These last few days have been a beautiful ride. God has challenged & blessed me beyond belief. Deeply thankful for all the passionate hearts around me who inspire my own heart daily.
On my way up to Clarksville, I prayed, asking God to reveal His deepest desires to me, asking for opened eyes and an open heart...
I have so many friends who truly chase after God's very own heart, trailblazers who are so on fire, so filled with the love of God, they are brusting at he seams just to pour it out on someone else.
Some of these very people live in Clarksville and attend APSU, they have hearts to reach out to the ones Jesus touched, in the depths of their hearts, they have a place for the homeless and the poor, and so for the past few months they have been relentlessly brainstorming on ways they can help these forgotten souls.
They came up with an event, "Homeless Awareness Week", and decided they would sleep in the center of their campus to bring awareness to the homeless of Clarksville as well as raise money for a sweet man named Scott. Scott is homeless and legally blind. They needed $1200 dollars for his eye surgery, some would say its impossible, they are such a small group, and only college students...
"Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing."- John Andrew Holmes
I wished I could have slept outside all three nights with them, but I had the blessing of staying the last night, and WOW...
We walked down a few blocks to where we were going to eat dinner with a few of the homeless of Clarksville, it was a small bus called the "Manna Cafe", there we met the owners, a husband and wife who were called by God to bring hope to the hopeless in the form of a meal and fellowship.
"We don't call this our "homeless meal", we call this our Thursday night cafe", Kenny said. I was so inspired by his words, he began to say that they always provide food in surplus, never limiting the amount of food served, he always has faith that if God has called them to do something, he will also provide the means to do it.
We went through the line, got food and sat down, at first it was obvious that we stayed inside the small confines of our comfort zones, we all surrounded this one man in particular, "Clyde", I will never forgot what Clyde taught me in the short about of time I spent with him.
Darla inspires me daily, she is never fearful of leaving her comfort zone, she bounced from table to table, engaging these sweet hearts, the greatest thing she did, was just listening to them, and I mean actually listened, she has such a loving heart of Jesus, its amazing to witness first hand, its always so beautiful to see the best friend who got me through high school, now getting people through their tough times.
We shared amazing fellowship with these people I will never forget, they spoke of their drug addiction, their apathetic family, their trials and tribulations, but also their triumphs.
They had such a wonderful sense of humor, they took one look at Darla's sleeping bad wrapped in a bright white trash bag, and told her that read "sucker", they then began giving her "homeless tips", they than began a game of "show and tell" and each showed us the neccesities one must carry in their backpacks on the streets. They shared a mutual belief, that being homeless and living on the streets had made them closer to God then they had ever been.
After the meal, we walked a couple blocks back to the student center, where we were joined by Clyde. We had a time of fellowship that breathed life into my soul, no one in that room will ever know how much of an impact it had on my heart and how much it witnessed to my spirt.
Everyone told Clyde what a blessing he had been to us, and Clyde replied saying that we had blessed him more than we could imagine.
As Clyde led a powerful and anointed prayer, my heart thanked God for this magnificent blessing.
Clyde then preached a sermon, and we worshiped God together.
Clyde leads a bible study with the people in his community every week, he has such a passion and fire for God that is so uplifting. I pray I will see him again soon.
Also, they raised all $1200, and Scott will be getting his eye surgery! Glory to God who makes all things possible!
"For when the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it gave witness of me, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the one ready to perish came upon me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind And feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I investigated the case which I did not know. I broke the jaws of the wicked and snatched the prey from his teeth."- Job 29:11-17
"For when the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it gave witness of me, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the one ready to perish came upon me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind And feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I investigated the case which I did not know. I broke the jaws of the wicked and snatched the prey from his teeth."- Job 29:11-17
