Pre- & Post- Salvation Disciples are Being Made

Most of the stories we would humbly share fall into this category: disciplemaking.  We do not doubt His leading our ministry when salvations are not plentiful.  Just doing evangelism here would mean no one would be on-hand to explain obstacles to placing trust in Jesus for salvation.  It would also mean new believers would have a poor concept of the life God is calling them toward on earth.  Ultimately He wants to see believers grow and reach others with the gospel - places that Bruce, Janet and Michele do not have access to.  

We don't always ask spiritual questions the first time we meet someone.  We serve them in little ways, and trust God for what to say and when.   

"R"

Backstory: Six years ago we knew this 17 year old who was homeless, orphaned, under the influence of a Wiccan, and on drugs. We studied the bible with him occasionally over a period of months and years. Last year he came downtown to tell us how he accepted Christ and was baptized at Court Street Christian Church. After a few months he quit going regularly.

This month: He has a girlfriend who has stayed in Pastor Tyler's home for pregnant girls at risk. Their baby is due next month. He has a job with the State of Oregon even as a felon and pays for his own apartment. This Sunday, his girlfriend is throwing him a surprise party. To celebrate what, I ask? "To celebrate R getting his GED, graduating also from his drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, and ending his requirement for having a parole officer." Wow - God has really changed him!

"S"

Backstory: The meekest person we know. Covered in tats and totally intimidating visually, yet totally gentle. He is 34. We didn't know this till this year but he is mentally disabled to some degree. He spent years asking for work with us. We prayed for him to get a job. He got one and he worked 6 days a week and we practically never saw him again for about four years! He came down one time and said that he wish he had free time to meet people and have community, but they weren't even paying him minimum wage (Garten). I suggested that we start helping him find a new job where he could make more than $700 a month. Bruce and I kept tabs on job openings. He got himself a temp agency and is now a janitor at two places including a church. S likes working at the church.

This month: He got into a conflict with a woman server at Craftworks. We know her too, and she knows what we do downtown.  She is super goth and she supports our work. S wouldn't let it go. Janet said we had an obligation to disciple him in this.  I said, "We believe God wants to say to you, 'Let it go, S.' Jesus in the Bible once told a story. The story goes like this. There was a man who once owed a whole year's wage to a rich man and he went to that man and begged him to be released from the debt. The man let him go. Then that man found another person who owed him a hundred dollars and he choked him and said, "Pay up!" The rich man found out and marveled that he would be stingy after having received kindness and threw him in jail. S - forgiveness is hard. We have to go back to the cross. Remember what Jesus did. He gave up His life and shed his blood when you and I were His enemy. And he is now calling you to be forgiving to others. It's not easy. But when you have been forgiven a bunch, it is easy to feel forgiveness to others." He listened deeply, but we don't know if he is accepting Jesus more and more and just doesn't have the words to say it. He listens and he seems strengthened and affirmed but he can't admit it very often. Our plan is to pray fervently for God to intimately demonstrate ministry again to S, so we can point to Him as alive and his God. Then after S believes God is real and loving him, maybe we can call again for S to lay down his life for God.

"W"  

Backstory: Not new to us.  He is 34 now.  Six years ago he used to be high on drugs and yell downtown on the corner.  He was a Christian.  He wanted prayer for a job.  We prayed and he got hired as a dishwasher at Red Robin!  He was so proud, and he is off drugs.  There is a lone ranger minister of Jesus who walks around downtown who is well-to-do and his name is Tony.  Tony looks for ministry.  Right before W got hired, he encouraged W to stay off drugs.  He promised to buy him a whole new set of teeth for $4000.  W feels like a million bucks and tells all his co workers about Jesus and the power of God, constantly.  He tells everybody about Jesus, just like he was standing on the corner before, now sane and passionate... and with an amazing smile!

This month:  He came downtown to say that Red Robin is promoting him to line cook and that they bought him a $400 bicycle for transportation.  He is a very happy man.

"G"

Backstory: This dude!  G is a bad guy.  We knew him three-four years ago.  "D" told me that he was dealing drugs and pimping women at the Motel 6 on Hawthorne, where he was living with many others, and someone else told us about the drug dealing.  He used to tell us about his parents.  

This month:  G was in prison for the last two years!  Now he is 22.  We never stopped praying for him.  He sat there mostly silent, but he seemed to genuinely be touched by the fact that we were so thrilled to see him again.  He brought a girlfriend, and we don't know her story yet.  The police woke them up where they were sleeping and they came right to our table to talk about it.  He connects well with Bruce.  I hope we can get back into hearing more from him.  We pray that God's Spirit of repentance follows him.  Unfortunately, many times when we see progress, Janet and I note that Satan comes and doubles his efforts for a long period of time afterward - I saw him downtown yesterday, extremely high with his girlfriend and yelling at someone.  He is even less with it than ever.

"F"

Backstory:  F is another precious one.  He is 30.  We discipled him intensely for about a year.  He has a special connection to Janet, because both of them are poets.  They both are looking for ways to grow in life through writing.  He came to us the first day and said, "I was wondering if I could sit with you.  I am a Christian but I have been worrying that because I am guilty of wrong things, would I bring evil with me to you all?"  He hadn't been a Christian long, and had yet to enter a church.  WOW, he grew so fast!  He read John 1 for first time because we shared it and said, "Whoa, that's deep!"  We loved every minute with him and he grew and grew.  Everything that Janet said to disciple him he believed and took into his soul.  Till one day he was drunk....  And he came into the coffee shop and made a scene.  He was asked to leave and we supported the shop management's decision.  He never came back after that.  We were worried that something terrible had taken over his life.  We kept praying fervently about a year.

This month:  Bruce says he saw F at WinCo in south Salem.  They talked super briefly but he looked like his normal self.  We praise God!  We want him to continue growing either with us or others... but mostly we wish to know that he is okay.  And he is.  SO good to get news.

"M"

A new to us kid during this last month's time, 19.  Not homeless.  A Christian.  Has ADHD.  Trying to understand his breakup with his pregnant girlfriend.  Wanted to know what the bible says about marriage.  Glad to have someone to have pray for him, and wasn't currently in any bible study.  

"B"

Another new kid that has come to know us in the last month; 22.  Also not homeless, but his father says he has three months to find a new place.  He is trying to get a better job and brought his resume to us so we can read it.  Bruce keeps tabs on job openings and builds relationships with business owners and told him two good places to apply.  He says he is a praying person and we told him we will be praying for him!

"J" 

Backstory: Currently 26.  We have known him for six years.  There used to be a self-proclaimed prophet downtown, a kind of Hebraic law follower who believed correct Hebrew language interpretation grants salvation.  J listened to this self-proclaimed prophet at the same time we were testifying about Jesus.  In addition, J's worldview is very pantheistic.  But the false prophet left for Washington State awhile ago and we get to hear what J really believes.  He's a philosopher who invests in bitcoin and wants to live off the grid and by all means I believe he can.  He won't work for corporations, or get a job of any kind.  He had been storing his materials for inventions at his mom's house in West Salem.  He makes unique devices and sells them.  

This month:  He had asked Bruce and Janet and I for help putting money on a storage unit, because she gave him a limit to keeping his things with her.  He collected bottles for a whole month and got a total of $90, so we all said that since he was doing something to come up with the money, and because we believe in his projects and inventions, we would cover the remaining $30.  So on a Friday I drove my truck around all day.  There was a delay to getting the unit - his ID card was expired.  We hemmed and hawed leaning against the truck.  "Oh, I know, I think the Salvation Army helps with IDs!" he said.  I said, "Oh yeah!  It's not the Salvation Army, it's the United Methodist Church.  Let's go!"  Instead of going right in, he wanted to talk.  

We talked for 45 minutes about the gospel - it was almost as if he felt like it was the way to repay me for helping.  But I did most the listening.  He has gotten even more distant from God since the Hebraism.  He said people are different and they don't all fit into one mold.  That was what he found uncomfortable about churches.  And I said, "Churches know that.  They do what they do, well, but they also support people like Janet and Bruce and myself.  This is why we sit downtown.  Because we know that you can follow Jesus in a way that looks different and is appropriate for you and your rhythms and lifestyle."  I continued, "Just remember, your quest for God is good, but if you can bring it under the authority of Jesus Christ, there is a Spirit there and a blessing that is true that you will notice and it means that God is really alive.  The only people who regularly pray to God are those who hear something back.  Hebrews 11 something says everyone who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  And Jesus was pretty exclusive about God; He said "No one comes to the Father except through me."  So if you could take some time, I know you've read the Bible a lot, but take some more time to get to know Jesus in the Bible, and I believe you'll start to notice that God is alive."  It took all day, but we got his ID and the unit!      

We are on-hand to make disciples with them throughout the week, even when we are not gathered in our small group on the street.  This places His kingdom at the center of the stuff of life, which is the place He is looking to make disciples. 

Even more significantly,  we regularly pray and believe God in the supernatural.  Janet and Michele pray every week together for these young adults and we pray individually.  

Without prayer, much of what we do would be powerless and of the flesh - but - God sustains and leads us in ministry all the time and we praise God for it!

The Gospel is Preached

We know the small handful who are totally resistant to believing in Jesus -- they are far away in a land where they don't believe in anything and don't want to talk about it.  Yet every time they come downtown, usually with their friend who brought them there, they watch and listen while we disciple their friend.  They hear the powerful stories of what God is doing for the person they thought they were only casually hanging out with.   The ways of God tickle us to no end!

Almost every kid we know cares and respects what we have to say about God and takes it to heart.  This is a wide-open field, and few institutions are filling that need for disciplemaking.

"Z"  

Backstory: Just had a birthday; 29. We met Z about 3-4 years ago as a buddy of D's. He got to know us while D was applying to Meduri Farms in Dallas. Not a believer in any God. Back then he said he was really impressed that we cared so far for D. After a few weeks he surprised us, "You know, I ended up going to your church service last Sunday, because I liked what you guys are doing." (Many of them expect accolade from us when they declare they went to church.) We told him that's great that he went to church, but going to church isn't really the goal as much as it is being known and knowing others when you're there, and growing closer to God regardless of where you hang out. He lived at the UGM for several months. I was impressed with him: he held a job in warehousing at Home Depot. He rode his skateboard out to Kuebler Rd. every morning at 3 A.M. And he was building his income so he could afford an apartment. He talked much about his ex wife and son, who he missed terribly. It was because of addiction that he lost those relationships, so now he was sober even while at the UGM.  After many months around us he acknowledged that sin is real and that he has committed them and suffered with guilt over them. He emphasized the guilt so we continually pointed him back to the cross and gave him the assurance only Jesus's shed blood can provide.  He was taking it in.  "I know you're not a believer, Z, but Jesus died and shed His blood just so you could know - the spirit that He gives you is the Shame-Taking Spirit.  He wants you to be free from shame, and the way that happens is you leave your sins at the foot of the cross and believe what He says; you are now His child.  I hope that that makes sense to you right now and brings you comfort!"

But he got that apartment and disappeared after this, for awhile. Then he came back recently, dating a new girl who physically abused him in the doorway of the coffee shop as we watched. I shared the gospel out front with this gal, and after I listened to her and recommended she move on, I went back in to Z and said, "let's get your restraining order today," and Bruce went with him to make sure it got done. Z couldn't stay away from her, and occasionally he was on drugs and homeless again. Two months ago, he asked me to drive him to his grandpa's house. Z asked, "Would you wait here? I am going to ask him if I can stay with him for a couple of days, so I can hide from [my ex-girlfriend]." He came out - grandpa said no. He got in the car and began to cry, and didn't know where to go next. He said he has been sleeping for two weeks under the dining room table at his mom's house, who also uses drugs and has a boyfriend who doesn't like him. He felt hopeless. I said, "You, sleeping underneath a table, is so sad, doesn't that make you interpret your self worth? It must, so let me tell you: you cannot listen to your circumstances or look to [your ex] for significance. God has come to declare your worth: His Son died on the cross for you. For your sins, which you say you regret, and even for broken relationships and issues you can't seem to press through in life. So when someone in this world offers you something crappy, no one is going to be there to remind you like I am telling you now: you must choose what you will listen to. Either God, who paid the ultimate price for you and doesn't judge you for where you're at, who set your worth by giving His own Son, or, these things around you. And you just declare to the world out loud what Jesus has done for you, because there is power in it! When we have these "groundhog days" - you know, like the movie where you wake up and nothing gets better? God lets us have these so that we will turn to Him for abundant life. He holds it for you. You MUST turn to Him to find it.  It works the same way for me and everyone else." He calmed down and received some sense of security.  I watched him leave the car. "Whose set your value, Z?" I asked him before he left. He said, "I know." I promised myself next time I saw him I was going to invite him to trust Christ. Unfortunately, he was in jail for two months.

This month: Z got out of jail and called us the next day. Talking a mile a minute, so determined to do well. I said, "You know what, Z?  I believe you!  I believe you can do it, because I know you and how much follow-through you have.  There is only one thing I think that could be even better than watching you set goals and accomplish them.  Do you want to know what that is?  It's to lay these things before God and rely on His strength to carry out right things for you.  He has even better consistency and his burdens are light.  That's the only way you can do better, and I believe in you.  You can do this!"  Z apologized to Bruce and Janet and I about letting us down. I said, "We just want to support you Z, so call us." I asked him to read Matthew 6:25-26 and he said he would. I feel he is close to salvation!  In fact, I would be surprised if when I ask him to accept Christ, He would not testify that he already has!  He did mention also he had news to share with me "about God" but I forgot to ask.

We call these "snapshots" of the last 6 weeks, because that's true - we can think of another time this month where another believer "W" - (whose story is in the discipleship post), brought "R" (another R-named person) and "C" - two young adults, both unresponsive unbelievers, who sat and listened to stories of miracles and glorifying of what God has done in the life of W.  This is the same pattern in which Z has come to be discipled by us after being brought around by "D."

Caring for their Well-Being

"M"'s testimony this month:  "When you guys bought me a birth certificate, that changed everything!"

We are humbled day after day that God uses us to actually stop real-time suffering from happening....

Through material giving... and through the singular power of God in the impossible!

"D"

Backstory: Now 26; we've known him since he was 19. As a 19 year old he wouldn't accepted Christ. Then he did the following year when he was 20. But he would shy away from scriptures. I prophesied over him and told him, God says "I put the lonely into families" Ps. 68:6. He began to call for little reasons and we continued to pour God's identity into him, for a couple years. At 19 he refused meth because it caused him paralyzation on one side of his body at 17. But at 21 he fell back into that lifechoice. He still called because he was hungry or cold or sick, asking for a small thing to relieve his suffering. I'd preach while he was high. I'd bring him dinner. One time Ben and I rescued him at night. He was so afraid and begged on the phone that someone come rescue him. The word on the street was there really are people after him; it isn't all his paranoia from drugs. Ben and I were scared, actually, but it was super dark and we didn't see anyone near him where he was hiding.  His parents and brother have come to our home with D to meet us. Another time he got caught unprepared for rain in the winter. He asked me to drive him behind some businesses in West Salem and he looked for choice cardboard in the dumpsters and then put them in my car. Then he asked me to drop him off with the blanket I brought and the cardboard in a secret place where he sleeps. The next morning, the cardboard did nothing to stop the rain and, soaked and cold, he asked for help with laundry so he could warm up.

We almost had him placed at Bridgeway, once. He went to jail on trespassing for a couple months. In jail he was sober. There he began to testify to others how God was a Father. Began to draw images of His glory which he later shared. Prayed on his own. Had a favorite Psalm!  Was in and out of jail, still on meth. Started calling less and less. We kept praying that God would watch him and not let him destroy his life or someone else's. It's been a year or two where he just doesn't call or come see us, at all.

This month: D appeared and sat with us. He has been jail-free for months now, he said. This can only mean his addiction is not so severe which therefore stopgaps him from getting into criminal trouble. He looked immaculate. He listened to our stories and most importantly he was completely sober. He's taking showers at the mission and still sleeping in Wallace Marine. Janet, Bruce and I spoke to each other afterward - it seems that D came just to prove to us that he could take care of himself properly. Or to check his own internal sense of progress. That was confirmation of God's ministry on D. He's doing alright. Praise God.

"R"

Backstory: 61 years old. We have known him for six years, and about 18 months ago he developed lung cancer. He had only been an Easter/Christmas Christian. We told him we were praying for him. Within 6 months they said he was in stage 4 and had a year to live. He had chemo, but as soon as he was able to drive, he came back to see us. We are floored that he comes to see us when he is deathly sick, because we play a role in his life I suppose. He had lung surgery and the prognosis wasn't good.  We prayed, and then after his lungs were almost clear, cancer had now formed in his brain. We saw him very infrequently, in between two brain surgeries for two cancer bouts, and recoveries. He thanked us for our prayers. Janet is concerned when he isn't around for many weeks, and commits us to pray intensely. R says, "I won't do any more chemo. Whatever quality of life I can have I will take." We don't see him for another 4 months. We are worried.

This month:  He appears, telling us and the other motorcycle friends down at Starbucks what is happening to him: He is cancer-free. Back at work. Healing well. Driving a car! THAT IS NOT WHAT WE THOUGHT WOULD HAPPEN EVEN THOUGH WE PRAYED! God is amazing, and it makes us crazy. "God is giving me a new lease on life," he says. He knows it was God who delivered him and thanks us for our prayers.

"T"

Backstory:  Bruce has two sons, "S" and an older brother, "T."  S adores T. We have never met T and never heard about him till this month, though S has come to be part of our group for years.

This month:  T, 50, went into the hospital for pneumonia and they ended up doing an immediate quad bypass heart surgery after finding a bad state. Afterward his heart was bleeding out, and his lungs quit working, so they intubated him. He was in a coma and his brain began to not respond. We prayed.  Two days later, his heart stopped internally bleeding. (They didn't know why it was bleeding even though they opened him up to look for where.) But he was still not responding for over a week to anything and the brain and heart weren't coming out of inaction. The wife said, "It's been a week on life support and I think it's time to give up and pull the plug," but before they did, someone saw his leg move one time. So we prayed and next week, his heart started running itself! They were still debating whether he was going to stay a vegetable. I prayed by myself at home, "God, you just have to help T. You have to." Bruce came downtown and said, "He's awake!! But he can't talk; he can only make gestures. S said, 'I love you, bro,' and T blew him a kiss." Now he couldn't move any of his arms and legs. Bruce went back and told S, "Michele prayed, 'You have to, God!' I guess God listens to Michele." I said, "God is amazing and I am so glad He listens when we really need it!" Now he is in physical therapy recovering the use of an arm and talking and walking. We tell this story all the time in front of the unbelievers who sit with us this month. Lol. God is good!

"N"

Backstory: N is a parking meter enforcer downtown for the City of Salem. He is 60. We have been friends on a name-basis for years. He has been working, walking 8am-5pm shifts full-time as a meter reader for 30 years. Our friendship has always been light because he is supposed to keep walking and not stand and talk or show favoritism. But in the last year, he has arranged his breaks so that he can sit with us for about 5 minutes and most days, we get that long to visit. We make sure to get him water on hot days. We never get to share the gospel with him because we never have enough time, so we haven't been sure how to develop the opportunity.

This month: N revealed that his wife has developed breast cancer, so he is planning on taking time off. "Do you have family or friends who can support you?" No, he says. He hasn't developed any friendships, he admits. He could only think of calling his mom, and he did, but his mom stressed him out. "Can I give you my phone number?" I ask. That way if he needed anything he can always text and I can offer to help with something. Sure, he says. He plans to take a couple weeks off for his wife's surgery and care. I said, "can we pray for you?"  Yes, he says, he used to have a church a long time ago. So Janet and I stand up and pray over him and his wife, "P." He is a bit awkward about the prayer. He texted us updates as the surgery happens and we prayed for them both everyday.  After his first week of taking care of his wife, he planned with us to come down as a civilian to sit "with my friends downtown," and did that yesterday for a whole hour, since he has all this time off and P is recovering well. It was like a floodgate!  He opened up on things he had been accepting for years and years:  No friends.  Not even talking to his family!  No church.  He has been living in depression and a deep fear about losing his job (he has back issues and walks all day), for years.  And now - he is starting to believe differently. He has reached out to his extended family and they have been supportive this week, and almost scolded him for not staying in touch. He admitted that a church had come around with P's situation of being hospitalized: "My spiritual family is the Kingdom Hall."  Wow. So much momentum here, and I have no idea what's going to happen, next!  All I know is, here was this poor man, suffering and lonely and feeling the burdens of the world.  But we knew his name and greeted him walking by us for years, and it is becoming so much more!

Praise God that he sees those who are cut off and hurting, and He lets us join in the work He is already working to supply for these precious ones!