alex and john

here's my craziest encounter from the 48.

i was scheduled on the 2-4am team both friday and saturday nights. on friday night (which was really saturday morning) we were about an hour into our session and ben came downstairs and motioned renee over to pray for him. his legs, more specifically his knees, were aching so bad he hadn't been able to sleep at all that night, and he was scheduled for the 4-6am slot.

i joined renee as she prayed for him, and she felt to pray against witchcraft set against him. we prayed for a little while and he said he felt a tiny bit better, but not much. after a few minutes he decided to get something to eat. since my car was right out front i offered to take him to safeway.

we got to safeway's nifty underground parking and took the elevator up to the store. after wandering around for about 5 minuted we were approached by a very perplexed janitor who informed us that the store had been closed since 1am. by then it was about 3:30. that's when we decided to go to 7eleven.

since it was 3:30am we were able to park right in front of the store, where we were immediately asked for change by an incredibly inebriated homeless man who said he wanted it to get something to eat. i asked him if i could get him something while we were in there. he said a sandwich sounded good.

when i came back out i handed him the sandwich and bottle of water i got him, and by the time i reached my car (a few steps away) i realized this was the same man i had seen outside my church sunday morning. he'd asked me for change to get something to eat and i gave him part of the lunch i'd packed instead. that had lead to a conversation where he told me he'd just come out of the hospital the day before because he'd had a siesure. i had prayed for him and chatted for a minute before heading into church. it wasn't terribly surprising to see him since the 7eleven was only about 5 blocks from where my church meets, but i was still sure this was a divine coincidence.

i walked back over to him from my car and said, "i think i met you last sunday. you were outside my church. i prayed for you." he was really drunk so he didn't remember until later. i asked him if he'd had any more siesures and he said he'd just gotten back out of the hospital the day before. so i asked him his name (which is alex), and if ben and i could pray for him again, and he said yes. i prayed the same kind of prayer i'd prayed last time, that God would show him how much He loved him by freeing him from these siesures. i prayed that he would know God's nearness and love for him.

when i finished praying i told him that God loved him very much, and that i didn't matter what choices we made in life, God never holds them against us. He said he thought God did. i told him that was where the devil came in. i explained that the devil hates God, so he hates us too simply because God loves us. i said that the devil knows if he can convince us that God doesn't love us that it will cause us immense pain throughout our lives. i told him it was a lie that the devil was trying to convince him of, but that the truth is that God loves him deeply.

at that point alex pointed at two little bracelets on his left wrist. they were metal and just small enough to fit around his wrist, but not big enough to get over his hand. i'm not sure how he got them on in the first place. he told us a witch put them on him and told him he couldn't get them off. i told him that God was bigger than those bracelets and what they represent, and that God could take them off of him. i said that he was not obligated to live under the control of that curse, and i asked if i could pray about that. he said yes. so i did.

as i finished praying i told him that God could take those off of him, and that God was going to do it that day. i'm not sure why i said it, but it came out of my mouth. alex said the witch told him they would bring good luck. i asked if they had and he thought about it for a second and said that since he'd had them he'd been to jail, almost been to prison, had lost his home and so on. i said, "sounds like she lied to you, doesn't it?"

at that point ben asked if alex would like him to try to get the bracelets off. he said yes. so ben got down next to him and was able to bend the bracelets back and forth until they broke, then he prayed for him. alex kept saying, "oh...there's gonna be reprocussions" and we kept saying, "no there's not. God made the witch, and He's stronger than her. He'll take care of you".

then alex said he thought God hated him because his leg was crippled. we asked how it happened and he (nice and drunk still) said, "i ran into a truck...or the truck ran into me...i don't remember exactly, but now i have degerative arthritis in my knee." so ben prayed for his knee. after that alex said the witch had said to read the satanic bible, something chapter 13. i told him the satanic bible was a rip-off of the real bible, and that the devil copies God but twists it because he hates God. i told him i would get him a real bible and he could read every chapter 13 in it. he told us the witch had told him God hated him. i said, "she told you the bracelets would bring you good luck too. looks like she lied to you twice!" i told him we would keep praying for him, and when i saw him next i would ask him if he was healed. i said if he wasn't we'd just pray again, and keep doing that whenever God crossed our paths.

somewhere in that 30 or so minutes i also had a brief conversation with a 20-something street kid named john who was with a girl that was tweaking. he'd asked us to keep an eye on her while he got some food for them and their two dogs. when he came out i asked him if she was okay and he looked like he was going to cry with frustration. he said he hated the stuff, but he couldn't get her to stop shooting up, so he just had to make sure nothing happened to her while she was tripped out. it absolutely broke my heart. john had the sweetest countenance of almost anyone i've ever met, and it was so strange to see such a hard appearance so undone by such a sweetness of his person. he told me that they'd been sleeping on the same rooftop for 2½ years and had just that night been kicked off by the police. i told him if they needed anything to look for us in our cheesey 'can we help' shirts and we could get him in touch with any program in the area for any kind of help they wanted. he thanked me and said he'd keep that in mind.

i came away from that adventure both excited and torn apart. my heart so desperately longs for God to just show up. i keep praying, "why don't you just bring Your power and deliver alex, or that girl? God why don't You do it when we all know and belive You can and are watching and waiting for it?" it truly was amazing the way God came back around to touch alex's live again, but i find a deep frustration in my soul that God dosen't do more. it drives me to press in. i can't settle. i still want more.

i trust He sees more of the picture than i do, but i so desperately want people to know how much they matter to Him, how intensely He loves them. but maybe somehow He did, and i just didn't see how significant it truly was because it wasn't a big flash or a neon sign. maybe it was one of a string of events that God is using to show them He's right there with them, covering them with His own hand, showing them that their name is written on His heart. i just have to trust Him and continue to be desperate, and i can't give up.

oh...almost forgot. by the time ben and i got back to the building his knees didn't hurt any more. pretty crazy, eh?