Detroit, MI
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This story comes from Lexa and John, visiting Christine’s Soup Kitchen in Detroit, MI:
Today we visited the soup kitchen and encountered Tonya (although not for the first time.) Tonya has been struggling with squatters in her home for almost two years. We prayed with her for this exact issue two months ago! She was so happy to see us again. She gave us several hugs. She was doing better in many aspects of her life. She saw that God was working & said she regularly prayed for homeless people in her community. Right in front of us, a representative from the mayor’s office befriended her & offered help to the situation we had been praying for. She cried into her hands and said, “Thank you Jesus! There is a God! I went a long time without believing that there was.” John encouraged her to keep the card of the man from the Mayor’s office, not just for the housing assistance, but also as a reminder that God does miracles.
And we got to talk to her for a significant amount of our evangelization outing. She said that she began praying when she had kids because she wanted them to have healthy lives. And that her father has recently been giving her a hard time about ‘being a Jesus person’ because he is atheist. We encouraged her to pray for his conversion. John guided her to pray by saying, “Let’s thank God for all the things He’s been doing in your life…”What are you thankful for? Thank you, God. What else? (and so on).” So we went through all the things she was thankful for & then we guided her to ask God for help. John said, “What do you want to ask God for? If you could have any job in the world, what would you want to do?” And Tonya said that she was truly happy when she was a chef on a boat. That it was so peaceful & she would love to do that again, and be on the water for a couple months at a time on a really big boat. John encouraged her that her dream is possible! And we prayed for each request that she wanted help from God. She also took out her keychain & told the story of how a random man handed this to her. The keychain has a penny encased in it, and it says, “Lucky Penny.” She received this, looked it over, and the man had disappeared. She looked around & even got in her truck to look around for him, but he was gone. John took this as a gift from God & encouraged Tonya that God is talking to her & that he can do great things in her life. He said something like, a fortune starts with one penny. It may seem small, but it’s one step in getting started. Meaning, all the good things will come and she’ll be okay. We also talked about Tonya’s tattoo that reads, “Princess”. And John explained how she would be a Princess in the Kingdom of Heaven because she is the daughter of God, the Father. She had never thought of that before. She left feeling hopeful and cared for. She loved getting stuff off her chest and praying with us. Hopefully next time, she’ll be in good shape after working with the representative from the mayor’s office on the housing issue.
Praised be Jesus Christ!