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!