Just Another Friday Night...

Normally, the last place in the world I would choose to be from 10pm until 2-3 in the morning is out on the town.  I like to play it safe, and listen to what my mom has always told me, which is "Nothing good can ever happen after 10 o'clock."  However, with my job at the church, it's actually a regular part of my schedule to be out from 10pm-3am-ish handing out barbequed meats to the homeless, intoxicated, and people who just happened by during those times.  This hasn't really been a part of my job description that I have necessarily been comfortable with... at all!  While the notion of changing a city, through kindness, with free barbequed meats and God's love makes sense, I very rarely find myself jumping with excitement at the church before we go out to the streets.  To be honest, it makes me quite nervous, especially since the roughest bar I've ever seen in my life, is directly across the street from us.

Before we go out to the streets, we always meet for an hour of prayer beforehand.  While the prayer portion doesn't generally attract to many participants, tonight's numbers were especially low.  It started with only Brian, Dave and I, and Randy came in shortly after we began. While in prayer, Dave prayed a prayer, that really mirrored what I had been sitting there working up the nerve, to pray out loud.  He prayed that God would give me boldness.  He then began to pray for God to set up divine appointments for me, and that there were be a purpose for me being there, and that I would "have something to blog about after".  Well people, God certainly answered that prayer.

Most of the Friday nights I've been to have been pretty low key, one very drunk man once threw a hot dog...but then he left.  That was pretty much the extent of the excitement that I had experienced.  Most people are so excited that we are giving away free food, that things are pretty easy going. Tonight started out a lot like that.

My philosophy up to this point has pretty much been to stand back, and let the men do the talking.  I don't necessarily think it's a good idea for a 20 year old girl to be chatting up the drunk men that happen by.  Tonight, however, I felt more boldness.  You can think that it was just the fact that Dave had suggested that I be bold, but I truly believe that God gave me boldness tonight.  My role for the evening was to stand next to the guys bbq-ing screaming out ticket numbers, and trading them for hotdogs and hamburgers for the many hungry individuals around.  However, as our initial rush of hungry people subsided, I began to feel more comfortable talking to people, which was kind of a big step forward from the previous weeks I've been at the barbeque.  I had one man old enough to be my grandfather hit on me, but other than that, I was pretty comfortable just chatting with people as I gave them the hot dog or burger that they were waiting for. When I asked one woman "How are you doing?" I watched as it visibly affected her, that someone actually cared how she was doing, and had taken the time to ask and then actually listened to the answer. 

The night was going by pretty uneventfully, and at around 12 we had a lull for a while.  I got the opportunity to talk to an awesome girl, who has been coming out to the barbeques regularly to help out.  We got to talk about God, some of our favourite verses, and just get to know each other. This friendship that we had formed, came in handy near the end of our night.  At 1:50am, I began thinking about Dave's prayer about "having something to blog about", and even though nothing huge had happened, I still felt like I had learned a lot tonight, and would be able to blog about something.  I had no idea what was about to happen in about 10 minutes.

Just a little after 2am, as Brian and I were putting the last of our cooked hotdogs into hotdog buns, we noticed some shouting. Remember that rough bar I mentioned earlier? Yup, they had come out of there.  Several guys came out shouting, and trying to fight a guy that had come out a few strides in front of them.  As we watched things begin to escalate, we all moved closer, since the majority of the group I do the barbeque with, are in fact, very large men.  The fight moved into the street, but no one was throwing any punches yet, but there was definite threatening occurring.  Some of the guys who I was with, stepped in to try and diffuse the situation.  Unfortunately, since the 3 cabs that drove past wouldn't stop when Brian tried to flag them to get the guy home, a fight did happen. The fighting moved from the street, to right near where we had been serving hot dogs just moments before, and then back to the road.  In amidst the fighting, the one guy's sister was trying to get involved as well, and it became a pretty big brawl.  Thankfully, during this, I didn't panic, and kept my head on straight.  While others were trying to break up the fight with words and fists, I called the police.  While I was calling the police, the fight got worse, and the girl I had befriended earlier got a little emotional.  Understandably, the fight was really upsetting her, and she was worried for her fiancee, who was one of the guys from our group trying to keep someone from dying.  However, for quite a while, I actually had to juggle my phone call with 911, and physically holding her back from the fight that she was desperately trying to get close to.  They knocked out the one guy, and his sister fell and hit her head very hard against the curb.  By the amount of blood I saw, I heard myself praying, out loud, "Jesus, please, I can't watch someone die. Please God save her."  followed by a lot more praying.  When the police arrived, they had quite a struggle handling all of the angry people around that wouldn't move back, the brother who now was trying to get close to his sister, and dealing with the girl who was bleeding, profusely, from her head.  Thankfully, the paramedics arrived shortly after.  But, that girl had been bleeding for quite a while, with people just trying to use their hands to stop the bleeding.  As this was all happening, and I looked at how so many people were emotionally unstable by that point, I could not believe how calm I was and had been throughout the entire  ordeal.  There is no doubt in my mind, that God was the one who kept my mind clear and controlled throughout the fight.  And as Dave prayed earlier, I did serve a purpose in this.  I'm not saying this in a boastful way, but in a state of awe at how our God works.  Because God gave me the clarity of thought, to be able to realize that the police needed to be called, so that the ambulance would make it in time, so that the woman who smashed her head on the curb didn't die.  And He helped me keep my emotions under control until after everything was over, to be able to see someone who needed someone else to help them stay away from the fight, so that no one else was hurt, because they were in a state of shock.  But I think the most amazing thing of the entire night, is that as I walked up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment, God showed me just how powerful prayer is.  When we pray, He hears us, and as I climbed up those stairs, still in shock over how the evening had taken such a turn, I saw a picture of the scene just how it was, but I saw it from the perspective of someone standing near me, and as the mumbled prayers left my mouth, I saw angels flocking to the woman who was lying with her head still on the curb, and put their hands against the wound on her head.  How amazing is that? From a few mumbled words about not wanting to witness a death, God sent his angels to work, in answer to my prayers. 

I will never take the prayer time before the barbeque for granted ever again, and I would encourage anyone who is in regular attendance at the barbeque to come to prayer as well.. I know that might mean getting a babysitter for an extra hour, or giving up an extra hour of your time, but, it's worth it.  The prayer, and the fact that God should be leading every step we take, guiding every word we say, all the time, but especially at these barbeques,  is a huge part of the evening.  The reason we do these barbeques, isn't just to feed hungry people, it's to change a city for God's glory, and that will only happen when we take the time to focus on that, and spend time in his presence, not just on our own time, but corporately as well.