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!