His arm is not to short to save…
God has been speaking to us and guiding us with the book of Isaiah all week long. Saturday our reading from Isaiah was chapter 58 which talks about God’s heart for the poor, hungry, homeless, and oppressed and the specific promises to his people who will embody his heart of love for these marginalized people. So after our morning worship time together, concluding that God was calling us through this Scriptures to intentionally love on the poor and marginalized, we sent a crew to Sam’s to buy food and water, loaded up in vans and went out to seek to be a blessing in some way to the marginalized. Below is the account of what happened, it is quite incredible:
One group of students while praying and listening to the Lord got a specific word of knowledge of a man named Robert that would be under a bridge and had arthritis. So they went to the nearest bridge that they knew of and guess what they found. Under that I-10 bridge was a man living in his truck named Robert and yes he had arthritis in his right shoulder. The group was blown away and so was the man when they showed him the paper that had the specific details already written on it. They put together a care package of food, bug spray, sunscreen, a Bible, and some other things that would be a blessing to him. He was so thankful and the group was able to pray with him and share Jesus with him.
While this group was with Robert another group was led to a man named Jimmy who was also homeless. Jimmy was thankful for the water and food, and even more thankful for the students sticking around to just talk with him. Seeing that the students were genuine people that really loved Jesus and people, Jimmy directed them to secret homeless camp where they could find a group of homeless poor who they could love on.
Also, earlier in the day, one of the teenage boys of the Moss Bluff Church felt like God put on his heart the name Keith, amnesia, and Isaiah 59:1. (Side note: the people of the Moss Bluff Church have been getting discipled in hearing God, praying for the sick, and sharing the gospel all week by our students and this was great fruit in this teenagers life!).
We dropped off the girls at a battered women and children’s shelter where they were going to hang out with and minister to the women there. The guys all went out to the homeless camp that we had been told about earlier in the day.
The homeless camp was off a dirt road that went way back in the woods. When we arrived and began to walk back into the forest where the camp was, we were met by a not-so-friendly dog running straight towards us that was called off by a woman’s voice just before it reached us. We were surprised by the scene of the camp, it was like a third world country neighborhood that had tents up, trash everywhere, a horrible smell, but two friendly faces that met us. We introduced ourselves to a man named John and a woman named Ruth who were really hospitable and glad to have visitors. We talked for a little while with them and then asked if there were any others with them at the camp. John said there were several others further back in the woods. So he took some of the guys on a hike back into the woods, where about 100 yards back through brush, over train tracks, through the mud and mosquitos, we came upon another camp where 3 homeless men and 1 woman were hanging out shooting the breeze. They welcomed us gladly and so we sat down and began to talk with them. We brought them a couple of cases of water and boxes of chips, which they were very thankful for.
These people were so grateful for us coming to just be with them! After talking with them for a while, playing music for them, and having some good laughs one of the men said, “Who would have thought that God would reach all the way back into the woods to find us” (See Isaiah 59:1). The woman was writing in a spiral, and when asked what she was writing, she said I need a roll call because I am writing an account of the incredible things that have happened just now with yall coming out here.
One of the men named Keith, needed prayer for his feet that were swollen. As we were praying for his feet, he began to get light headed and said he needed to lay down. As soon as we layed him down, he began to have a severe seizure shaking violently on the floor. We had cell phones, so we called 911 as we continued to pray for him as he was shaking. After he stopped shaking our men picked him up to carry him 100 yards back through the woods to where the street was where the ambulance would come. The ambulance came and took the man to the hospital where he could be treated. Had we not been there, they would have had no way to contact help, much less carry him out of the woods cause all the other homeless people were disabled and unable to carry a man that big.
We were in awe of what God did through this whole ordeal. Isaiah 58 says that God cares for the marginalized. We experienced today that if we set our heart to be obedient to the Lord in this and make ourselves totally available to his use, He will lead us right to the places of deepest need in the most remote places at just the right time because “His arm is not to short to save”.
