Give God the Glory!

[Madeline]

I joined a prayer group about a few months ago. At the time it was something a lot of my friends were doing, and I thought it was interesting so I thought I would give it a try. They were hanging out in the Tenderloin (a place infested with drugs, prostitution and pornography), praying for people, passing out bibles, sometimes giving out things like sandwiches, sox; just basically loving on people. I didn't undersand exactly why people would do that week after week, but the only thing I knew was that God was indeed telling me to go out into the tenderloin and pray for people, and offer them sox, and offer them the word, and to love on people. So I made it a regular practice of going out with them, and a couple of other people, and something amazing happened. God started to show me that He is doing something in the Tenderloin. I started meeting other people doing various ministries in the tenderloin. Some were organized, most were not, kinda like this prayer group is not. And we would continue to go out and just pray for people and love on people. We've made quite a few friends, we've made a few very close friends, we've managed to get people to come to our bible study. But more than that, we began to see a little deeper into these peoples lives. The tenderloin is a place that has an overwhelming sense of sheer oppression and bondage to drugs and prostitution. We've heard people express a desire for something better and a need for something more in their life. Some are believers, and some are not. Some are actually hostile to God; but they all know that there's got to be something better then what they have. In the past few months I've seen some change, I've seen 3 pornography shops in the tenderloin closed down, I've seen 1 homeless shelter begin to get built, I've seen people die, and I've seen people go into recovery. I've seen people get there housing and give the glory to God. But I still see oppression out there. There's a war being fought out there, there are actually a few soldiers out there in tenderloin and elsewhere, but we need more. We need people to go out there and love on people and to intercede in prayer. We need people to share the love of Jesus to people right where they're at. And I can only say that all the Glory belongs to God!!!

Love,
Madeline

[manofconviction]

Praise God for people who step out in faith. It sounds like a difficult environment to work in. God can use every believer to His perfect will if only we do what you are doing. Thank You for your testimony.