Tag: drugs

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community

Tears In Heaven


RIP Goldie. My heart is broken. My friend Goldie, one of the most significant guys in our OBT community, is no longer among the living. Saturday night before Christmas he died across from our church, in the parking lot next to Family Dollar. So sad, what a waste of life, only 38 years old.

Goldie was one of my sheep and I miss him so much. Powerhouse Church was “his church”, and while he was here, he brought so many people from the street into the property, not only for the food sharing, but also for the service. He would sit in the back, and every once in a while we would see him in the front, kneeling down while he was covering his head with his black hoodie.

This year he wanted to be baptized but never made it before alcohol brought the devil up in him and I had to trespass him from the church property. There were several episodes that led up to this difficult decision. Being a pastor can be tough when you have to make those tough decisions.

Again and again he would come back and curse me out and threaten people. Obviously he was heart broken over the fact that he was trespassed. I told him that he would be allowed back to church if he was willing to meet with our leaders and ask for forgiveness because he had really caused a lot of serious problems.

Asking for forgiveness can be humbling and hard, but Friday before Christmas he came to tell us that he would clean up his path Sunday morning. This was the last conversation, and the following night he died from a head trauma. Not sure how. Somebody says it is still being investigated, .

Goldie and I have spend many evenings talking about Gods plans for OBT, and how to change our community. Last year he helped us start our pallet art project, he went with us for a Christmas Concert in Ocala and joined us for Christmas Eve, and this year he came to visit us at The Promise. I even offered him to move into one of our campers, but he was not ready – yet …

Last Sunday I preached from Galatians 6.7, Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

RIP Goldie. I remember our last conversation less than a month ago, sitting with you at the curbside, talking about Jesus, wearing my new shirt with the words “I am covered by the blood of Jesus”. We believe that the blood of Jesus covers a multitude of sins, and it is my prayers that it has covered Goldies as well.

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Powerhouse Church

Church is Essential

In this season, my schedule as a traveling evangelist has been put on hold due to the pandemic. Two weeks ago I was ministering in Australia, and before this we were in Denmark and Ecuador. We came back to the USA on March 16th as our president introduced social distancing. We did not have to self quarantine, but I am thankful that I was able to return home before everything shut down.

The world has changed forever. Nothing is the same anymore, schools, entertainment, sports etc. are being shot down, while we are told to shelter in place in our community, staying at home as much as possible, only leaving the house when it’s needed. We keep hearing the word “essential”. Only essential businesses will be open, like grocery stores, doctors offices, fastfood restaurants and … the list is long!

The Gospel Must Be Preached

So now we are here in Orlando, waiting for the plaque to pass by, and in this season the church is essential. People are desperate, laying sleepless at night, turning to drugs and alcohol or even suicide because they are fearfull and hopeless. The world is still waiting for God’s children to be revealed and the good news to be preached. We cannot sit idle, we have a calling on our lives to be servants and witnesses of Christ. Our challenge is to find out what this looks like “in such a time as this”, not to act out of fear, but to keep the faith.

This we do as much as we can. Even though we don’t have our traditional church services, we had our first drive in service on March 29. We will not neglect the gathering of the saints, we can still meet up to 10 people to worship and pray and live stream our services, and we must still reach out to the community and feed the poor, which we do even more in this season.

What Are The Guidelines

Last week we called the Orlando Police Department to get guidelines in the current lock down. It provoked me that the churches are closed, while the store next door still can sell Coca Cola and snacks. Is church not more essential than Dollar General?, I asked.

The lady on the phone gave me a link to the Orange County website, stating that “this Order does not limit religious or funeral services at any location, but all persons leading, performing or attending religious or funeral services are urged to fully comply with all measures advised by the CDC, including limiting gatherings to not more than ten (10) people and practicing social distancing of at least six (6) feet between persons.”

Essential workers includes workers who support food, shelter, and social services, and other necessities of life for economically disadvantaged or otherwise needy individuals, such as those residing in shelters, which also includes the church!

Hot Meals Every Night

I don’t know what other churches are doing in this season, but this week Powerhouse Church in Orlando have started a “soup to go” kitchen for our community, so that nobody have to worry about the necessities of life as long as the county is under lock down. Last night was our first night. People came walking, riding on bicycles and driving in cars for a hot meal made with love. We didn’t do a lot of advertising, but still we served 55 meals the first night and many more to come.

This is how we fight our battles. We pray, we worship, we stand on the Word and we feed the poor. We are the church, and in this season we have church, every time two or three are gathered, when we feed the poor from our soup kitchen. We are there for the people, sharing the good news in a time of much sorrow and distress. Serving God and serving people, that is still what we do.

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Powerhouse Church

In Memory of “Come Clean”

“Come Clean” was the street name of this man who died a few days ago behind a garbage dumpster alone, just across the street from Powerhouse Church. This is the picture of his memorial. A photo, a few plastic flowers, some candles, two booklets, and a white teddy bear on the spot where he was found.

“Come Clean” was one of the homeless people in our community. He used to come to our church all the time, for Community Day or during the Wednesday Dinner. Now we won’t see him anymore. He is no longer around. It is really sad. I talked to him last month and now he is gone.

I went to see his memorial yesterday together with one of his friends, and as we were going down the street, we did a Facebook live recording to give you an impression of what kind of area we are in. We are in a dark place, and God has put us here to shine his light!

In a few days “Come Clean” will be forgotten and another memorial will be raised for somebody else on the trail. Orange Blossom Trail, OBT, devours people and destroys families, only Jesus Christ is the answer.

Do you realize that all these people dying for nothing were kids once? Think about it, they were playing around, going to school, and they all had dreams – until some adult stole it away from them, they were abused before they started using, and as they grew up they suffered the consequences of iniquity and sin.

His Last Message on Video

One of the young guys from our church made a video with “Come Clean” recently. At this point, he thought he still had plenty of time left on this earth. He was free of cocaine, but not free of alcohol. This is what he said, not knowing that this would be his last message to us on OBT https://www.facebook.com/C.Hedegaard/videos/10217329688412424/

Are you ready to meet your Maker? Only one thing is sure in life and that is that we all will be leaving at one point. I wish we all be ready. I know where I am going. I have dedicated my life to give and to live a life worth dying for. I want to live life to the fullest, with Christ, in obedience to Him, as if each day was the last.

This is the live video that I made from the memorial of “Come Clean” https://www.facebook.com/C.Hedegaard/videos/10217326384969840/

“Come Clean” was a beautiful man, and I hope that one day I will see him again. In Powerhouse Church he is not forgotten. “Come clean, or don’t come at all”, that is what he used to say. God knows his heart, He knows every outspoken prayer, He even knows his last words and how he died …

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Powerhouse Church

Our Vision For The Community

In this blog post, I want to share a video about Powerhouse Church and our vision for our OBT community in Orlando. In the video, I will explain to you how it all began, how we as a family started to feed the poor and needy, and how people came to support the vision. You will see our street, our building and you will meet some of the amazing people in our community.

Click on the link and enjoy.

I hope this will inspire you to do something in your community as well!

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Powerhouse Church

Speaking Life At The Hospital

Yesterday I went to the hospital to visit one of my “sheep”. I don’t know what other pastors do when they go here, but my errand was a little unusual. I had heard from a neighbor that this man was in the hospital – and the neighbor also told me, that the house where he used to live now was a crime scene, his roommate had been stabbed in the house by his girlfriend and the police were investigating, so honestly, I did not know exactly what to expect!

As I came into the room, the man was sitting on the hospital bed waiting for the nurse to dress his wounds. First I thought it was from the stabbing incident, but then I realized it was something else. I found out he had been in the hospital for 12 days, even before the incident, and his wounds were not there because of a weapon.

“I dropped the pot of boiling soup on my feet”, he explained. “We were cooking on the fire outside, and I wanted to bring soup inside to cool off. I dropped the pot and I burned my feet, he explained. I looked at his wound. It was not on his foot but on his thigh, since the burn was so bad, that they had to make a skin transplant in order to fix it. I found out that this guy had been walking around trying to self-medicate the burn with hydroperoxide for several days, which only made it worse. Eventually, he had passed out, most likely from drugs, and this was how he came to the hospital

I love this guy so much. He lives in a small house in a side street to OBT, very close to the church. He shows up when we have our community days and our community dinners, and I go there to visit when I can. A few months ago I had him ready and packed to go into a rehab, but on the day we were supposed to leave, he had barricaded himself drunk inside his little house and he refused to leave. I called the rehab center and canceled, and a couple of days later somebody more desperate than him had taken his place.

In the hospital, I called the rehab and explained the situation. They know it is a matter of life or death, so they do what they can. “There is another opening in December”, they said. “Somebody is checking out just before Christmas, so we will reserve the place”. My friend who runs the center was on speaker phone and I made sure that my guy in the hospital bed got the message as well.

I leaned over to his face. “Please don’t die on me. I have come all the way from Denmark just for you, brother so don’t you die on me”, I said repeatedly, as I laid my arm around his shoulders, heartbroken with tears in my eyes.

He looked at me with his big wild and half-crazed eyes. “I am not going to die, pastor, not this time”, he ensured me, but I was not that sure unless he will be able to go directly from the hospital to the rehab. My biggest concern is, that he will go back to his house. So before I left, I took his hand and prayed together with him, speaking life, that this man shall live and not die and see the goodness of the Lord.

When Jesus calls you, it is always now. Don’t wait for later. Don’t wait for tomorrow. People die like flies around here. When my wife did a women’s meeting a few weeks ago the police had sealed off the street corner across from our church. Somebody in a body bag was laying there on the ground, and the detectives were investigating for more evidence. Same night one of our local drug dealers lost his friend to a runaway driver on that same corner. He came to church the next morning, freaking out and begging me to contact the police to make sure they would find the runaway driver. I asked him, “Why can’t you talk to them yourself” and he said that nobody would listen to a drunk drug dealer which is true!

One day I had to throw another young man out of the church because he was so rude. He was shouting and cursing on his way out, and I found out that he had already been trespassed by one of our pastors. He said we were not a real church, he was even quoting scriptures trying to teach me how to be a pastor, but one month later a humble young man came to give his testimony. “I was off track for a while, but God has got me now real good”, he said. I did not recognize him, but it was the same man. Since I saw him last time, he had been robbed and shot three times.

These are my sheep on OBT and most of them are black in the sense, that they are lost, not knowing how to find their way and how to behave. Night and day they are putting themselves in danger, breaking through the fence, running around wild, doing drugs, dealing drugs and dying. But Jesus is still the good shepherd leaving the 99 in order to find the one. He does not want anyone to perish, and neither do we.

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Mission

Bringing Healing to Greenland

 

In 2003 I was invited to preach the gospel in Northern Greenland. A school teacher in a place called Kullorsuaq (meaning “The Devils Thumb”) had read my book “Conquering Demons” online, and I had received an email from him, asking for help. The school teacher had translated my book into Inuit language so that his wife could read it, and he also made extra copies for friends and families. He had found faith through my book, and now he wanted me to come and preach the gospel for the rest of the village.

I traveled several days by plane and helicopter to get there, and when I finally arrived, revival broke out, together with heavy persecution. People were getting saved, healed and delivered, some of them decided to get baptized which is not in line with the traditional beliefs, and the opposition arose to a point, where they were making plans to assassinate me for introducing a “new religion” different to the Lutheran belief that is dominant in Greenland.

When I left Kullorsuaq I was banned for entering into North West Greenland. I don’t think you can do that legally, but I was told never to return. Over the years I kept contact with the new converts up there, I was happy to hear how they survived the heavy persecution, planted a church and traveled up and down the coast to spread the gospel into the villages on their hunting trips.

Today I received pictures and greetings through Facebook from that same village, where people had been persecuted because of their faith. It was very touching to see how one of our former Powerschool students, Tuparnak Berthelsen, is having a revival in Kullorsuaq. This lady is a walking, talking miracle. She has a wild testimony. At one point she was beaten to death by a drunk guy and was revived by the ambulance crew. After having been dead for several minutes, she woke up with a severe brain damage and was left handicapped for life, until one day in 2001 where she was healed in a meeting with an African evangelist.

I have seen how this lady, over the last couple of years, at her own expense has traveled to remote parts of Greenland and preached the gospel with money she has saved up herself. This summer she went to preach the gospel in Alluitsup Paa which is a remote village in Southern Greenland, and after this, she visited Quarqatoq where she was invited to speak in the local church during a conference. As she shared her testimony and prayed for the sick, many people got saved and healed.

It is such a testimony when I see how God uses this woman in a place where I cannot go anymore. She has supported our ministry for many years every month, and I have seen the fruits of her ministry in Greenland this summer. Not many people can go to the most remote parts of the world, with helicopter and boat, preaching the gospel to tribes of hunters, sleeping in private homes. God has anointed her to do this. She loves it, and she is respected by the Inuit where ever she goes.

God has told me to support Tuparnaq Berthelsen in her traveling ministry in Greenland and also help her to reach out to the Inuit people in Denmark. Greenland is a beautiful nation and the Inuit people there have suffered a lot as they were colonized by Denmark for centuries. Pray for grace and pray for change, that many people will be saved.

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Powerhouse Church

The Wages Of Sin …

taiwan

Today when I came to our church in downtown Orlando there was a woman outside the door. The woman was so skinny that you could see the bones in her face and she looked and smelled like a living dead. I would think that she had not showered for weeks. I can take a lot, but this was bad.  “Go away, go away”, she shouted. Honestly speaking, I got a little agitated over her behavior, but then I recognized her voice.

I called out her name and gave her a hug. “Is that really you?” I said,  asking her where she had been for so long. “Crack,” she said. She did not have to explain herself more, I already knew that crack had a lot of power over her and that she never got real free. It was obvious that she did not have a lot of time left to live on this earth.

This woman was one of the first people we met at our public feedings here in the USA She was a prostitute many years on OBT and one of the first ones from the street that we baptized on the beach. In the beginning, she came with us to church, but she always did it her way. She did not want to let go of her rebellion. Nobody could tell her anything, she knew the Bible, the law, the everything better than anybody else. It was hard to see when she floated back into her old lifestyle, and from that point, we would rarely see her.

I tried to reach out to her but she was partly there and partly not there. Most of the time she was talking to her self or sleeping on the bench. As I drove back home I sat with tears in my eyes begging God to intervene like I have done it hundreds of times. I have seen so many people die since I came to Orlando to start the church on the trail. Like life has no value. The people we work with here seem to have a death wish over their lives.

Let me give you an example. A few days ago a man came running, swearing and cursing. He was not drunk or high just so filled with rage and anger, he banged his fists into the wall and turned around looking at me with fiery eyes, screaming “Today I am going to kill somebody, I wanna leave this world and die, I swear today somebody is going to die”.  I was sitting outside but right there I saw Satan in his eyes, no doubt that it was a demon that was working hard to finish his life and the life of others as well.

Later on, I had another conversation with a man I have not met before. He was a widower and he told me that God had killed his wife with cancer. He was very bitter, and he believed that God would kill him as well.  I was really surprised by his beliefs and asked him where the devil was in his worldview. If God was to be blamed, at least the devil should have some as well, I suggested. Then I asked him if he had ever done anything wrong if he had no faults in the failures of his life, and slowly but surely the truth started shining and I was able to pray with him.

None of us can blame anybody for the outcome of our lives. You can’t live your whole life without God and then suddenly blame him for what you should have done a long time ago. We all have to live with the consequences of the choices we make. We are the ones who make decisions, and we all harvest what we sow.  The wages of sin is death, but Jesus paid the price for us so that we have the option to live in freedom from sin, surrendering our lives to Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Joh 14:6  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me”.

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First American Nation

Hope Dealers in South Dakota

This summer we received an invitation to visit the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. We were invited by a pastor who lived there and we’re excited to go. We traveled almost 2000 miles to get there, and as we crossed the border to the reservation we realized how far away this was from what we call home!

The Rose Bud Sioux Nation in South Dakota is a nation of 25.000 people living on 2800 square miles of land. The land is vast, the summers are dry and the winters are cold. It is not unusual for South Dakota to have severe hot, dry spells in the summer with the temperature climbing above 100 °F and winters going low to -30 °F with an average snowfall of 41 inches.

We stayed in a small town called “Mission” and found out that this was a mission, even more than expected. The church there was small. The first night we were only a few people, the pastor, the leader of the school, the worship leader and his wife, plus a family with nine kids! Even though the meetings had been advertised on the radio nobody from outside showed up! We realized that God had to give us a new strategy to reach the people, so we decided to make a bill payment. If Jesus came to announce good news for the poor, what would be more fulfilling that paying peoples bills?

Next day we went out with flyers and visited every corner of town, as many trailer homes as we could reach, every apartment, every street. As we knocked on the doors, the kids would answer. Many places we did not see the adults. Most people were friendly, and when we invited them for the bill pay they were very surprised. They had never heard of anything like this, and they all had bills that needed to be paid. One family had been without electricity for five months!

As we walked around and talked to people we could feel the hopelessness. So much poverty, misery, drug and alcohol abuse, unemployment … there were only a few grocery stores in town, only one bank, a Family Dollar with next to nothing on the shelves and more than 100 miles to the nearest Walmart. I was thinking of the family in church with the nine kids. How do you raise your kids and provide for your family with little substances in such a desolate place?

We were “hope dealers”, dealing hope to the hopeless. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, so in this case, hope had to come before faith! We were speaking hope, declaring hope, singing songs of hope: “Let hope arise, let hope remain, the dawn is breaking, it’s a new day!”, expecting God to change the atmosphere.

Many people came for the bill pay, they brought their bills and entered the drawing. The first two nights we gave away 2 x 500 dollars, and Sunday morning we gave away 1.000 dollars. The money was donated by people in our home church and people that we met on the road, it was awesome to see how it all came together!

First night five people were saved. The pastor was crying. For the past 40 years he had never seen five people saved at the same time, he said. The following days more people got saved. I think we counted 21 in total. We saw how hope was restored in peoples lives, maybe they came for the bill pay but they stayed for Jesus. They did not hurry to get back home, those that came the first night came back, and some of them also brought friends and family along.

When we left with our team after service Sunday, we wanted to pack them all up in the car and take them back home to Orlando, but obviously, that can’t happen! We believe God has another plan. Jesus says, who should I send, who will go? I trust God will call and send people to fulfill the mission out there, he is the author and the finisher of our faith, and we believe that He who started the work will be faithful to complete it, not only in our lives but also in the life of the people we ministered to.

We left a piece of our hearts there, and we pray that we will be able to be back. Help us share the vision. Some of you have supported this trip financially, and we trust that God will call more people to support. Pray for Mission, pray for the reservation, pray for the Native Americans. Let hope arise!

You can watch the video from the reservation here: hope dealers in the reservation

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Family

Celebrating Our Three Prodigal Sons

28082082_10214711779566339_504718714_oThis week on Valentine’s day we had a very special celebration at our church in Orlando. There were roses in vases, chocolate covered strawberries and some kind of non-alcoholic champagne at the table, but the party was not for Valentine, it was for our family and the homecoming of our three prodigal sons who finally have decided to surrender their lives to the Lord.

It has been a long and winding road, a detour down the darkest alleys where no parents want to see their children go. We have spent nights awake in prayer, reminding God of his promises, that “Me and my house will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24.15), and that “all my children will be taught by the Lord (Isaiah 54.13). There have been days where the battle has been so intense, where I had no tears left and my heart was broken into pieces, and there have been lonely nights where I have cried out in the laundry room and in my closet where I thought nobody could hear me except for God.

Our oldest son in Las Vegas was the first to surrender. He is 25 and used to be an atheist, on drugs and alcohol, doing magic in the street. At one point he got involved with a witch and that brought him to his knees. He was delivered from witchcraft and substance abuse, was baptized and blessed with new business opportunities. He got away from the street, started his own social media company and is now traveling the world doing social media and food trading. The past year he has visited 17 countries and seen things that most of us will never experience in a lifetime. The change in his life started the chain reaction, that eventually changed the life of his brothers. They finally came to the conclusion that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him!

Seeing this as parents it the greatest you can ever experience. I had to take an extra look in January when our youngest son who has been an agnostic attended our communion service. The same day he told us that he had decided to follow Jesus, and the following week he started interceeding for the other brother who had been suffering from depression over the past two years. This young man had been running away from home, taking drugs to calm the pain in his heart. God answered the prayers within a week and now we received a text message that the depression was gone!

We were like dreaming when it finally happened. We were hoping against hope, but now our hopes were fulfilled, so we called our boys together for three days and send out the invitation to the party at the church. We wanted to share our joy, we wanted to give Jesus glory, and we wanted to make a declaration in front of spiritual powers and principalities, that we as a family have decided to follow Jesus together. Sitting with the three sons, talking, sharing and praying together, was epic. We knew we were writing history and we went out  to do ministry, just to proclaim the good news, that our sons had been dead but now they are alive!

Never give up. Keep praying and keep believing, even when there is no hope in the natural, there is still hope in the spiritual. Do like Abraham, our Father of faith. Hold on to the promises, hold on to his faithfulness. He who is faithful will never fail. Remind Hime of his Word and know that his Word will not return void. Like the Father was out there waiting for his prodigal son to come home, he is still there waiting. I believe there is a lot of prodigal sons coming home this year. If He can do it for our family, He can do it for yours. Our children are like arrows in the quiver, ready to be sent against their destiny. As God is sending them towards the target, I know they can never fail.

Genesis 50.20. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

 

 

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Powerhouse Church

The Good, The Bad And The Evil

The other day I went with my wife Karen on the back of the motorcycle down to our church downtown Orlando and when we hit “OBT”, Orange Blossom Trail, I asked her “Why in the whole world she had chosen to follow me all the way to the US spending her best years serving the homeless people, some of them drunk and drugged, lazy, lying and stealing our stuff.

Since we have been married 29 years I already knew the answer. “Because God called us to do it”, she said as we pulled up in the parking lot to feed the poor which we have done consistently since we first came to Orlando in 2011.

I realize that many people my age have their 401Ks and are ready to retire. We have no pension, it was already spent in the visa process. We have no savings and we don’t own a house. But we have something much more powerful. We have a strong vision and we have a purpose which makes us feel rich every day.

A lot of men and women from the street had found their way to our Community Cafe. Most of them I recognized and some of them were new. One of them was a crack head, he was roaming around as if he was looking for something, and as I went into the main building to do some work together with the administrator, he followed me in, picked up a circular saw that belonged to the church and ran out!

Instinctively I and the administrator followed him through the traffic across the street. He was fast and I was not, so I turned around to get the motorcycle and came right after with a pistol in my pocket. The hunt ended less than 300 yards from our church, right in front of a house with a bunch of guys sitting outside. They did not look friendly. The oldest one with the most tattoos came and asked what I wanted so I explained to him that I was a pastor from the church on the other side of the street.

The man with the tattoos looked at me and made it perfectly clear that he was not familiar with our church or any kind of church. A lady next to him asked me if we were Methodists or Baptists. We are “Wild-ists” I explained. “I don’t know what that is!”, she said. “We are the ones that worship with their hands up and shout Hallelujah”, I said. Then she turned to her friend. “That is the kind of church you would like to go to, you get “high” there!”, she said.

Now the guy that stole our circular saw came running behind the fence into the house. “There he is!” I shouted and took out the phone from my pocket to call the police. I guess they knew where I was, they told me to wait and NOT go into the house!

The man with the tattoos was looking at my motorcycle. I asked if he would like a ride. Next thing, he jumped up behind and we raced down the street. When the police finally showed up, we a pulled up next to the police cars in front of our church, I the pastor, with an over tattooed man on the back.  This was his first introduction to the church so hopefully, he will be back!

When I came down the next day the guy that stole the circular saw was there again. He came out from 7-Eleven and I jumped right up on the side curb on my big bike so that he could not escape. As I looked him in the eyes, he started begging me for forgiveness with big tears in his eyes. Sorry pastor, I should not have stolen from the church but the drug dealer put a gun to my head and told me to get 60 dollars within an hour!”

I want Jesus to be the new “high” in the street. Life on OBT is different from where I come from. But I love every second of it. We have a great church, full of extraordinary people. I will say we are about 75 members including rats and roaches. Recently we have lost several members, including a younger fellow that fell into the sink. We are not afraid of losing members, the only thing we care about is doing the will of God – and the number of rats in our traps!

Matthew 22;8-10. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find’.  So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.