Day 2

the homeless church

our own leader, Daniel, playing the violin at the homeless church

out to dinner in the Tenderloin District as a group
Day 2 (Sunday)

We were told to go out and invite people to church. Well, you guys probably don't know this, but for as outgoing as I am evangelism is definitely not my strong suit, but I took to this quite well. I went out with my group of 4, Kristin, Micaiah, and Stephen, and myself. and we started inviting the homeless people we ran into to church. The first gentleman I spoke with was Felix. He brought me to tears, luckily Stephen was there to help me hold it together, but the three of us started talking about God, and how he loves everyone, and how great His love is for us, and he was saying that he would take our flyer as a reminder, and one day he may just go in there, but not today, because right then he was partially drunk, and about to go score, and he did not think he was worthy of God's love, but he thought that one day he may be. So I gave him a hug, and my group continued on its way. We talked to many people that morning, and handed out all of our flyers, and one man we even bought breakfast for. Then we headed back to church and did bible study. One gentleman I was sitting next to was holding a green flyer, and so I asked him if this was his first time, and he said yes, and I told him it was my first time there too. We shook hands and introduced ourselves, his name was Ron. Then we split into groups for bible study, and the college group(my group) went down stairs. We talked about Jonah, and how he didnt want to give the message to the people God told him to give it to, and looking back now I realize the weight that message actually carried, because it helped up to not think about who we were preaching to, but why we were doing it. Then we went upstairs for Church, and Ron had left, which made me sad, but then he came in right before the service started, I was so excited to see the flyers actually worked. We met many people that morning, and several of them we interacted with later in the week, such as Kelly, Diana, and G. Then after we cleaned up and had lunch we headed out to the Homeless church. We got there and essentially it was corner preaching. It was 4 men, singing,playing music, and preaching a message, on a corner that is the center for drugs, homeless, and gangs. The men leading it were former drug dealers, and homeless men that have changed their ways and started a church. There were many many people there, and many people that stopped by too. We were there to talk and sing, and then after the service we handed out socks, and served meals, and then conversed with these people. One gentleman I talked with was asking many questions,and telling my friend Kelli, and I how he didnt want to drink any more, and how he wanted to start going to church regularly, and he wanted to be able to provide for his family. So I took him over to the pastor, and I just pray that they were able to work everything out, and that he will sincerely attempt to do those things. Then we ventured into the Tenderloin district for dinner, where we were stopped by police officiers asking us why we were there (thinking we were merely tourists who had wondered into the wrong part of town) and so we told them we were having dinner, and they told us that we should leave right after dinner, and not be there after dark. It was sad, and a little scary to witness this. Then that night some of the group went to Mitchells again, but I went with a few people to get starbucks and this was the end of Day 2.

xoxo,

josslynn nicole