Four Ministers On A Friday Night

Four Ministers On A Friday Night Several months ago, John Dellinger had said that he wanted to spend the night on the streets some time. The idea sounded cool, but with the busy tour schedule we had, it got pushed to the side. Then, last week, Jason Stover called John and said we should just do it that Friday. So, John called JR Cook and me abut it and it was a done deal. Our brother Marion Karr already had a skateboard competition, so he couldn't make it. We weren't sure of what we would accomplish by being on the streets, but I packed some bibles and some of our fliers in my backpack just in case we met anybody. We thought that maybe we would have the chance to minister to some of the area's homelss, but actually didn't cross paths with any the whole time we were out there. We started out at the JR's Discount parking lot and walked up to CiCi's pizza and met John's friend Paul who had helped John out with some of his Journey Ministry meetings in the past. Then we walked over to BiLo and met another of his friends, Amber. ( She showed up at our tour event the next night thanks to our visit.) We made the long walk into downtown Statesvill fom there. We ended up stopping on the benches outside of The Second Fret Coffeehouse. They had a blues band playing inside that we could hear from where we sat. A few ladies who had been joining the festivities inside wandered outside to smoke and bgan talking to us. It was easy to tell that they had had more than a few drinks as they spoke. After a few minutes, they wondered back inside and we started with the stories of our days of drinking and partying and being surprised we had made it through them to be where we are now. We then walked around town some more and ended up at the Upper Room Christian Coffeehouse. It's been in Statesville a long time and gives teens a safe place to hang out on the weekends. They have a policy that if you don't have the money to get in, if you'll let them minister to you for 5 minutes, they'll allow you in. So, we took that route and sat down for some Word. After John and JR shot a game of pool, we were on the streets again. We noticed while we were there, that there was prbably a dozen teens inside listening to the praise n worship singer, but there was about 2 or 3 dozen outside on the street acting very ungodly. I don't think it was any fault of the ministry there though. I think they've got a great idea, but sometimes the best of intentions just don't work out the way you think they would. At this time, we started the long walk to the Waffle House. When we sat down, as usual, John began to pick with the waitress a bit and you could tell by the look on her fce that she was thinking "Oh great; a group of clowns in the middle of the night". She was a little short with us while taking our order, but after she saw us pray over our food, she took on a whole new attitude with us and began joking and talking with us the rest of the time we were there. I told JR to hand me my backpack and I left her a bible with our fliers stuck in it on the table with her tip. I felt like that even if nothing happened the rest of the night, we had showed Jesus to at least one person and it made the entire night worth it. So, we started out again and headed toward the Wal-Mart shopping center. Along the way, we crossed under a bridge where I mis-stepped on some rocks and hurt my right foot. IT STILL HURTS AND JOHN IS STILL MAKING FUN OF IT. Anyway, after a pitstop at the Wal-Mart restrooms, we hit this path that goes under I-77 and through the woods that divide the city in half. The homeless are about the only people who use it. So we ended up going on a hike in the middle of th city at night with cellphones as our only light. We had to walk across sewer pipes to cross creeks and at times, hunt down which way the path went. While on our hike, we came to a spot where the county workers had cut up some trees into logs which we used for seats. We sat down and got into all the things going on in our lives and the lives of those around us. We talked about where we were in our walk with God, about how the tour had been going, where we'd like it to go in the future and about what the tour and our brotherhood had meant to us. After we started moving again, we kind of wondered if it had been like this for the first apostles traveling like this with Jesus. Some serious thoughts and some humorous. One thing that struck us, was that when we entered the woods, one of us said that we needed the Light of Jesus to light our way. The bright light of the moon lit up our path the entire night! No, we didn't minister to any homeless. Yes, we did mnister to one person by simply acting as a Christian should act. We did see some things in the city that were working and we saw some that didn't quite do so. We definitely did get to minister to each other, and I myself, go to go on the spiritual journey that I had written about needing a while back. So, we didn't make any huge waves in the ocean that is Christianity, but we did make some ripples in the stream. Your brother in Christ, Pete. Pete 11-10-09