Night Strike Friday November 6, 2009
Night Strikes are on the first and third Fridays of the month for November and December.
Despite the threat of rain we had a rather beautiful evening in the city. Our youngest son had a sleep over party to go to so that freed up Lisa to come out on the streets with us. Diana came out with us and so did Matt’s friend Brandon. We had a full carload going out to San Francisco last night. A long time family friend from church, Marty Walker, gave us old blankets, clothes and thermal socks to hand out. So we arrived on the scene at the UN Plaza with bags of goods to handout to God’s people on the streets.
We had a pretty good turnout for being an off night from the usual Night Strike schedule. Mark Neitz, brought Rolf and Morgan. Jason and Becka and Sam were out. Elyssa and Leah as we as Forrest and Ellen from Vacaville. And not to forget, Shulu, too. The teams were pretty much easy to divide up, since there weren’t large numbers, as was last Night Strike. Ellen and Forrest led a team onto Market Street. Jason and Becka led a team to the Tenderloin District. I was freed up with the opportunity to go with Elyssa on her route. So our carload of people went out with Elyssa. Leah stayed behind at the plaza, with Morgan, to worship and keep an open heaven for the teams out on the streets.
Rolf and Mark needed to drive to SFX to pickup a gentleman from Glasgow, Scotland, named Alan McWilliams, from the Church of Scotland. Alan was attending a conference at Bethel Redding this week and wanted to come experience a Night Strike.
Every now and then it’s a blessing to have small number groups so team leaders can be team members on other peoples teams. Sometimes I fill in for Elyssa and Leah so I like going out with them on their routes with them. It keeps a nice continuity if the people on the streets recognize us and associate us as Night Strike members if I need to fill in and lead this route. Which happens every now and then.
One place we stopped to pray early on in our walk on our route was with two homeless men in a doorway. Mike and Belise were there names. We prayed over Mike and then turned to pray over Belise. Brandon and Matt prayed over and blessed Belise. As Matt and Brandon prayed, God gave me the word, cancer, about Belise and then I felt stomach discomfort. I told God I didn’t know how to convey the cancer part. We just blessed Belise and that would be a MAJOR downer.
I turned to look at Elyssa, who was standing by me, and asked her if she was feeling anything or of it God was telling her something. She acknowledged she was. So I figured I better do something. I ran with the stomach pains approach and asked Belise if he was having issues with his stomach. He gave the team a puzzled look, the how did you know that look, and affirmed he was having a horrible time with his stomach he had the flu.
Matt, Brandon and I prayed over Belise and commanded healing and order into the gastro-intestinal tract and his digestive system. As we finished up praying for healing, Belise asks us to pray for healing for his liver cancer. There is the cancer. We prayed again over Belise for healing and the cancer to dissolve and leave his body.
We were still way too early in timing for the evening to have divine appointments with the prostitutes in the area. They weren’t out yet. Elyssa led us to see a her friend Ken, a homeless man on the streets. Lisa and I first met Ken about a year ago with a word of knowledge. Back when this happened, I got this overwhelming sensation that Ken needed to call his mother. I turned to Lisa and said are you picking up on a family member? Lisa, said yes, his mother. Wonder marriage powers activate! I turned back to Ken and shared with him that there was an issue between he and his mom. His mother wanted him to call home and talk with her. Ken looked at me and was about to cry. God was sending a message to Ken we felt that. It was a message that shook Ken and he grabbed my arm to lead me off to the side of everyone else and he asked me how I knew all about his mother. I told him Jesus wanted you to receive that message. He was getting teary eyed and I left the message at that.
Pretty much most of us in the group had encounters with Ken in one form or another. Elyssa has built up a friendly relationship with Ken wrapped around a basketball grudge match that may or may not eve happen. We spent some time lifting up Ken’s spirits.
Afterwards we extended our route a little bit to walk to enter other neighborhoods. The time wasn’t right for the prostitutes to be out on the streets. So we walked and ministered. Until we felt it was time to head over and start ministry.
The continuity, I mentioned previously, is important because Elyssa and Leah witness to the prostitutes on the streets. There has been a lot of work by Leah and Elyssa in spending the time to talk with these people and having engage in a conversation. It isn’t easy for a Christian to walk up to a prostitute and start talking with them. They can see us coming a mile away. A year ago none of these people would even talk with me. I remember one prostitute used this line on me about a year ago, “ I am too sexy for Jesus!” And I responded, “well, no, Jesus made you sexy.” I remember the prostitute gave me the weirdest look. It was funny. Well, now I have had some conversations with this prostitute and even had the opportunity to give her prophetic word. Based on the work put into this route by the dedication of Elyssa and Leah, we have an open heaven to take with these people. As long as they know us and recognize us.
Lisa and Elyssa initially broke off from our group to walk over and get a feel of the street. A few prostitutes were out and Elyssa wanted to see if the time was right to approach and talk to them. I noticed the prostitute, “who was too sexy” was there and I was hoping for a chance to speak with her. Every now and then I have had favor to speak prophetically to her.
Meanwhile, I hung back with our crew by a store. Diana and I stayed back with Brandon. There was a little bit of activity we weren’t sure of going on in front of the store. And I kept an eye on this in the event I had to pull the team out and leave. As we held back, a young woman named Tunisia stopped and asked Diana for some money for tampons. We don’t give out money on the streets. Ever it’s a safety issue for us to set us up to get robbed. And the people here will lie and use the money for drugs. I was intrigued by the boldness of Tunisia. I asked Tunisia if it would be all right if I walk into the store with her and buy the tampons. She agreed. She was desperate and embarrassed. I knew this was a divine appointment by God. God does have a sense of humor with me. But I have worked with the Father enough to read through the initial humor and that this was a divine appointment. Tunisia was embarrassed and grabbed the tampons and showed them to the storeowner and pointed to me in line that I was paying for them and she left!
Whoops! There goes my divine appointment. I was left in line.
I paid for the item and then left the store and found Tunisia out front waiting for me. She was embarrassed but still wanted to thank me. I told her Jesus bought those for you! OK. That sounds incredibly lame. That was it. That was my divine moment? Nothing more happened and we parted ways.
Diana asked me I was going to be bold enough to write up the tampon testimony so there it is. But that wasn’t God’s divine appointment with Tunisia he was setting it up. Back with Diana, Matt and Brandon, our two team members, Elyssa and Lisa returned from their expedition. As they returned I noticed a woman on the streets I knew and had been taking with a couple of times previously. The one woman, who I hoped to speak with, the “too sexy for jesus” prostitute already moved on.
By this time, Mark Neitz, Morgan Bigelow, and Alan from Scotland, had made their way to meet up with Elyssa’s crew.
I excused myself from my wife Lisa and told her I needed to go talk to a hooker. Lisa just rolled her eyes. You know that eye roll that only married women can give their husbands for saying something incredibly lame. Lisa stayed behind with Matt and Brandon, as I strolled over to drum up conversation with a transvestite prostitute I speak with occasionally on the streets. She recognized me and I introduced myself this time and she gave me her name. This again is favor! I was getting expletives cursed my way back last winter when I tried to engage in conversation with some of these prostitutes. Last night, I had a conversation with this one prostitute and she told me she prayed to Jesus. And I prayed with her quickly for protection on the streets.
Time was getting late for us and we needed to head back. We walked past several prostitutes and greeted them and blessed them as we departed. On our way back we had another divine encounter with an incredible man named Rodney, who was peddling his Street Sheet newspaper. God starting sharing with me that this man had visions and dreams. I turned to Brandon and told him to ask God about Rodney. Brandon said he was getting the word creative. As Brandon and I were listening to God, Rodney started quoting scripture. I believe it was from 1 Corinthians. I wish I remembered the exact scripture but I can’t remember any verse at the moment. Then God gave me a word that Rodney’s father passed away and that his life had been hard because of his father. I asked Rodney if his father was dead and if his father was hard on him. Rodney gave me that puzzled stare you get when the prophetic hit a bull’s eye. Rodney asked, “How did you know my father was dead?” I told him Jesus was sharing things right now. And then I asked him if his father was rough on him. I get the words things were rough because of your father. Rodney answered, “Things were rough, because my father was never there for me.” We spent some time ministering with Rodney and our crew prayed and talked for some time here.
As we were witnessing to Rodney, I looked over my shoulder and saw Elyssa taking with a woman. It was Tunisia! I removed myself from the conversation with Rodney, a bunch of other people were engaged with him from our team. OK. God this is the divine appointment. I walked over to Elyssa to speak with Tunisia. She smiled at me with an embarrassed blush. God gave me a word she was a writer. I shared that with Tunisia. The word bless past her embarrassment from the previous encounter and opened her up for witnessing and a divine encounter. Tunisia shared with us she likes to write stories and thinks about writing all the time only she doesn’t have the time. And she really wanted to get a voice recorder to record all her thoughts for writing later. I told her Jesus wanted her know that he gave her the gift to write. Then Tunisia shared with us that she didn’t believe Jesus was the son of God –but he was only a man. She had a Jehovah witness up bringing, that Lisa, Elyssa and I surmised about her. Now I know why the Holy Spirit kept having me tell Jess bought these for you. Jesus gave you a gift. Jesus is working over time calling Tunisia home. Lisa gave Tunisia a prophetic word that she was dreamer and had dreams. Very cool experience, God was just revealing himself to Tunisia tonight. I think she had some questions from this evening that only her and Jesus could discuss. If Jesus is only a man than how could these people know things about her. People she never met. And Jesus met her simplest needs. Literally!
We returned back with our group and met up with the other returning teams. I had the pleasure to meet up with my homeless friend and passionate minister of God, Dennis Hitchcock. The man is a walking testimony let me tell you. Dennis shared with me that he just got back from the Castro and was preaching there on a street corner for the past 20 minutes. This man is a foot soldier for Jesus. I have been praying for when the time is right to go into the Castro for ministry and Dennis is already there.
That’s it for our Night Strike ministry report for Friday, November 6, 2009.
Despite the threat of rain we had a rather beautiful evening in the city. Our youngest son had a sleep over party to go to so that freed up Lisa to come out on the streets with us. Diana came out with us and so did Matt’s friend Brandon. We had a full carload going out to San Francisco last night. A long time family friend from church, Marty Walker, gave us old blankets, clothes and thermal socks to hand out. So we arrived on the scene at the UN Plaza with bags of goods to handout to God’s people on the streets.
We had a pretty good turnout for being an off night from the usual Night Strike schedule. Mark Neitz, brought Rolf and Morgan. Jason and Becka and Sam were out. Elyssa and Leah as we as Forrest and Ellen from Vacaville. And not to forget, Shulu, too. The teams were pretty much easy to divide up, since there weren’t large numbers, as was last Night Strike. Ellen and Forrest led a team onto Market Street. Jason and Becka led a team to the Tenderloin District. I was freed up with the opportunity to go with Elyssa on her route. So our carload of people went out with Elyssa. Leah stayed behind at the plaza, with Morgan, to worship and keep an open heaven for the teams out on the streets.
Rolf and Mark needed to drive to SFX to pickup a gentleman from Glasgow, Scotland, named Alan McWilliams, from the Church of Scotland. Alan was attending a conference at Bethel Redding this week and wanted to come experience a Night Strike.
Every now and then it’s a blessing to have small number groups so team leaders can be team members on other peoples teams. Sometimes I fill in for Elyssa and Leah so I like going out with them on their routes with them. It keeps a nice continuity if the people on the streets recognize us and associate us as Night Strike members if I need to fill in and lead this route. Which happens every now and then.
One place we stopped to pray early on in our walk on our route was with two homeless men in a doorway. Mike and Belise were there names. We prayed over Mike and then turned to pray over Belise. Brandon and Matt prayed over and blessed Belise. As Matt and Brandon prayed, God gave me the word, cancer, about Belise and then I felt stomach discomfort. I told God I didn’t know how to convey the cancer part. We just blessed Belise and that would be a MAJOR downer.
I turned to look at Elyssa, who was standing by me, and asked her if she was feeling anything or of it God was telling her something. She acknowledged she was. So I figured I better do something. I ran with the stomach pains approach and asked Belise if he was having issues with his stomach. He gave the team a puzzled look, the how did you know that look, and affirmed he was having a horrible time with his stomach he had the flu.
Matt, Brandon and I prayed over Belise and commanded healing and order into the gastro-intestinal tract and his digestive system. As we finished up praying for healing, Belise asks us to pray for healing for his liver cancer. There is the cancer. We prayed again over Belise for healing and the cancer to dissolve and leave his body.
We were still way too early in timing for the evening to have divine appointments with the prostitutes in the area. They weren’t out yet. Elyssa led us to see a her friend Ken, a homeless man on the streets. Lisa and I first met Ken about a year ago with a word of knowledge. Back when this happened, I got this overwhelming sensation that Ken needed to call his mother. I turned to Lisa and said are you picking up on a family member? Lisa, said yes, his mother. Wonder marriage powers activate! I turned back to Ken and shared with him that there was an issue between he and his mom. His mother wanted him to call home and talk with her. Ken looked at me and was about to cry. God was sending a message to Ken we felt that. It was a message that shook Ken and he grabbed my arm to lead me off to the side of everyone else and he asked me how I knew all about his mother. I told him Jesus wanted you to receive that message. He was getting teary eyed and I left the message at that.
Pretty much most of us in the group had encounters with Ken in one form or another. Elyssa has built up a friendly relationship with Ken wrapped around a basketball grudge match that may or may not eve happen. We spent some time lifting up Ken’s spirits.
Afterwards we extended our route a little bit to walk to enter other neighborhoods. The time wasn’t right for the prostitutes to be out on the streets. So we walked and ministered. Until we felt it was time to head over and start ministry.
The continuity, I mentioned previously, is important because Elyssa and Leah witness to the prostitutes on the streets. There has been a lot of work by Leah and Elyssa in spending the time to talk with these people and having engage in a conversation. It isn’t easy for a Christian to walk up to a prostitute and start talking with them. They can see us coming a mile away. A year ago none of these people would even talk with me. I remember one prostitute used this line on me about a year ago, “ I am too sexy for Jesus!” And I responded, “well, no, Jesus made you sexy.” I remember the prostitute gave me the weirdest look. It was funny. Well, now I have had some conversations with this prostitute and even had the opportunity to give her prophetic word. Based on the work put into this route by the dedication of Elyssa and Leah, we have an open heaven to take with these people. As long as they know us and recognize us.
Lisa and Elyssa initially broke off from our group to walk over and get a feel of the street. A few prostitutes were out and Elyssa wanted to see if the time was right to approach and talk to them. I noticed the prostitute, “who was too sexy” was there and I was hoping for a chance to speak with her. Every now and then I have had favor to speak prophetically to her.
Meanwhile, I hung back with our crew by a store. Diana and I stayed back with Brandon. There was a little bit of activity we weren’t sure of going on in front of the store. And I kept an eye on this in the event I had to pull the team out and leave. As we held back, a young woman named Tunisia
Whoops! There goes my divine appointment. I was left in line.
I paid for the item and then left the store and found Tunisia out front waiting for me. She was embarrassed but still wanted to thank me. I told her Jesus bought those for you! OK. That sounds incredibly lame. That was it. That was my divine moment? Nothing more happened and we parted ways.
Diana asked me I was going to be bold enough to write up the tampon testimony so there it is. But that wasn’t God’s divine appointment with Tunisia he was setting it up. Back with Diana, Matt and Brandon, our two team members, Elyssa and Lisa returned from their expedition. As they returned I noticed a woman on the streets I knew and had been taking with a couple of times previously. The one woman, who I hoped to speak with, the “too sexy for jesus” prostitute already moved on.
By this time, Mark Neitz, Morgan Bigelow, and Alan from Scotland, had made their way to meet up with Elyssa’s crew.
I excused myself from my wife Lisa and told her I needed to go talk to a hooker. Lisa just rolled her eyes. You know that eye roll that only married women can give their husbands for saying something incredibly lame. Lisa stayed behind with Matt and Brandon, as I strolled over to drum up conversation with a transvestite prostitute I speak with occasionally on the streets. She recognized me and I introduced myself this time and she gave me her name. This again is favor! I was getting expletives cursed my way back last winter when I tried to engage in conversation with some of these prostitutes. Last night, I had a conversation with this one prostitute and she told me she prayed to Jesus. And I prayed with her quickly for protection on the streets.
Time was getting late for us and we needed to head back. We walked past several prostitutes and greeted them and blessed them as we departed. On our way back we had another divine encounter with an incredible man named Rodney, who was peddling his Street Sheet newspaper. God starting sharing with me that this man had visions and dreams. I turned to Brandon and told him to ask God about Rodney. Brandon said he was getting the word creative. As Brandon and I were listening to God, Rodney started quoting scripture. I believe it was from 1 Corinthians. I wish I remembered the exact scripture but I can’t remember any verse at the moment. Then God gave me a word that Rodney’s father passed away and that his life had been hard because of his father. I asked Rodney if his father was dead and if his father was hard on him. Rodney gave me that puzzled stare you get when the prophetic hit a bull’s eye. Rodney asked, “How did you know my father was dead?” I told him Jesus was sharing things right now. And then I asked him if his father was rough on him. I get the words things were rough because of your father. Rodney answered, “Things were rough, because my father was never there for me.” We spent some time ministering with Rodney and our crew prayed and talked for some time here.
As we were witnessing to Rodney, I looked over my shoulder and saw Elyssa taking with a woman. It was Tunisia! I removed myself from the conversation with Rodney, a bunch of other people were engaged with him from our team. OK. God this is the divine appointment. I walked over to Elyssa to speak with Tunisia. She smiled at me with an embarrassed blush. God gave me a word she was a writer. I shared that with Tunisia. The word bless past her embarrassment from the previous encounter and opened her up for witnessing and a divine encounter. Tunisia shared with us she likes to write stories and thinks about writing all the time only she doesn’t have the time. And she really wanted to get a voice recorder to record all her thoughts for writing later. I told her Jesus wanted her know that he gave her the gift to write. Then Tunisia shared with us that she didn’t believe Jesus was the son of God –but he was only a man. She had a Jehovah witness up bringing, that Lisa, Elyssa and I surmised about her. Now I know why the Holy Spirit kept having me tell Jess bought these for you. Jesus gave you a gift. Jesus is working over time calling Tunisia home. Lisa gave Tunisia a prophetic word that she was dreamer and had dreams. Very cool experience, God was just revealing himself to Tunisia tonight. I think she had some questions from this evening that only her and Jesus could discuss. If Jesus is only a man than how could these people know things about her. People she never met. And Jesus met her simplest needs. Literally!
We returned back with our group and met up with the other returning teams. I had the pleasure to meet up with my homeless friend and passionate minister of God, Dennis Hitchcock. The man is a walking testimony let me tell you. Dennis shared with me that he just got back from the Castro and was preaching there on a street corner for the past 20 minutes. This man is a foot soldier for Jesus. I have been praying for when the time is right to go into the Castro for ministry and Dennis is already there.
That’s it for our Night Strike ministry report for Friday, November 6, 2009.
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