( NOTE: This blog is for my skate board outreach ministry. My heart is for skateboarders/youth, BUT I will NEVER deny the opportunity to talk to anyone about the Lord. This post is a non skater encounter. I will post on this blog ALL witnessing stories that happen on my journey.)
(This picture is of my prayer spot. To the left of the tree are benches where the men were sitting)
I woke up around 7:55am, got the crust out of my eyes and headed over to my prayer spot for a special day of a new outlook on Praising the Lord. No asking Him for anything, no requests, just 100% Praises to Him.
I parked my car and walked across the road to head towards my prayer spot. As I was walking I seen two guys drinking beer while sitting on a bench. One was an older white man around 50 yrs old or so, the other was a Jamaican man around 34 or so.
As I walked passed them I felt drawn to the the Jamaican man. When I walked by, him and I caught eyes and I felt some hurting spirit from the Jamaican man. I continued walking passed them to go to my prayer spot about 75 feet from them.
I got to my spot and started Praising our awesome, wonderful Lord. I tend to walk around a lot as I pray, or in this case Praise. I noticed that the Jamaican man kept looking towards me. He looked my way a few times while I was worshiping the Lord.
I was praising the Lord for around 30 minutes when I received this overwhelming feeling to start praying for the Jamaican man. I stretched my hands towards him (he couldn’t see me, I was behind a tree blocking his view) and starting praying. As I was praying I once again received this overwhelming feeling that he was hurting and that a women left him. (Keep in mind that I never met this man or ever spoke to him)
I continued to pray for him and the Lord placed in my heart to go and speak to him. When I felt this feeling to go over to him I wasn’t ready for that. I was a little nervous to go over to him. I’m not some super evangelist and I still get nervous when I feel led to speak to someone.
Being a Christian who wants to be obedient to our Lord, I started walking towards him. As I walked I prayed, Lord…use me as a vessel and speak the words you want him to hear, through me.
As I was walking, I noticed the other man had left. The Lord had already set up our appointment to talk, just him (the Jamaican) and I. How amazing is our Lord.
As I walked up to him, he was listening to music on headphones, so I pointed to my ears and lipped ..“what are you listening to?” He took his headphones off and replied – I’m just listenin ta some tunes. My response was with a question – Oh, so your just chillin and relaxin and enjoying the day? That started our conversation. I asked if I could have a seat and he said sure.
He asked me if I wanted a beer. Of course my response was no. I asked him his name, and he said – JOHN, His name is JOHN. I told him my name is Joey and its my pleasure to me you. And I proceeded to tell John how I stopped getting drunk 12 yrs ago (I have been saved for 12 yrs now) and how the Lord took all that away from me. I continued to tell John how the Lord help me stop smoking weed, snorting cocaine and doing Ecstasy. So we went on and talked about how he wants to stop and that he tried but keeps going back. And then he told me how his wife left him … BAM! There it is … remember how I said earlier how the Lord put it on my heart that a woman left him. WOW!! …. Lord you are so awesome. He used to live in Florida and his wife still lives there. They are separated.
As John told me that, I felt that it was time to talk about Jesus. I asked John – have you ever heard of a man named Jesus? He said Yes. I then asked him – Don’t you call him Jah in Jamaican? He smiled and said yes. He told me some other names that they call Jesus that I can’t remember. I then talked about the Gospel message of repentance from sins and reconciliation to God and about faith. The words just flowed out of my mouth Thanks to our Lord speaking through me. I get NO credit!
We spoke for about 1 hour. I could see it on John’s face that he was feeling what the Lord was saying through me. He kept saying – I feel what your saying and he kept saying – Yes, Yes and nodding his head yes. I then I told him how the Lord told me to come over to him and speak to him, how I get nothing in the physical from talking to him. I told him – I’m not looking to take money from you, I’m not homosexual trying to hook up with you, I don’t have a Church that I want you to come to, so I am not talking to you to get something. After I said that his eyes opened and he said – yes, I see that, yes, yes. He could see that my heart was genuine and not out for anything.
When we were speaking The Lord once again put it on my heart to tell John that he needs to go back home as a NEW changed man and reconcile with his wife and share what Jesus has done for you. It was felt strong to tell John that. His face looked so concerned when I told him that. You can see that he missed his wife. I believe that his drinking and smoking weed was because of the emptiness he felt and the feelings of missing his wife.
I ended the conversation with asking John – would you like to repent of your sins and ask the Lord for forgiveness? I then said – we could do it now, together, or you can do it in a private time with just you and the Lord. John responded … I would rather just do it alone because I don’t want to say it then go back on my word, I want to think about what you have been saying. My response was – John, we aren’t guaranteed one second let alone another day. That he shouldn’t take a long time to think about it because there is an urgency. Then I asked if I could pray for him, he said yes.
I prayed for John and then told him how much Jesus Loves him and then shook his hand and gave him a card I have with my name and number on it and said if you want to talk more about what we spoke about or you need anything, please call me. And I left.
I am so humbled that the Lord would use me to be a vessel to do His work. Thank you Lord and Praise You Lord!
Please pray. Pray that he and I meet again, pray that he calls me, but most of all …. Pray that he makes that decision to repent, follow Christ and be saved.
His Name Is JOHN !!!
skate area called “Washington Park.” Of course I said YES!! When we got there there were only a few skaters. In a matter of 25 minutes, there were about 20 skaters there. I asked Dave’s son Glen … on a good day, how many skaters come here, he said about 60+.
There is also a local skate shop named KCDC that has a mini ramp inside the shop. Its a cool place to hang and watch skaters ride the ramp and another place to bring the Gospel.
I had to go into Manhattan to visit my nephew Jayden in Beth Israel hospital. He had swallowed 2 pills for epilepsy. I am happy to say that he is fine and back to his bad self. Praise the Lord !!
