Today was pretty epic but part of it stared late last night. I got this movie from a Christian store called Encounter. I’ve seen it before but I thought it was the perfect outreach movie so I decided to purchase it. So I ended up watching it with two other friends but it didn’t mean that much to them. After the movie was over I went back to my dorm and a friend called. He had just come back from home so I watched the movie with him again and another guy from our hall asked if he could join us. We said sure. The movie was about Jesus showing up to 5 strangers and addressing each one of their different problems. One of them had been depressed before becoming a Christian. And as the character in the movie was sharing her story the guy we were with just started breaking down. He wasn’t crying but just breathing heavily and covering his face as if he was in shame. As soon as I saw this I began to pray over him. My other friend looked at me and saw me praying and decided to start talking to our dorm mate. He shared with us that he knew he was a Christian but he said he felt so distant from God and started talking about how he had been depressed about certain things. My friend asked him what the most prevalent sin in his life is, and asked him to answer honestly. He said his computer and masturbation. So my friend broke it down to him in scripture about how and why that is wrong. The entire time they were talking I was still praying. And then my dorm mate asked how he was supposed to stop. He said he felt addicted and he knew he should not if he is a Christian because Christ heals all wounds but he said then why can’t I conquer this. He wanted to stop but he just couldn’t and I could see the shame he felt. He kept on repeating that he wanted this to end but he wouldn’t make a commitment and at this point I don’t know why but I got so happy. I stopped praying, hopped out of my seat and came over to sit next to him and I said “You Can.” He just kind of gave me an, ok look. And then I got pumped and asked him if he want this to stop. He said, “Yes.” So I said, “Ok.” I began talking to him about when he starts to bring out his laptop and he gets that little voice in his said to stop or that he shouldn’t be doing that. He said, “ok, ya” as if to continue. And then after you hear that voice you start reasoning with yourself. Again he agreed and as he did this my friend told him the difference between desires and actions. He understood everything so I continued. So I said right when you get that feeling of reasoning in your head I want you to do something crazy. Again he said “ok, what.” I said I want you to jump out of your bed book it down the hall and bang on one of me or my friends doors until we open it and talk it out through scripture. I told him this is how we are going to stop that until there are no more desires anymore. You had to be there though it was so awesome. He said ok and he would try it out next time. So the next morning we got back from church and me and my friend were about to go to sleep and all of sudden we heard some knocking. We totally forgot about it. It was our dorm mate he booked it down the hall just like I said and banged until someone opened the door. He came in and said he had those desires and he started to read some scripture out loud. I mean this was the coolest thing ever. A college student not wanting to be lustful and running down a hall and banging on doors to stop it. man, that takes some guts and it was so awesome to see. But what happened today didn’t stop there. Me and my friend we took some other people into down town Lynchburg to try and help our friends spiritually grow. This time we had a few more than before. We loaded into my car and headed out. So once we got there we prayed and we all headed out in different directions. So at the ended of the day we all had great experiences but what the Lord did was just ridiculous. I went out with my friend and instead of looking for people we just ended up talking about some personal stuff and when we were done we were ready to serve. So from where we were we turned around and right as we turned around a guy approached us. His name was Michael. He came up to me and said he’s seen me before and what I’ve been doing in Lynchburg. I hadn’t met him but he asked for a dollar. I said sorry I don’t have any money but I do have a debit card and I asked him if he was hungry. I told we could go get some food and his eyes lit up and as he did this he yelled out behind him. hey guys lets go this dude is going to buy us some food. So I wasn’t planning on buying 5 people food. It was really just a funny moment though. But as they all came up there was five of them in total. There was Michael who found me, Nick and his girlfriend Samatha, and then Tina and Clumont. I asked them if they were hungry and they all said yes. So I said lets go get some food and we ended up going to Wendy’s. They came in and asked me what we can get. I told them whatever they wanted so each of them as they got in line ordered what they wanted and…it was so funny. After they ordered as much as they could eat each one of them looked back questioning if I was really going to pay for it. To be honest I think that they were just completely shocked. So as we waited for the food I got to talk to a few of them. They were all very grateful. Michael was the first one to talk. he was an older guy and just cracked you up with whatever came out of his mouth. He told me how he had bounced from state to state. He told me about the scariest part of his life about 5 or 6 years ago when he fell asleep and almost froze to death in the winter with several feet of snow and ice on top of him. He told me how he had 15 children. What he told me broke my heart constantly. I got to know each one of them and the last person to talk was Nick. He was huge, a mean a really massive guy and kind of scary looking. He was kind of the leader of the pack. He came over and sat next to me and said what do you want. and I said I don’t want anything. He didn’t believe me. He asked if I just wanted to hear their stories or something. I said no, just saw you guys were hungry and people gotta eat right. He said ok. I said if you guys want to talk that’s fine I can listen and he started telling me his story. He told me that he went to college at Florida State. He told me he was a good football player and the Miami Dolphins wanted him but his mom made him get an education. I asked him, well why are you here. He pulled up his pants and told me he was tackled and the bone below his knee popped out as he showed me his scar. I said ok, so how are you here now on the streets. He then asked me if I wanted him to be honest with me. I said you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. He then paused for a while and then opened his mouth. He told me he was a drug dealer. And as he told me this he lifted up his shirt and showed me where he had been shot 5 times in the chest and 13 times in the back. He then stopped and asked. Why are you really doing this? I told him, I’m a Christian. And what it means to be a Christian is to love and act on it. I told him, “I’m just trying to show you Christ’s love in a practical way.” He leaned back thought it over for a little while and said, “ok.” the people I was with today told me repeatedly how no one ever does this. They told me how hard things are. I saw it in their eyes as the would order their food, checking to see if I was going to stop them. I saw how they questions kindness in people. This can tear a person down to know what others have experienced and how much grief and sadness there is. But there is hope! Christ tears down all barriers and walls. I talked to a drug dealer today about Christ. That’s crazy. The shepherd calls his sheep and all are meant to hear his call. Before I finished writing this my dorm mate ran down the hall again at 2 a.m. and just pounded on my door asking to read the bible with me because he didn’t want to act out on his desires. Real things happen when you are willing for Christ to lead you. Today was a surprise. I had no clue what God had intended for today but I learned one thing. If you limit, you limit what God can do with you and the cool part is, if you don’t limit God anything can happen.
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