Finances for ACWW - It's SUPERnatural!

We had an extremely generous donation given to our family for the street ministry a month or so ago. We feel so blessed! I just wanted to say a BIG "THANK YOU" to 'you know who' for that thoughtful gift. As you will see in the photos dispersed through out we were able to get some professional signs made, some snazzy t-shirts for the team, and put the rest of the money to good use in purchasing coolers, containers, supplies, some equipment, breakfast foods, as well as been able to do some really neat things like buy groceries and toiletries for needy families, put gas in a few cars as we were in "as ye go" mode, take care of some people less fortunate in providing material needs they had (school clothes and supplies, etc), and it was a great big thanks to 'you know who' for allowing God to work a huge financial miracle through you. Again, thank you. Be blessed!

Have you ever just been "undone" by the revelation that God really does love you?

This afternoon I was reading a devotional by Patricia King, author of Light Belongs in the Darkness. As I was reading these words I just got so wacked by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) that I thought I would share it with you. Good stuff.....

The Lord is calling you to be filled to overflowing with the power of His love. If you will seek Him daily over the next twelve months for the release of His love in your life, you will be transformed. The power of His love in you will become so strong that everywhere you go, His favor and blessings will come upon you and overtake you. These blessings will be released through you to others. The more you receive of His love, the more you will give out and the more you give out, the more you will receive. As you pursue His love every day by making it your greatest aim, you will know its power. Its power will astound you! It will unlock healing, provision, miracles, supernatural experiences, wisdom, hidden mysteries, and multiplied grace. Every area of your life will come under blessing as you pursue love.

You will actually feel its tangible presence in your midst.
As you daily soak and meditate on His love, its tangible presence will be felt by you and those around you. Some will break down and cry as it will be so strong. Your enemies will want to be your friends. The more you exude love, the more you will find people asking you things like, “What is so different about you? Why do I feel so good around you? What makes you like this?” In many cases, you won’t even say anything, people will just feel it. You will find them looking at you in wonderment. They will be wondering, “What is this tangible power?”

This love will clothe you, deliver you, and bless you
This love will clothe you in humility. It will deliver you from self-consciousness, fear, and pride. This love will make you so soft in your dealings with others and yet it will cause you to be stronger in character than you have ever been before. This love will bring you into great peace and will fill you with compassion beyond anything you could imagine. This love will unlock a generosity in you that when it is released will cause blessing to come back upon you in unimaginable measures. You will even think at times, “I can’t take any more blessings. I am overcome! How could I possibly receive any more?”

This love will heal and strengthen marriages and families
The power of this love will heal and strengthen your marriages and families and make your home a haven of bliss. Your households will be like heaven on earth. The invasion of His love into your homes will result in the prodigals coming home and unsaved family members seeing the light. They will run to God’s love in you. They will feel accepted, forgiven, affirmed and celebrated by you. They will want to be close. If you commit to being filled with the love of God, past hurts will be healed and some broken relationships that looked like they were irrepairable shall be completely restored. The testimonies will then build faith in those who hear. They will say, “If God can do that, then there is hope for me too.”

This love will invade the church
This love will invade Church congregations like a whirlwind if you will pursue it. Relationships will be healed and the strife, division, and contention that once destroyed will now be demolished. The world will see the love of Jesus through the church and will be drawn to the safety they find within the house. A new move of the Holy Spirit will be unleashed if you will daily pursue His love over the next twelve months. It will be a move of great power, for those who are perfected in love can be trusted with power.

Love is a high voltage current
The Body of Christ will experience the power of His love breaking through like water being released through a dam if His love is the greatest aim. The current of it will be that of the highest voltage. Nothing will be able to stand in the way of its power. Compassion will escalate to such proportions that floods of finance and provision will be released to the poor of the world like never before.

Many will “go”
Individuals who are filled with this love will be literally willing to lay down everything in order to go to the remotest parts of the world to share this love with the poor, the suffering, and the broken. This love will so transform you that you will not desire anything for yourself, but you will live to serve and give to the needs of others. The power of selfishness will be broken. The power of fear will be broken. The first and second commandments will be fulfilled in your life. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength and you will love your neighbor as yourself.

Love will be tested
Your love will be tested, but you will pass every test. When offense comes to tempt you, you will overcome. When bitterness attempts to fill your emotions, you will rise up above it. When judgment and criticism knocks at the door of your heart you will refuse to open it. You will choose patience in order to deal with individuals who might test you. You will choose kindness to deal with your enemies and those who oppose you. You will not listen to gossip and you will always believe the best of others. You will be perfected in love as you overcome all the obstacles because this is your greatest aim.

The Love Mentor
The Holy Spirit is your Mentor. He will teach you how to love. He will be at your side every day to show you how to love. He will inspire you with creative ways to minister God’s love. He will visit you with tangible visitations. Angels will be sent to minister love to you so that you will minister His love more effectively. All of heaven will cheer you on when you chose to make love your greatest aim.

Nothing can contain this love
This love is pure. This love will put relationships in right order. This love will not cross lines that would feed lustful passions. This love is holy. This love will heal the homosexual community. This love will visit prisons, brothels, drug houses, inner city streets, as well as government institutions, schools, hospitals, and the market place. Nothing can contain the flood of God’s love that is coming if the church believes for it.

You will see the miraculous
Wherever the presence of love is found, you will see the miraculous. The sick will be healed, the demonized will be set free, the poor will be cared for, and miracles, signs and wonders will be present. As you pursue this unconditional, all powerful force of love, you will experience open heavens. You will experience a revelation of the cross. You will know the fullness of the power of Christ, for He is love. If you make love your greatest aim, the gifts of the Spirit will increase in your life and the prophetic especially will mature in you.

Entire communities will be touched
If love becomes the greatest aim of the church, entire communities will be touched by it. It will be like an epidemic. You will read about this “love movement” in the newspapers, in magazines, and you will hear testimonies on the media. Once the fire of His love is lit, it will be unstoppable. It will spread like a wild fire that blazes through a forest.

Make it your aim
Make it your goal to know His love and to be the most loving person on the face of the earth. Make it your aim to be known above all things for your love. Make it your focus to manifest the presence of love everywhere you go. His love is the greatest power. He is love and you have been made in His image. This is what you were created for. You are a container for His love.

You will be just like your Father in heaven
If you pursue His love everyday over the next twelve months and if you make love your greatest aim passing the tests of opposition that come your way, you will see holy transformation in every area of your life. You will establish a beachhead for ongoing victories. You will establish a foundation of blessing and grace that cannot be shaken. You will set your life on a godly course that will produce eternal fruit. You will experience answers to prayer within the twelve months that you might have thought were impossible. Even unspoken desires will be given to you if you pursue love. The more you love others, the more you will be loved by others. The more you bless the more you will be blessed. Your life will be like heaven on earth. You will be just like your Father in heaven, if you pursue love and make it your greatest aim.

DEVOTIONAL TEACHING

The Bible is full of exhortation to love. God is love and as we grow in Him, we will grow in love. We will reflect His character and nature.

At the cross, Jesus demonstrated love in the face of everything that could challenge and test it. He had been betrayed, denied, abandoned, slandered, beaten, humiliated, and grossly mistreated. The crowds shouted their declarations of hatred and yet He never withdrew love. He was committed in the midst of the most intense testing to lavish us with perfect eternal love…a love that He would never withdraw.

This kind of love is our aim. 1 Corinthians 14:1 says in the Living Bible, “Let love be your greatest aim…” Can you imagine what the Body of Christ would look like in the world if each of us made love our greatest aim? Maybe that is what Jesus meant when He said in John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples if you have love…”

It is easy to say, “I love you” but in order for love to be establish it needs to be tested. Each of us, like Jesus, need to take up our cross daily (Matthew 16:24). The cross is the testing place of love. What is our response when we are mistreated like Jesus was? Will we forgive, love, and show mercy or will we withdraw love?

Let's press on to walk in perfect love. Let us love the Lord with all our hearts, minds and strength and love others as ourselves. May the perfect love of Jesus be our standard, our goal, our aim.

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

1. Week One: 1 Corinthians 13
   
2. Week Two: John 13 - 15
   
3. Week Three: 1 John
   
4. Week Four: Romans 8:28-39; Romans 12:9,10; Galatians 5:6-14

We are already seeing the fruits of this great Love Revolution down-town. God's Word does not return void. His promises are real and are powerful and are happening everyday through His people. It's been a phenomenal ride for our ministry team. Go love somebody to LIFE today!

Rumor Control

No. A Church Without Walls is NOT affiliated with ECBC.
No. Frank is NOT employed by ECBC nor has he ever received any compensation from them. He is employed at CompUSA.
No. A Church Without Walls is NOT one of the seven churches that was to become of the sale of the Evans property. We are completely autonomous.
No. The ruling authority of A Church Without Walls is not ECBC or anyone associated with them. The ruling authority of ACWW is Jesus. The servants under that marvelous Leader is Frank and Tammy Strausser, Frank and Pam Peterson, Steve and Samantha Jones, Jose' Sarono, Sharon Dyers, and Maxine McDowell (who is moving to Tennessee in September).
No. ACWW was not started under the direction of ECBC. It was started under the unction of the Holy Spirit and people who saw the Cloud by Day and Fire by Night and wanted to follow that movement of God! And we love every minute of everything we see God doing!

I hope this clears up any misunderstandings of who A Church Without Walls really is, and the people who come to worship and receive from God through our church. This is our church family. Frank Peterson recently wrote the following in order to better define A Church Without Walls. I think he did a fabulous job! This expresses the hearts of the people who serve in A Church Without Walls as well as the hearts of the people who come to receive ministry.

A Church Without Walls is a group of sinners saved by grace through the Blood of Jesus Christ. They love the Lord Jesus with all that they have and all they know how to, but have often had seasons in their lives where they have built walls which prevented them from loving the Lord like they should. These walls were built one brick at a time and are still being built. They built them with bricks called sin, bricks called hurts, bricks called broken relationships, addiction, fears, depression, low self worth, and so many other bricks that are unique to each wall. They are also called to ministry: A Church Without Walls.

Soul Winning, Healing, and Prophecy are not our main goals. That is God's job - to save the lost, heal the sick, and speak through us. Our job is to love the people and each other where they are at in their lives. By building relationships, we can start to help tear down the walls, brick by brick, that they, and we ourselves, have built. By doing that, we all become closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. By loving people enough, their walls can come down. Then, they can receive God's salvation, healing, and prophecy. Those are the fruits that are birthed out of a ministry of love. A by-product of seeing people through the eyes of Jesus. And as we are able to minister to people, they can be taught to do the same, not just by teaching them, but also through our actions.


It's a LOVE REVOLUTION baby!

This is cool....

Tonight Frank and I went to Walmart for a few groceries and a man approached him in front of the cold cuts section and asked him if he was a preacher. Frank was like, "Yes I am," and was wondering how this guy thought that. Then he said, "Do you preach on the streets in down-town Augusta?" So they got to talking. This man is the water fountain man. He comes every few weeks to check the chemical levels in the big water fountain. Then he told Frank that he had been lookin' out for a spot for us to meet if it should ever rain. Pretty neat...considering we have never solicited for help! He said he looks around when he's down there working for areas that have a big enough awning to hold our church services and made several suggestions. Those places are all in areas that are too far for our people to walk, but still, how sweet of this man to be thinking ahead like that! Such a God thing! So he said he was going to continue to talk to people he knew at businesses down there. God is so awesome!

August 26, another SONny Sunday!

Is this really happening? Is God really moving mightily on the streets of Augusta? YES He is! Wow! I'm still in awe of His faithfulness, even though I shouldn't be, it is after all, His character to draw people to His AMAZING GRACE!

We had a big crowd, just like last Sunday, with many of the same people, and a whole buncha new people. I have just so fallen in love with down-town Augusta. As Jose' (found out that's how you really spell our worship leaders name -Hosea is the incorrect spelling but it would take me a week to find all of his incorrectly spelled references, so from hence-forth, I will spell his name correctly....unless I forget) was playing the praise music, we had a soft breeze blow in. We were supposed to have scattered showers, and it seems like God scattered them somewhere else. :) We set up for breakfast and began our fellowshipping with the people who started to come to A Church Without Walls.

Remember "D" who got evicted and we prayed for him last Sunday night? Well, as you would expect, God totally came through for him and he's no longer evicted! Yay God!

And remember Danny, drunk out of his mind until God moved with power within him? Well he came today too! And he seemed coherent and even remembered me and Frank. How cool is that?

"Lucifer" came again. I'm going to start referring to him as "L" from now on because as we have gotten to know him, "Lucifer" just doesn't seem to fit him at all. We actually do know his real name, but I don't want to give it and be exploitive. :) So if you want to know his real name, you'll have to come down-town on Sundays at 9 a.m. and meet him!

Frank preached on "Are You Free?" It was a deliverance type message. He talked about how sometimes we have given Satan a place in our lives through our choices to fall into sin. He gave an illustration of how when we sin, Satan sees that as a landing strip all lit up and he comes in and lands in our territory, then he takes hold of us and before you know it, we have addictions, or eating disorders, or sickness, or fears, or bad thoughts, etc....

After his message he asked if anyone wanted prayer for things they struggle with, whether it's drugs, alcohol, sex, porn, a spirit of poverty, and a bunch more. Before we knew it, we had a fella come straight up to us and said he really wanted to be set free from drug addiction. I was blown away as he certainly did not look like a man who had a drug addiction. He was very clean and well dressed. He shared with us that he had been "clean" for 15 years, but he had recently allowed some friends to do drugs in front of him, and the smells that permeated his nose rekindled that desire for them again. Just hanging around friends that were doing the drugs was all that was needed to light up that landing strip and the devil just zoomed in like a Bowing 747 and landed right there, gaining a foothold that ultimately resulted in a strong hold.

He also revealed that he had known better, but the pull was just too strong, and he was really mad at himself for falling into that snare. So Frank Peterson, Samantha, and I were praying for him and boy I'll tell ya what....Peterson just went at the devil like a pro. I kept looking over at Pam (his wife), who was sitting across the way with their children and I was like, wow, Pam should totally come over and see her husband charge hell with a super soaker. Then, out of the blue, Peterson starts speaking life into "J" and before we knew it, Peterson was prophesying over him. He was telling him that God had a plan for him and that he sees God using him to minister to others on the street, others just like himself that had been trapped by drugs, and he sees God using "J" to lead people to Christ and get clean. Amazing.

Meanwhile, one of the little ladies came up to the microphone and wanted to testify. She is a sweet little black lady, and if you know anything about sweet little black ladies, they DRESS UP for church, even if it is on park benches. So here she is all decked out in a pretty yellow dress, a yellow hat, yellow shoes, pantyhose, the whole nine yards, and she tells our church that last week she came forward for prayer over her heart trouble. I think Samantha was part of praying for her, and probably Peterson. Maybe even Steve, but we were so overwhelmed with praying for people it's hard for me to remember. Anyway, she went to the doctors this week for her testing on her heart and they said her heart was absolutely fine, she had been totally healed of her heart problems! Isn't God AMAZING! He's still healing people! Whoooo-hooooo!

Then the young man that had come at the end last week had come for the service today. He also got up and testified that God had healed his feet and that he was still walking in that healing! He was able to work all week at his job completely pain free! Whoooo-hoooo!

Then a lady came up, a new lady, and she asked for prayer for healing and for reconciliation with her family. Her husband kicked her out and she was on the streets living under the bridge, but one of our "members" had taken her in for the weekend. (Actually, it was "D" who took her in) She was absolutely receptive and excited about what we prayed for her for, and she left there expecting God to do something!

And this was amazing too, at the end of the service I was talking to that lady about getting her a larger print Bible than the ones we have available, and my sister, Jenny, came up to me and said, "You need to come over here and talk to this lady." So I said, "Just a sec," then Jenny slides a 20 dollar bill into my hand and says, "When you get done come over here and see this lady, this is from her." So I finished up with "G" and went over and spoke to her. She said she drives by here every Sunday on her way to church and was encouraged to see God moving and developing a church service for that area of town, and that she wanted to bless us. I thanked her for that generous gift and then she said she had to go to her church. She was so beautiful though that I kinda wonder if she wasn't an angel! LOL!

So speaking of Bibles, we had a box of them sitting by the food table and we have some that are kind of paper backish, not very good quality, that we let people borrow for the church service if they want to follow along, and then return when they are done using them. And then we have some "good" Bibles available for anyone that wants to take one home. So the "good" Bibles with the nice covers were sitting in the box when some of the people started to come up and look at them. They were so hungry for the Word that there was a line! And you will never guess who was over there helping the people pick out Bibles.....yep......"L"!! He sure was! We had them all still in shrink wrap so he was showing them how to look on the back to find out how big (or small) the print was going to be on the inside.

You should have seen how excited these people were to be able to get a brand new Bible with a nice cover, like it was a very valuable thing to them. Samantha and I were just beside ourselves watching the whole thing. Then we talked to several of them who have "aged" eye sight (happens to the best of us) and can't read small print. So I went looking for larger print Bibles Monday. I can't wait to give them to the people who are expecting 'em. God is so cool! I'm so excited!!

We had an awesome service though, praying for people, ministering to their needs. It was exciting. We were also able to go to the store and buy some personal hygiene items, some undergarments, etc for someone who (desperately) needed them.

It was a good Lord's Day.


(Hopefully Sam has pictures to give me to post....my camera was out of batteries, and she's a camera pro, so her pics will be better! LOL)

OK, raise your hand if you want to see a miracle!

Are you raising your hand?

Your AVAILABILITY will allow you to be used by God. It's true. Try this next Sunday in church:

Go up to someone, it can be a visitor or it can be a long time member. Strike up a conversation with them. Just general chit-chat. But this time, instead of saying, "I'm so glad you came, see ya next week".....say, "Is there anything I can pray with you about?"

Watch what happens. You will enable God to work a miracle through you! The Power of God will flow right through you as you take that person's hand and pray for them, whether it's for healing, finances, addictions, marriage struggles, or anything else. Try it. You'll see. Then send me an email and tell me what happens. I'm expecting a miracle to be worked through YOU!

Taking it to the Streets

We had been invited to go with a church in North Augusta out to the streets for street ministry this past Sunday night. This church had a guest come from Greenwood, South Carolina named Shawn Patrick Williams. If you are interested in reading an outstanding guide on how to use the Word of God as the weapon it was designed to be used for, read his book "Warring With the Word." In this empowering book, he gives his incredible testimony that is filled with powerful teachings from the Word of God, and is a book that Frank and I reference quite a bit when we are looking for specific scriptures for specific situations. You'll totally love this book. http://www.warriornations.org/ His testimony alone is worth the time investment to read this 123 page book. But to have this topical reference at your fingertips is invaluable! Once we got down town, our group went into the area right in front of where A Church Without Walls meets. It's a totally different atmosphere at night.

Once we went into the alley-way of the apartment building that a good bit of our church "members" live, we encountered a man sitting on the bench. He was drunk. Actually, he was beyond drunk. I don't know, is there even a state beyond drunk, I mean this old man was plastered. Totally tanked. Bless his heart. And the absolute dirtiest man we have ever encountered. So we ended up ministering to him with prayer and gave him some food and water. I felt the Lord impress on my heart that we needed to move on, but that God would later give us another opportunity with this man. I figured we'd see him at some point, maybe even next Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, we had two other groups that went out in different directions. Kenny, the Associate Pastor of the church we were with, took a group down near 6th street, and Shawn took a group in a direction towards one of the few bars that were opened on Sunday. Later when we met up together with the group at the end of the night, Shawn told us that 3 people gave their hearts to Jesus! Isn't that just totally awesome! The amazing thing was that this night was ordained as a Divine Appointment by God and the date for street ministry was given to Shawn some time back by the Lord. He shared with us how God told him to come down to Augusta on THIS night, August 19th, and how he ended up meeting with a drunk chick and her boyfriend outside a bar. As he began to talk to her they both realized that she was from HIS hometown. I think Greenwood is about an hour and a half drive from Augusta.

So here she is, on this night, the same night a man of God from her hometown is here. As they continued their conversation, he discovers that her pastor, the same pastor she had been to church and sat under that same morning, was a pastor friend of Shawn's. In fact, he's a pastor that Shawn has ministered with in conferences and appears to be pretty close to. Anyway, he was able to really connect with her, set her to thinking of the straight and narrow path again, AND lead her boyfriend to Christ! Divine Appointments really happen.... Totally AWESOME!

Well, after we had left the drunk man on the bench, we went to talk with a group of people who were congregating in the alley-way. We invited them to Sunday morning services for next week and talked with them a bit. Our group had Frank and I, Melony (Kenny's wife), Miranda (Kenny's teenaged daughter), another youth from their church named John, and a man named Jim who has a heart for evangelism. So we kind of spread out amongst the group. I'm not sure what Melony talked about with the people she encountered...but I'm sure it's awesome, as she is an awesome woman of God. (I will post it if she emails me later....and BTW, Melony, I thought the picture of you was so fun, so I put it up, if you hate it, I'll take it off....hee hee).

Frank, Jim, and I ended up talking to a man for a few minutes and prayed with him about a job and some shelter for the night. He was already a born again believer. So Jim said to the man, Victor, that, "Since you are already a Christian, take this tract and give it away to some one else." I thought that was an excellent idea. I never thought to do that, so Frank and I both thought that that was a pretty cool technique...a way to encourage another believer to get out there and represent Christ.

Some "soul winners" have often expressed that they get discouraged when they only meet saved people, since their only focus for the night is reaching the lost. However, I firmly believe that God sends brothers and sisters in Christ across one another's paths for the purpose of encouragement and edification. So if you are out there in your personal ministry, don't be dismayed at not having a lost person come your way. Reach out to the believers too. We are called to support and encourage the body of Christ just as much as we are to reach the lost. This does not need to only happen at church pot-lucks. You just get out there and love them to life!

After we spoke with that man, one of our "members" came out of the building very down-trodden. He had just been evicted from his apartment. I believe that God had us there as a Divine Appointment for "D". We were able to minister to him in prayer and in love, and able to encourage him to continue to believe God for his needs to be met. "D" struggles with alcohol, and instead of having the opportunity to go down to the bar to drink his problems away, he was met by Spirit-filled believers who were able to minister to him and help him see passed his problem and go straight to the One Who could help him. "D" was a different man when we left, his countenance was changed, and his faith had increased for God to work this out for him. God is so good!

After that, we passed by the drunk man, Danny, again. The Lord told me to keep going, so we continued quite a few blocks til we found a man sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper. We engaged him in conversation and discovered he was homeless, though I have to admit I was a bit surprised. He was very clean and appeared to be very intelligent. Anyway, in the course of conversation with him he told us he was raised Catholic. And while he was impressed with the help he was given from the Baptist missions down-town, he had been told repeatedly that all Catholics go to hell. We told him that not all Baptists believe that, and apologized on behalf of the people who had wounded him in that way. I think it really helps that Melony's church across the river is Baptist, and that as everyone well knows, Frank and I have a strong Baptist background. I think this lended credibility to our apology to him for the hurt and confusion that a few people operating under a religious spirit rooted in the enemy had thrust upon him.

Then he said he was fed a constant spiritual diet of doctrines that he didn't agree with, so he began a search for the truth. Of course he doesn't realize that this is what he is doing, he said he was just interested in learning about different religions, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. He also told us that he now believed that there were many religions and all of them were right, including evolutionary theory. What a messed up mind this man had!

As we engaged in conversation, we were able to share the gospel with him, however, he had heard it time and time again, but it was not penetrating into his heart. He was completely shut off from believing truth because of a wounded spirit. Yet he was completely comfortable in our dialog. I discerned a spirit of confusion that came from the enemy and asked him if Melony and I could pray for him. He was absolutely open to that, so we bound and cast that defeated devil from him and then asked God to reveal Himself to this man this week as the ONE true creator, the living God Who created him.

When we finished praying for him, I felt a small breakthrough in the spirit...he was now speaking more about things in the Bible and less about things from other religions. Some clarity had come to his mind....I could just see it happening. This was super cool and he was now even looking forward to how the One True God was going to reveal Himself to him this week, even so much as expressing senerios that might happen through God's hand this week. And He will show Himself. He's a good God and He is after this man's heart. I told him that he had a seed of truth implanted inside of him from when he was a little boy in Catholic church, the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He died for his sins and was the Truth he was seeking. That incorruptible seed that is deep inside his heart had taken root, and now God was going to allow it to spring up inside of him and reveal to Him Who He is. I can't wait to find out what Jesus does this week for him!

After that, we went back down to where A Church Without Walls meets and met up with the rest of the group and then rejoiced in the salvations that came through our mission on the streets. As everyone began to leave, guess who came staggering across the street? Yep, Danny, the beyond drunk guy.

He was so inebriated he couldn't even lift his foot up properly to step out of the street onto the curb. I ran over and reached out and grabbed his very nasty, dirty arm and helped him over to a bench. Then for the next 45 minutes I sat and listened to this man tell me everything that was on his heart. He told me he was a drunk, but he loved the Lord. He said he just can't help it that he is a drunk. But all the Christians come out and tell him that he's a drunk and he's not living for God and preacher's come out and they chastise him for being an alcoholic. He said he was always getting beaten down by churchy people. Well, this was going to be a different night for Danny.

So for the next 45 minutes, we listened to Danny talk about his hurts and his pain and his childhood and his family and all the things that happened in his life. He talked to me about good times and bad times, prosperous times and lean times. I asked him how he ended up here in Augusta since he grew up in another state. He said he came here about 8 years ago for a cancer operation at one of our fine hospitals, and that's how he ended up here. At this place. I hear this story a lot. People come here for medical treatment and then don't have the money to make it back home and end up at the Rescue Mission or on the streets.

During the course of our conversation, I asked Danny if I could pray with him. He told me I could pray with him any time I wanted. He just seemed so grandfatherly at that moment - very tender, totally receiving the love of God. I was honored to be a part of that. So I asked Danny if he wanted to not be "a drunk" anymore. He shared with me that he really did, but he was just what he was. So I asked him if I could pray for the spirit of addiction to be loosed from him. He agreed that he wanted that. So we came boldly before the Throne of Grace and prayed and then we went into warfare mode.

Ultimately I ended up commanding his body to sober up, and for the enemy to leave him alone. When we were finished praying, Danny was sobbing and sobbing. And snotting and snotting. OMG, why does ministry have to be so messy? EWE! I have serious issues with snot. Serious. So as he was sucking gobs of snot back into his head, and I was trying not to lose my dinner, he told me he had recently been stabbed. So I looked him over and found a wound on his arm. He had indeed been stabbed with something. It didn't require stitches and looked to be a day or two old. So we took a couple of cold bottles of water and he let me clean him up the best I could. My gosh he was so dirty.

By then, Frank was finished talking to the guy who had come over to speak with him, so Frank prayed for Danny too. After a bit, Danny got up and walked toward where ever it is he lays his head at night. But this time, he was NOT staggering. He was walking upright and straight! Whoooo-hoooo!~ That's the Power of God!

Then as we were leaving, a man asked Frank if he wanted to buy drugs. I'm glad he didn't ask me cause I would have been totally offended, I mean really, a princess does not buy drugs. The drug of choice for us princesses is chocolate. Puh-lease.

So Frank started ministering to him and found out he was heavy into witch craft at some point in time. He was also stoned beyond belief and wicked scary. He was sharing some of his "experiences" with witch craft, even claiming to have raised someone from the dead briefly enough for her to come out of the casket and claw him with her long fingernails, and also said he was "translated" just like Philip in the Bible. You know what, I don't doubt either account. That witchcraft and the power of Satan is all very real. But we have way more Power of God living inside of us and we have power over ALL the power of the enemy. So anyway, Frank ended up talking to him and he said he was trying to live for Jesus but he had so much guilt and shame over his previous involvement in the voodoo stuff, and seriously wrong doctrine now that he was saved. What in the world? Good grief! He did ask for a Bible so we went to the van and got him a nice one. And Frank prayed for him. Maybe we'll see him again.

So...that was our night out on the streets of Augusta. And we loved every minute of it!

What's going to happen when one person who lives there gets so changed and radical for God that they turn around and influence one more person that gets so changed and radical for God? Then you have two people challenging the strong-holds down there. And those two people will multiply and multiply and multiply until we have an entire army of Christian Soldiers doing the stuff! You go God! Whooo -hoooo!


Phew....is this post REALLY this long?
Good for you for reading all the way to the end. Give yourself a high-five!