Saturday Afternoon with the Homeless - Dallas Street Church 2-23-2008

Saturday was an unusual day. Frankly, it started out looking pretty negative. David's birthday had been that week, and he wanted to go to TOPS instead of subway. So we did. TOPS is a new restraunt in the area. Everyone ordered, and I paid. We went to sit down.

Iting, our Taiwanese evangelist and fireball brought a friend from Fort Worth, Jim. Jim is a bit older than me, he loves the Lord. He is a member and serves at "The Slab" in Fort Worth. It's called "The slab" because it is a concrete slab covered with a large tent. They bus in the homeless on Sunday's and Wednesdays. They attend church, and then get a hearty meal. Many years ago some friends of mine and I served for a season at the slab, cooking dinner once a month and serving on Wednesday nights. So it was good to hear what was going on back on the Fort Worth side of town.

We got in the restraunt, and Lawrence decided to join us, well sorta. Actually he joined us long enough to get something to eat then did his own thing. I'm not suprised, but I was a little dissapointed. Lawrence has often been just on the outside perimeter.

We found out very quickly that the restraunt did not have an available restroom. They said that it was leaking. I don't know if it's true, or they don't want homeless folks coming in. Anyway, some of our team took offense and one got quite loud. It was obvious that this was not a good witness at all and beyond that, I could sense a spirit of disunity coming into our gathering.

So I began praying, loud. It was as much to get our group focused back on the Lord as it was to get the Lord to intervene. Fortunately, Jesus worked it out and everyone did focus. We ate our meals, then Bill shared the Word of God with us, continuing his message from the previous week. I was really impressed. God had really been working this message into Bill and it was pouring out of him.

After we left TOPS, we headed to my car, I had brought cupcakes to celebrate David's birthday. Never Ever Ever get cupcakes from Wal-Mart. I don't know what they did but the food coloring in the frosting was industrial strength. It dyed our hands, our mouths, and for crying out loud even our teeth. Thank goodness it eventually went away. If Wal-Mart wants to sue me over this... let them... I have pictures.

We also had an impromptu time of worship on the sidewalk on Ervay Street. It was beautiful. We had no instruments, no leaders, but the Holy Spirit seemed to be guiding it. Some of us don't have great voices, but God was there.