growths of some kind erupt beside his nose. . .the have tremendous financial needs. . . medicine and oxygen, diabetic supplies, etc. for David. . .very difficul...

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...

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...

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...

Marion Street 1-12-9 About a month ago or so, when I picked Blessing Bob (formerly known as Cigar Bob) up for church he met me at the door of his home very upset.  He had seen a news story that in the upcoming weeks or months that all television transmissions were going to be digital and that his little old TV with the small fuzzy picture wasn't going to work at all any more.  At the minimum he was going to need a converter box and with Bob and his friend George being on a very limited income and not understanding about the government sponsored rebate coupons, etc., Bob was very upset. Bob is 87 years old.  He has been coming to church with Terry Wallin and I for probably 8-10 weeks now.  Bob, Terry, and I sit in the balcony and worship God together each week.  A few weeks ago, Bob's room mate George also came to church with us.  George is in his 90's.  87 year old Bob is 90 something George's caretaker.  George and Bob have almost no contact with the outside world othe...

Middlebury Street Terry Heath and I had a great night tonight.  We prayed and talked to so many people.  This was our last night on Middlebury Street for the year.  It was a great finale night. Max and Crystal are moving soon.  They have found a place on U.S. 20 in Osceola.  Please pray for them.  They will be at church this coming Sunday.  We stopped and spoke with them and with Melissa and Cecil (the couple they have been living with) for quite a while.  We are making lots of new friends. We handed out fliers to a group of young men at the apartments.  They were all drinking beer from 40 oz bottles wrapped in paper bags.  One young man just began violently cursing under his breath about the flier when I handed it to him.  I had never seen him before, but his two friends I had seen regularly over the past couple of months.  The one young man in particular was always kind of cocky and kind of smirking at us in scorn when we came through, but he and the other fellow were very obviously ...

Middlebury Street This is our next to last week for the season.  Terry Wallin is in Florida.  Terry Heath started a new job today and was therefore unable to attend.  I haven't heard from Melissa in a little while.  Her phone has been disconnected, so for only maybe the second time since March, I was walking and praying alone this evening. We had a good night.  I spoke with Donny, this is the fellow Terry Wallin and I met for the first time last week.  I spoke with him as he rode his bicycle back from the grocery store.  He seems to be doing pretty well.   A fellow on the porch at the Serenity Hall building stopped me and wanted to talk.  We chatted for quite a while sitting in the chairs there, watching the traffic on the street.  His name is Jimmy.  He gave me his testimony, really his life story of being delivered from drugs and alcohol some 21 years ago.  He is searching for a church to attend.  We may see him soon. I talked with Loretta and her crew over on Aspenwald.   I spok...

Middlebury Street Tonight Terry Wallin, Terry Heath, and I walked and prayed in the Middlebury Street neighborhood. We met Terry Heath through his girlfriend earlier this summer. One evening in June, we prayed with her. She was very upset and during our prayers she began greatly weeping. Melissa gave her a big hug. She just poured out her heart in Melissa's arms. We cut short our walk and took her out to the county jail to visit her boyfriend, Terry. He is now out of jail. Terry, Glenda and their children were at church Sunday. We anointed and prayed with them at the altar. Terry greatly desires to give something back to God's kingdom, that has done so much for him. He plans to be with us every time we go out on the streets praying. We had a wonderful night. I repeat myself again and again, but we prayed with so many people. Tonight we had a very memorable happening. A house on the north side of Middlebury Street, like so many houses, appearing to be vacant, no sign...

Marion/Harrison Street Terry Wallin and I had a great night tonight. We spent a while, as usual talking to Cigar Bob. He'll be coming to church again on Sunday. He was touched. He thought the service last Sunday was wonderful. We are trying to get Bob come clothes. He has been wearing the same clothes, without changing them for the almost 5 months that I have known him (and undoubtedly for far longer than that). I brought some clothing bought at Goodwill, over earlier in the week, but they were the wrong sizes. I've told Bob that when we get him some new clothes, we can pick up his dirty laundry on Thursday when we come by and drop off fresh things on Friday. I was over to Bob's earlier this week and his friend George (who is in his 90's) was laying on the porch, with completely soiled pants, from waist to ankle, from his urine, His hands were so covered with nicotine that they looked literally like they had been dipped in chocolate. I do not think he can hav...

Marion/Harrison Street Terry Wallin and I walked and prayed in the Marion/Harrison Street neighborhood tonight. A good number of people were out. We talked and prayed with many people. Our first regular stop is always with Cigar Bob. He was very happy to see us after a week of our not coming by. We spent quite a long time talking with Bob. Sometimes he is very difficult to understand. I think I'm relating the following accurately, if there are mistakes blame my bad hearing and poor memory rather than Bob's telling. . . I really got him going tonight when I asked him how long he had lived on Marion Street. My impression is that this has been somewhat the center of Bob's universe for his entire life. He has spent time at other locations, but he has always come back to Marion Street. He told us how he was living a couple of doors to the east from his present apartment, in a big white house in 1949 when he was 27 years old. He came home from work late one afternoon. ...

Middlebury Street We had a great night tonight. I started out alone, but Melissa Wolfinger was able to join me for a short time, before having to leave to get ready for work. She was going to KIK (the old Accra Pac) for the late night shift tonight through Forge Staffing. That surely was a blessing. Let us keep her in our prayers for this job opportunity to continue. Stopped at Zoe and David's, a few doors from Life Tabernacle. Zoe and Cathy Maldonado (who lives right next to LTC) came to church Sunday. We talked a little about that. Zoe was quite intimidated by our speaking in tongues. She very much enjoyed the prayers, the worship service and preaching Sunday. Cathy and Zoe have a funeral home viewing tomorrow night, but plan on being at church on Sunday. David has skin cancer behind his ear and a number of tumors all over his head. He needs surgery. They can use our continued prayers. Talked and prayed with lots of people all up and down the street. Talked with seve...

Hello All, Last night was our monthly prayer walk. The first Saturday evening of each month we gather walk with candles, pray and talk with people on the streets. Many people have been so very busy with preparations for our Vacation Bible School which starts tomorrow, etc. that this was one of the smallest gatherings we've had. It was Brother & Sister Warren, their two boys, and myself last night. This night began our 6th year of prayer walks. August of 2003 was our first evening of men's prayer. Our beginning evening, a group of us prayed all night and as dawn broke there were maybe maybe 6 or 8 of us who headed down to Main Street and walked from the Post Office to the North Main Street bridge. I cannot remember whether the 10 Commandments monument had been moved from in front of the courthouse to its present North Main Street location by this time or not. But in any case, we walked and prayed this early morning for the city of Elkhart It was a wonderful night. W...

Marion/Harrison Street Neighborhood We had another great night tonight. Terry Wallin, Melissa Wolfinger, and I walked and prayed tonight. Another long night on Marion Street. We were praying with people and talking with people on Marion street for well over two hours. It was well after 9 p.m. before we finished tonight. As usual our first stop was with cigar Bob. We had a wonderful time of conversation with Bob. He was born March 22, 1921. He's 87 years old. I asked him if he were baptized and he said yes he's pretty sure he was baptized when he was 14 years old in a church in Goshen located at the corner of Main and Middlebury street. That kept us guessing for a while. We thought he was talking about Elkhart. He doesn't have too good of a recollection of it, but he remembers being dunked under the water in church when he was 14. We thought it pretty safe it was either a baptism or he took a bath at the church. He went on and on about the county fair. He used t...

Marion/Harrison Street Another wonderful night of praying on the streets of Elkhart. . . It was such a wonderful night. . .Are you getting bored with my saying that over and over? I don't mean it was a nice night or a merely good night. . . It was a wonderful. . . a wonder filled night. . .I try to share the happenings on these prayer walks with you, but I cannot do the wonder and power of it justice. . .a voice of doubt in my head asks what is the point of writing virtually the same things over and over week after week, but it is so amazing to me. . .I have to share it. . . this is to bring Glory to God. . .to lift Him up. . . Melissa Wolfinger, Marvin (a fellow who has only been coming to Life Tabernacle for a few weeks), and I walked and prayed tonight. It was such a full night. We took way longer than we ever usually do. After nearly 2 1/2 hours we were still on Marion Street. We talked with and prayed with just so many people. . . hundreds of Bible verse cards. . . hundred...