I know that I promised three lessons and three conversations, so the following is what took place on our last day of ministry in Harlan.
As part of my leadership training it was my responsibility to teach and lead the morning session on the listening prayer exercise that we at AIM call Ask the Lord or ATL for short. The basics of this exercises is that each person in the group prayers and listens for God’s leading in ministry for that day. The first step is for everyone to take time separately to listen to God. The next step is to see if God is leading any of the group in the same direction.
As this morning would have it when the group came back together we had a number of people share what they were hearing. One person shared that they were feeling lead to feed people and pray for healing for people. A couple other people confirmed that they were hearing something similar. There was another group feeling led to get out in the community visiting garage sales and sharing the gospel as the went. A final group felt that God was telling them to finish the work we began on the roof at the house we started repairing two days earlier. We divided up vehicles and set out to see what God was going to do.
As I was listening in prayer I really felt that God was leading me to the downtown area of Harlan. I kept seeing images of a main street and a stroller. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the downtown because as a leader I had other responsibilities to the group. I volunteered to accompany a group of four ladies who felt like God was leading them to the hungry and hurting. These ladies had come to the conclusion that we should start at the food kitchen in town that passes out food. If that didn’t work out the plan would be to go to the Hospital next.
When we arrived at the food Kitchen it was closed. I could see on the faces of our little group that they were a little discouraged, but as we turned to go back to the car we ran into David. David was working on the roof doing some repairs.
David shared his story with us. He told us about how God had rescued him from drug and alcohol addiction. He spoke of how he is growing in his faith. We prayed with David. I felt like God had put David in our path for a reason so I asked him if he knew where we could find hungry and hurting people in the town of Harlan. He Said “Go down to the Commissary, that is where all the drug addicts, dealers, and prostitutes hang out. They are hurting people. They need to be healed.”
As we got back into the Car the ladies were feeling like we had gotten our direction, but they were scared. I think many people would be apprehensive just like them about going to a place where drug dealers, addicts, and prostitutes hang out. I suggested that we pray and confirm that this was the place that God wanted us to go. Before we started to pray someone from the group suggested “maybe we could drive by and pray for the location.” I suggested again that we pray. As we prayed another one of the ladies I was with said “I keep hearing the word touch from God and so dog gone it I am going to have to get out of the car.” So we drove to the Commissary.
We pulled up to the commissary we met a number of people there. An admitted alcoholic, his ex-wife, another women (who is a prostitute and addict) with her young child, and we prayed with all of them. We probably spent about three hours there talking with everyone we could, sharing love with them, and praying for them.
The last person that I talked with was a recovering addicted named Terry. As we talked Terry shared that he had financial needs, but his biggest need was that he was lonely. We conversed some more and then I asked Terry if I could pray for him. We prayed about his needs and when we were done Terry said “I sure hope God answers those.” I took down Terry information so we could get him connected with a local ministry in Harlan. Near the end of our time Terry asked me why we were out there. I told him that because Jesus was calling us to go where people were hunger y and needed healing. He told me that he was amazed because people don’t hang out with people like him; he said he was an outcast. I explained to him that Jesus would always hang out with the outcast. He said to me that he really believed that was true. He wished that more people would go out and love the outcasts like him.
I learned a lesson that day that I have heard before, but needed to be reminded of again, that we all have outcasts in our communities and that Jesus would be hanging out with them.
