Making Friends with Drug Lords

Last Wednesday Night was a night when I went out to feed and pray for the homeless, I marveled at how amazingly powerful God is because His Spirit lives inside of me and how many doors that were once shut are now opened because we have gone out with a heart to love the unlovely.

When we met as a group at Starbucks the Director of CentralValley Housing was there. His responsibility is to ask the State for money through HUD so that our homeless shelters and low income housing meets our areas needs. He then disperses that money and resources to local social service programs and ministries. To do this they have to do a census to get a perspective on the amount of homeless people there are and who are they, why are they homeless, and what are their needs that are not being met in San Joaquin County.

The Director told us that two years ago the police who were armed with guns did not go into the areas that we go every wed night because it was too dangerous. The last time they did the census they had spot lights from cop cars as they went around trying to count homeless people. Well if you have done any kind of street ministry you know alot of them are tucked away under bridges and in dark places. He was so impressed that we have been able to open doors to areas that they once could not go and therefore could not find out what these people need to get off the streets.

We now pray with the homeless, prostitutes, drug lords, drug addicts, and many others. This door of friendship with these people have opened up doors that were once shut. Now the Central Valley Housing Department is looking to us to give them the answers they need on how to help these people. They are also now holding similar events like what we had with the Stockton Community Gospel Outreach last September because of the tremendous turnout we had at that event. Our group is now being looked at as the standard because of what God has been able to do through us being available to be used.

Speaking of Drug Dealers, last wednesday when we were out near St. Mary's Dining Hall we were feeding, clothing, giving blankets out, and praying for people hanging out in the area. Well down the street in a really dark place we saw some people doing drug deals. My friend Kaben said, "Hey Justin, lets you and me go down there because it is probably to dangerous for the girls to go." I said, "why? who's down there?" He said, "Some drug lords." I said, "cool, lets go". So we went walking and it was funny, when we went up to the head dude and offered him some homemade cookies it was almost as if he became scared of us. You could see the fear in his face when we came in love and asked him if he wanted us to pray for him. I later told Kaben that isn't it cool to have God inside of us and when light comes into darkness, the darkness scatters.

Another thing that happened this week was I saw a couple of friends from our Wednesday Night Group yesturday morning before I went to work. I haven't seen Nina or Angela in a while. Well it turns out that they started going out on Thursday Nights. They couldn't go out anymore on Wednesday Nights because of schedulling so they asked themselves when they could go out. Now Nina has been given the opportunity to use the church bus for this outreach.

Well whats cool is this may open doors for us to begin picking these people up from downtown stockton on Sunday Mornings and bringing them to church with us. How cool is that if that door opens? This is totally what God has been calling me to do and now I see him opening doors and just pray that no person, place or thing will keep them from opening.

I hope you have a great week!

-Justin

TV Show Episode 4 Holy Crud

Dear Blog Readers,

It is 12:30 approximately in the afternoon on Martin Luther King Day and through an unnamed source and threw a secretative means I was able to watch the 3rd and 4th episodes of the all time great TV show 24. I thought episode one was crazy when Jack Baur taught america and the world that it is possible to kill a man with your teeth when your hands are tied up behind your back by biting out a mans adams apple and spiting it out. But believe me watch tonights episode 4 because it blows episode 1 out of the water.

The question I have is how real are these situations are in our society today and how does this invoke fear in back of our minds as we are drawn to it like magets on a dead piece of fruit? My wife is apart of the marketing department for the newspaper in town and she goes to the daily meetings where they discuss what is going to be on the front page. The newspaper buisness knows first hand that if they can invoke fear on the front page of the newspaper, they will sell more papers that day, which will result in more dollars for advertising.

My mom and I were talking about this subject earlier this morning and she said that she believes that we as Christians in American society do not have the guts that the terrosists do in terms of dieing for their beliefs. The extremists have no problems dieing for Allah and their view of the world. My mom believes that we as Christians in American society would not die for our beliefs. Would you agree or disagree?

This brings me to my second question what are they fighting for? I try to understand, but I don't. All I know is that they hate us because we are the world dominators and that we have bad political policy in the international community and that they want power by striking fear in the eyes of the U. S. citizens. But for what?

We hate being uncomfortable, but secretly we love fear, because it gives us a rush and we get to unite against the enemy. But God tells us not to fear man and what they can do to you, but fear God? I think that is the point my mom was trying to make. We fear what they can do to us. We fear of nuclear explosions and of blowing us up in our own workplaces and neighborhoods. We fear the muslim looking guy down the street walking to work, but why? Because we fear man instead of fearing God.

That is the fundamental advantage they have over us. They do not care about their life or what the U.S. and the worlds armies can do to them. Because they fear their God more than what man can do to them.

What if we became a generation where we were no longer were afraid of what can happen to you in the alley, or of being shot, or of going to work and being killed? Instead we lived our lives of fearing God and instead of trying to fight our enemies we began to love them. Is that the message Jesus was trying to get across? Love your enemies, fear God, not man, Love the unloveables of underdogs in our society through establishing a relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ.

Why are we as Christians so far from living this out in our daily lives?

I want you to reply to this and I want to hear your thoughts and ideas. I also want others to begin to reply and have a discussion around this topic. All you have to do is click on the title "TV Episode 4 Holy Crud" and that will bring you to the message board at www.greatbanquet.org. Become a member and lets see if we can have a better understanding of what we are faceing in our society today and how we can better overcome it. But more than this how can we become more like Jesus by doing the things he did in our society today?

-Justin Perry

Justin's Myspace Page

http://www.myspace.com/ordinaryradical

God sent a Dog Angel

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

God sent a Dog Angel

Dear Blog Readers,
I have not written a blog in a while because I have been trying to get my life back to together. Tonight I went out to the streets and it was cold and the streets had a different feeling than normal. As we walked in the Ghetto on San Joaquin Street and handed out food and prayed for people two people instantly said they want to received Jesus in into their hearts before we even asked them if they want any food.
As all of this was going on a dog showed up. It was kind of out of the blue and it was hanging out on the corner next to this guy who we prayed for. I thought it was his dog. The man knew the dogs name, his name was spot. Well we walked down the street some more and the dog began to follow us whereever we went. If we stopped and pray with someone, spot would be there. Then spot began to go ahead of us and it was almost like he was protecting us. I am not sure but I think spot was some sort of pit bull mix. When we got in the clear and were safe the dog knew, he stopped, said good bye, and then left.
It is funny how we somehow knew that God was looking out for us tonight. I remember three months ago I was out and we were praying for a man. After we were done praying for him the man said, "you must be for real because the pitbulls are sound asleep". We did not even realize they were there and it was as if God put them to sleep like He put the lions to sleep in the story of Daniel. He said the pitbulls usually want to attack when strangers are around but it is as if God's presence have given them peace.
Life is interesting and sometimes I wonder where God is in all of this and tonight he sent His Dog Angel spot to tell me, I am here Justin.
=Justin Perry


Sunday, September 10, 2006

The Gap Was Bridged!

Dear Blog Readers,
Some of you may have been wondering why it has been two months since I last wrote a blog. Well it hasn't been because I haven't been doing anything. Last night was a break through in church history. It was a night where we hosted an event that was able to share the love of Jesus through bridging the gap between the homeless, the church and social service agencies.
Well after raising $3,000, recruited and orgainized 100 volunteers and 20 different churches and social service agencies, getting a stage, chairs and tables donated, getting two bands to play, orgainize 6 speakers and make sure things took place in a timely order. We were able to feed 350 people, build relationships with the homeless, plug them into church communities and get help with social service orgainizations all while sharing our love for Jesus Christ. It became challenging planning it when I discovered I was basicly working 2 full time jobs especially when one didn't pay anything and the other (Loan Officer) is not very stable.
But it was all worth it when it became apparant that it was more than an event as we saw many people we prayed for touched by our love for them. And God showed his love by healing them. One homeless lady was healed from a pain in their back that she has had for the last 6 months. A man was deaf and ears were in pain and God healed him. Another lady could not see very well and God healed her and now she has 20/20 vision. A lady was demon possessed and was delivered. People were filled with the Holy Spirit and some felt love of people for the first time.
It was interesting because the majority of this did not happen during the alter call but during the whole event. It was as if God was on the sidelines and behind the scenes. The experienced reminded me of when Jesus did not heal people for show, but healed people when He had compassion for them.
People said that this was one of the first times they ever felt loved by and accepted by the church community and connected to build the bridges they need to get out of the circumstances their in. Two people that came were homeless because of hurricane Katrina and still are without a home and wandering for shelter. A couple people in our group stepped up and are helping them get identification, shelter and the help they need to find work.
One of our booth members are my friends Monnette and Ryan and they have a ministry called God's Teddy Bears. They passed out over 50 teddy bears to kids and teens in our community some who were homeless. The pictures they took of them are priceless.
We also had a lady named Mary Cortez who washed peoples feet and it was amazing to see this type of worship God and love for dirty people.
I could not believe how the booths were just packed with people wanted to be connected and find a community that would accept and love them.
It was just amazing to see peoples gifts at work and people being blessed. Sure in hine sight I would of done a couple of things differently, but how do you know unless you do it first. But overall I think it was a success and I think everyone's hard work paid off.
After the event it was brought to my attention that HUD was talking about our event and maybe looking to partner with us to do a census in Stockton, Lodi and Manteca. Webers Point was the birth place of Stockton and San Joaquin County and I believe last night it became a birth place of a move of God.
We are now looking to orgainize and become a non profit orgainization called "The Great Banquet" named after the parable in Luke 14: 15-24.
I am praying that some how God would make a way so that I could do this full time. I believe that this is not only needed in Stockton but in every city across the globe. I believe that I am capable of forming commitees to plan these events all over. I am praying that God will bring to me generous consistent partners that will support Becky and I in fullfilling this high calling and responsibility.
If you pray, pray that God gives me a new job next week. I really need a change financially speaking and I am praying that a new door will open even if it is temporary.
I love you all,
Justin Perry
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