What About the Homeless?

What About the Homeless?

"Whoever has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his good deed." Proverbs 19:17 (GW) Above all I would like to thank our Heavenly Father for his extraordinary strategies for sending Jesus Christ, Emanuel, His only holy Son to conquer death. He rose after three days to be our Lord and Savior, and then our Heavenly Father took Him to Heaven and sent us back the Holy Spirit to be our aid. God’s Spirit helps us do the will of Heavenly Father, and whoever accepts Jesus Christ as the Son of God shall not perish but have eternal life: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17 NIV)

I am so amazed at how Gods' words are not just God s' words for people who lived over two thousand years ago, that they are not just for Jews or for people living in East or the west, the north or the south. Instead, they are for everyone throughout all the ages, poor or rich, good or bad, sick or healthy. WHOEVER BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST is saved: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

Last night, in the first week of June, 2016, while my husband was out of town looking for work, we got a sprinkling of rain. We were staying in an RV in front of the garage of some friends, and I was feeling very much like a homeless person. Earlier that day, I had asked my kids if they felt like they were homeless, and they said, “No.” Since this time, God has provided us with a home in San Bernardino, and we will soon move there; but at that moment, as the rain began to fall and I had to unplug the extension cords, close the RV windows, and pull in the slide, I couldn’t help realizing that if we weren’t so “homeless”, I wouldn’t have to be doing all these things. Of course, I couldn’t help thinking about those fish in Peter Canyon, CA, along with all the trees that were dying due to the lack of rain, and I realized that I had been praying for the Lord to have el Niño come later in the season, and not at the beginning of the year, as the weatherman had predicted, so that the land would indeed get some rain. Nonetheless, due to my “homeless” status, the rain made me feel pretty sorry for myself.

Suddenly, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit speaking to me: "You feel like you are homeless; but what do you do for the ones who truly ARE homeless? I want the true homeless people to survive. What are you doing for them?" Interestingly, the rain stopped right then, and I began to try to make myself think about the homeless people in downtown Santa Ana.

Later on, when my husband returned, I told him about the experience and suggested that maybe we try and help them. We had often driven by the freeways and seen people living under the bridges that cross the Santa Ana Riverbed, and I felt that God was revealing His love for them to me. He didn’t want them to die!

One evening after a meeting at the Calvary Church, I was given leftover food. I asked my son to go with me to the Santa Ana River bed and help me hand the food out to the homeless people. He wanted to have other people from the church come along as well to help, but after asking many different people, we realized the sad truth that no one wanted to go and help these people. There was only one who agreed to go, Thomas. My son then asked if we could first go to the store to get water and plates, and when we finally arrived at the river bank, God surprised us with someone who appeared like out of nowhere on a bicycle and offered to help Thomas with the water.

One person at a time is all God needs for His will to be accomplished. We were able to serve the food to these people that God knew they needed. A few days later, my husband and I found one more person to go down to the riverbank, this time to share God’s love with them. It was very interesting to see that the rain began to pour at this time, bringing all of the people up under the bridge where we were to hear His message of love! I thanked the Lord for His love, that He came not to condemn the world, but to save it, including all those homeless people, through Jesus Christ. Amen

Sophie C Ngeth