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 Nino 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