Pensacola Street Revival!: UNDER THE BRIDGE: One For All, And All For One!

Since this blog is being read in about 30 countries, we are greeting one country every time a post is written. This week we say, “Hello to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, and may The Lord Jesus Christ keep you safe and bless you richly.”

Привіт наших українських братів і сестер, і може Господа Ісуса Христа, тримати вас у безпеці і благословить вас рясно.

(I worked all night on this translation. I hope I got it right!)

John the Hugger (Left) and Paul the Chip Man (R) fellowship in the Florida sunshine

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Kim, one of our avid blog followers, asked me, “Jean-Luc.”

“Yes Kim.”

“Were you out ministering last Sunday (Nov. 2)?”

“Yes, we were. Why?”

“I didn’t see a post in your blog about it.”

“I know this is a blog about homeless reality, but on that day it became too realistic! After all, this is a Christian blog on which I try to report upbeat stories. Last Sunday’s events were meant to remain between me and the homeless involved.”

As I ministered last Sunday, most stories were a little too “raw” to include in this blog. I don’t include stories about homeless sexuality, homosexuality (which the homeless don’t tolerate in their camp), fights and crimes (which may incriminate someone), traumatic emotional events, or conversations which were entrusted to me as I ministered to them in the position of pastor.

Sometimes we just have days that don’t work out. Everyone might be cranky, or drunk, or upset, or argumentative, or depressed, or moody, or all of the above! And that’s OK. The homeless are as human as YOU are. If writing about an event doesn’t edify, comfort or strengthen my readers, I will not write it.

I respect and honor the dignity of the homeless. Would you want someone to write about all the “skeletons” in your closet for the whole world to read?

If you want to know all of someone’s faults, just ask their enemies. I am not that person.

Having said that, I must tell you that crimes against children are not tolerated by our ministry, and are reported to the proper authorities for immediate action. These are crimes the homeless will not tolerate, either. Praise God.

Keeping in mind what was written above, I do want to share with you the stirring reality of a very few of the many homeless we love and minister to on a weekly basis. I have other posts on this blog which have covered some more of the “reality” of these homeless adventurers. Please check out the other posts for more of their amazing stories which will certainly minister to you.

Gary - homeless by choice!

To write about Gary’s adventures would require my writing a book? He has DRIVEN from Alaska to Panama, in Central America. And, when they let him out of jail, he drove all the way back! I am not going to cover that right now. I could listen to Gary’s adventures for hours on end – and he loves to tell them.

Today, he is talking about preparations he is making to drive from Key West, Florida, at mile marker “0,” to mile marker “0” at Dead Horse Bay, on the Arctic Ocean in Alaska – a drive of about 12,000 miles (including stops to visit old friends)!

Gary tells me that he is homeless by choice. He now has a very nice van which is well equipped, though he and a friend are getting a new, diesel, 4-wheel drive van for this special trip. Gary has lived in Alaska, working as a fisherman for years. He was homeless at that time, also, making his home in a tent on a rocky beach just out of town.

Today, he tells me about a drive he and his wife took to Mexico City about thirty years ago. It was winter time, with freezing weather, when they got lost and ended up in the “bad” part of town at night. As he was driving a narrow street, he noticed to his right a young girl huddled against a doorway of a dilapidated building for protection from the cold wind. She was dressed with a light blouse and a very short skirt. Slowly driving by, he noticed that she did not have any hands!

He and his wife immediately stopped. He got out of his car, walked up to the young girl and gave her a twenty dollar bill for her to find a place to stay and get out of the cold weather. When they got back in the car, he looked in the rearview mirror to see the girl walking away to find warmer shelter.

As she walked past the opening of an alley, several young men came out to meet her. They fought with her to get the money she was clutching tightly to her chest. She wrestled free from them and hopelessly ran a few steps in her bare feet before they caught up with her and proceeded to punch and kick her, stealing her twenty dollar bill.

Seething with the injustice of this impossible sight, Gary got out of his car to walk back to the young girl. Before he reached the girl, a police car quickly approached and came to a screeching stop between him and the young girl sitting in the street, crying.

The policeman came out of his car and yelled at him that as a tourist, he did not belong in this part of town, and threatening him, told him that he needed to leave immediately. Gary reluctantly walked back to his car and slowly started to drive away. About a short half a block away, he looked up in his rearview mirror to see the police car driving away, leaving the scantily dressed, barefoot young girl sitting on the cold cobblestone street, crying.

She didn't have any hands, and she was barefoot...

Having been transported thirty years into the past while telling me this story, Gary, distantly gazing through me, said, “Man, she didn’t have any hands and she was barefoot. It was so cold.” Gary is seventy-one years old.

Kojak, "The dog ate my sleeping bag!"

Kojak is a very scarred individual – that is, he falls on hard surfaces when drunk and suffers bruises and/or cuts which leave scars on various aspects of his anatomy. Not long ago he fell on the rocks which he had to cross to get to his camp for the night. He got all cut up and broke a couple of ribs which left him in pain and with difficulty breathing for a couple of weeks. Of course, he gets picked on for such carelessness.

Today, he has a different kind of problem. “Jean-Luc?”

“Yea, Kojak.”

“I need a sleeping bag,” he asks, knowing that thirty degree weather is coming at the end of the week.

“I thought you had one.”

“The dog ate it!”

“What?”

“Brianna (the dog) chewed it so bad, the bag has holes all over it!”

Everybody loves Kojak (except when he doesn’t wear deodorant!). Who doesn’t love a bartender – which he was for a number of years? If you want to know a good joke – ask Kojak.

So I answer him, “I’ll see what I can do, Kojak.”

Chris - Swashbuckling keeper of the peace!

If Kojak is the bartender, Chris is the club bouncer; the “peace-keeper.” He is the swashbuckling “Guardian-of-the-Galaxy” type of guy! Yep, you guessed it – he gets bruised and cut, and is also scarred, but the camp is safer by him. But today, his bruise has a different origin – he pulled a Kojak! But how does he get so hurt by drinking? Well, he might have kissed the pavement. Or, maybe, someone threw a bridge at him and he didn’t duck in time!

Mari also has a bruise on her upper lip. What? Is this type of bruising contagious? Maybe they’re all drinking from the same bottle of beer!

However, Mari’s problem comes from the most common source of serious accidents amongst the homeless – riding a bicycle while intoxicated; an RUI! She’s not only bruised, but she also lost one of her precious front tooth; sheared right at the gum line (or maybe it’s “teeth”). She won’t really talk to me about it because she knows I’ll lay hands on her and pray for her!

“Chris, what happened?”

“Well…Mari and I have a big problem with concrete!”

Chris, “Guardian of the Galaxy,” and Princess Mari (with one i)
– the only thing they fear is…concrete!

I will petition the city council to remove all concrete where the homeless congregate. What happened to those good, old-fashioned, wood boardwalks, anyhow?

Hey, Jack, I thought you said you got a haircut?

“Jack, when did you get your haircut?”

“I got it at the Veterans ‘Stand Down’ giveaway.”

That is the day the VA gives out many things to the homeless veterans who are able to show up – sleeping bags, backpacks, clothes, supplies, medical and dental checkups, and…haircuts.

“They asked me when I got my last haircut. I told them, exactly a year ago. When they asked me where, I told them right here, in that very same chair I’m sitting in today. And before that, it was a year before …yep…you guessed it…in that very same chair.” The VA “Stand Down” is held every year.

Without any further prompting, Jack started telling us about one of the many ways God has blessed him.

He tells us that he was walking in town one weekend when they were having a footrace. He stood on the corner of the street when he notice a 100 dollar bill in the street in front of him! But just then, hundreds of runners came through with not one of them noticing it. As soon as most of them had gone by, our man Jack on-the-spot, boldly stepped in the street and quickly took unchallenged ownership of a 100 dollar bill.

Can you imagine his excitement? So, Jack went straight to McDonald’s and had himself a good meal. On the way out, he says he distinctly heard the Lord speak to his heart to now share that money with someone else.

As he was walking down the street wondering what the Lord meant, he came upon a man sitting by the sidewalk looking rather haggard. Jack knew by that man’s shaking that the small shot bottle laying by his side had just not been enough.

“Why didn’t you get a bigger bottle?” Jack asked him.

“Don’t have no more money,” was the answer.

So Jack reached in his pocket and gave the man a five dollar bill, saying, “Here, go get yourself a pint.”

About two months later, Jack, who collects aluminum cans for money, went into a store only to find he had not collected enough cans that day to buy himself a substantial drink. The store was too dark, and he was fumbling through the shot bottles looking for his “flavor” when a man approached him and said, “Not enough money for a drink?” as he handed Jack a five dollar bill. It was the same man to whom Jack had given a five dollar bill a couple months before!

“Well, Jean-Luc, I must admit – a man reaps what he sows no matter where he’s at, uh?

John - In a wheelchair yesterday, walking today!

I could tell you the story of John who now has a leg prosthesis rather than a wheelchair (see blog dated 8/11, The Lazarus Issue). Paul made an appointment with the prosthesis expert, I took him to his appointment, and Medicaid paid for it. John now walks with hardly a limp!

John, "Soon, I'm gonna be able to run. I want you to take a picture of that!"

Chris and Mouse are a miracle!

There are stories, and then there are miracles. Chris, who doesn’t drink, but loves his laptop video games, lost Mouse (his smiling, lovable Pit Bull) one Thursday, a couple of weeks ago. Mouse slipped his harness and took off. Chris prayed to the Lord that He would bring Mouse back to him. This was the first time Chris had prayed to Jesus. He gave the Lord one week – until the next Friday – to bring Mouse back before he looked for another dog.

Chris agonized at the loss of his “best friend” for the whole week. He had had Mouse for the past three years. They were inseparable. Everyone in downtown Pensacola knew Mouse, the gentle Pit Bull. Many people prayed for Mouse to return...adds were put in the lost and found…someone offered a $100 dollar reward…all to no avail.

I will make a long story short because as God would have it, He sent Mouse back to Chris at 9:30 that Friday morning. I was there that Friday morning after Mouse came back to Chris.

Chris, "It was the first time I prayed!"

Chris told me, “Right after God sent Mouse back to me I sat here on this park bench and I looked over there, right across from me, where the wind blew a twenty dollar bill on the ground - which I picked up!” Chris gave the glory to God.

Is God good or what?

There are more;