Wow! Our prayer walk yesterday was really blessed. There were five of us, Linda, Jeanie, Peter, and my wife and me. Linda and Jeanie brought 20 small bags of treats and we passed them out on Second Street in inner city Nashville.
Yesterday was overcast and it had been raining so we thought we might not see many people. Boy were we surprised. We usually pray with three to five people on our weekly prayer walks. Yesterday we talked to and/or prayed with 30 to 35 people. It was amazing.
One of our most interesting encounters was with Chief. He was standing with several women and when we approached him he said something like: "You all have a lot of courage to carry a big flag like that (we carry a large Salvation Army flag that stands for the blood of Jesus and the fire of the Holy Spirit) in a neighborhood like this. You must really believe in something. I want to give you some money to help." He then gave us three dollars and we told him we would put it in a fund to help children.
Chief said: "I wish I had grown up learning to respect a flag like that. My life would be a lot different. We respect the American flag even though it has done some bad things, but we really should respect the flag you have." As Linda, Jeannie, and Ernie prayed for the women, Peter and I laid our hands on Chief and prayed for him. They all thanked us very warmly for praying with them and for the treat bags.
A little way down the street, Peter said: "I am starting to get really nervous about being here." The first person Peter had approached yesterday morning had told him: "I don't mean any disrespect, but I'm in the middle of something," and Peter had realized that he had just interrupted a drug deal. So we prayed over Peter that God would remove the fear that was attacking him and protect him and all of us. As we were praying for him a police car drove by and that is the first police car we have seen on our prayer walks in several months. Isn't God's timing amazing? He showed us protection right when we were praying about it. After our walk Peter chuckled and said: "It's funny. I am a black guy walking with four white people in a black neighborhood and I'm the one who is afraid."
We had so many wonderful encounters yesterday and got so many hugs. We even got to sing Happy Birthday to a man who told us it was his birthday. We were all high on Jesus and everybody we met seemed to get a dose of Jesus as well -- you could feel the love. Please pray that God will do a mighty work of healing and deliverance in the life of each person we met, and that God will bring a spiritual awakening to neighborhood around Second Street.
