Steven

There's a guy near my house with what I'm guessing may be cerebral palsy. I wrote about him once but was quite a while ago.

For years I've occasionally seen him, going alone in his wheelchair, black wide brim hat, head down, kind of folded up in his wheelchair. Going at a snails pace down Farmington Rd. I wonder where on earth could he be going, because there are no houses for blocks and he goes sooooo slow.

A few years ago I felt God prompting me to stop and talk to him. Just that feeling I get when I know I'm supposed to do something. Hot feeling in my chest and can think of nothing but what I'm supposed to do. I stopped and talked to him with my heart beating wildly. Was hugely difficult for me to do. Every step like going against a strong current. Found out his name was Steven, could see was delighted to be spoken to, but felt bad I couldn't understand him very well.

I've stopped to talk to him probably 3 or 4 times since. Each time gets more comfortable. One day I blogged about him because God used him to lift me up when I was really down. And that day a couple stupid little frustrating mishaps happened to even get me on a different route home which caused me to end my day talking to him.

Last night on the way home from my Grandma's I saw him, haven't seen him since last fall. Gianna and I got out to talk to him. I wondered how she'd react, she's never met him. He looks different than most people she's used to. And his teeth look pretty bad, and his hands are kind of deformed and he's all doubled over and talks funny and his eyes kind of go different ways.

She was fine! And he was so happy to meet her. He laughed and told her she was cute and she laughed. He asked her how old she was and told us how old he is, 51. We prayed with Steven and I told him that some day we will be in heaven and he will be free from his struggles and we are going to dance together and I can't wait!!!! And he and Gianna laughed and giggled.

When we got in the car Gianna said someday his legs are gonna work good and his arms are gonna work good and he's gonna talk good and he's gonna get up out of that wheelchair!!!

And I said isn't it nice that God uses us to help make other people happy? How Stephen was laughing and so happy to meet Gianna and it made him happy? And she says 'he made us happy Mama! We were laughing!' Amazing. :o)

So tonight Gianna had a pretty bad nightmare. She said she saw a monster and was crying pretty hard for quite a while. We sang Jesus loves me like 5 times and then I said lets think of things that are pretty, things that make you happy. And we were saying sunsets and flowers and lakes and trees and sandcastles and up north and Aunt Cheryl's house and lots of good stuff and then Gianna says what was his name? And I said who? And she said by Grandma's house. And I say Steven? And she says 'yes! Thank you God for Steven. He makes me laugh. Make his legs work good.'

And we prayed for Steven and for God to keep his heart happy. And I was SOOOO touched, that lying in the dark, trying to shake off visions of a monster, it comforted Gianna to think of Steven! With his outward appearance I wouldn't imagine such a thing, but she saw his heart, his sweetness, his spirit.

Precious : )

Friends

Yesterday I was feeling bad for Gianna not having many friends. She doesn't go to daycare or preschool yet and 90% of the time she's around adults.

We were on a bouncy castle at a little church down the street and she kept yelling these are my friends mama!! And when they left she looked all sad.

Then we came home and my mom said she found Gianna a friend down the street, but when we went down there she couldn't play.

I tried calling our friends around the block but don't think they were home.

Gianna cried on the porch that she wanted a friend to play with and when other people walked by would say maybe they play with me?

I felt sad for her and we walked to the park. As we walked across the field the sky was gorgeous and I said lets pray Gianna. I prayed out loud for God to be with us and give us joy in our hearts. And for him to give us friends for Gianna. And even specifically said some Christian friends who love Jesus too.

We get to the playground and there was a young couple about my age with 4 kids there. And girls Gianna's age. They seemed really nice and their kids were so sweet and played so well together. The couple was sitting on the park bench talking and you could tell genuinely liked each other. I told them how beautiful their family was and was chatting with them a little while Gianna played. Strangely I felt like I just knew they had to be Christians and wanted to ask if they were but felt weird.

Then I thought one of the womans tattoos looked like it might have been a Jesus fish, but she moved, and then I saw Phillipians 4:13 tattooed on her other arm and was like you guys are Christians! She said when I told them how beautiful her family was she almost was going to say that's because we put God first!

I asked them if they go to a church in the area, and they go to my church!!! To the same service Jason and I go to when he's available. And they eat at the same place after lol.

And her name is Jennifer. And she loves taking pics of sunsets and posts them on Facebook. Sound familiar? lol!

I told them my prayer walking across the field and they couldn't believe it. Gianna played while we talked and the sun went down and Jennifer took pics of it with her husbands phone. We exchanged numbers and hugged and she said her best friend just moved to Syria and she feels like God just brought a new person into her life. And her oldest daughter walked up to us at one point and said you guys kinda look alike.

They said Gianna can come play whenever we want, they live on the other side of the park, and as we left her children were all calling out "Bye Gianna!!!"

As we walked away I said wow Gianna, we prayed for God to give us friends and He did!!!!!

And then I am attaching the coloring sheet they did this morning at church! Amazing!!!!!

And one other funny thing, yesterday morning I told Jason I keep thinking I might want to get a tattoo related to my faith, maybe one of my favorite verses. And then seeing her tattoo of her fav verse is what really connected us.

God is so cool! : )

Real Love in the Strip Club

Last night Citadel of Faith Covenant church in Detroit teamed up with Eve's Angels, a ministry dedicated to women in the sex industry, and they shared the love and hope of the gospel at a strip club.

I asked my friend Barb this morning how it went.

She said:

Hi! It went extremely well :) Pastor only took a small group in the club while Mark had a group outside in the neighborhood [praying]. The club let them in with no hassle and they had a lot of favor! The rest of us stayed at the church and prayed. The biggest praise report was this: One of the strippers had just prayed THAT day that God would send someone to "get her out". Imagine her surprise when He did just that! Also, some of our own members got free of some things and experienced healing. It was pretty darn awesome!! The other cool thing was while we were all praying we prayed and prophesied some specific things and when the groups came back, they reported a lot of the exact things we prayed-in the exact words!! 

How awesome is that? God is good.  He blows me away. Blown away that the club even let them in, and super amazed that someone asked God to send someone to them that day. 

Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.