Homeless, Not Hopeless

Twenty-eight days ago in Springfield, MO, a homeless man was sleeping under an overpass when three Christians who worked at a small nearby church saw him and stopped to pray for him. One had brought him a blanket and laid a blanket over him. I don’t know these people, have never met them, and don’t know what church they work at. I was only told about them and what they did.

On the same day, Louie and I drove to Springfield to hopefully buy a new mower under the Labor Day sales discounts. The mowers were more expensive than what we thought so we decided to wait and to keep using our older mower. We bought a couple of mums and were driving to a thrift store to browse. We never made it.

On our way to the thrift store we drove under an overpass and I saw a homeless man sleeping under it. “Go back,” I heard the Holy Spirit say to my spirit.

“Turn around,” I told Louie. We drove back and I walked to the bridge by the overpass while Louie parked the truck. He soon joined me and I yelled (because traffic was so loud), “CAN I PRAY FOR YOU?”

“Nope, that’s not it,” the Holy Spirit spoke as soon as the words were out of my mouth. Hmmm. I immediately knew praying for the man was not why the Lord wanted us to go to him, but now I was not sure what the reason was, so I decided to start asking questions to try to determine why we were there. We see many homeless people, but this particular one God had plans for our encounter and I knew we needed to find out why.

The man came down from the top part of beneath the overpass where he had been sleeping. “What is your biggest need?” I asked.

“That’s fine, but that’s not it,” the Holy Spirit said. Hmmm. What am I possibly missing?! I wondered.

The man was skinny and had longer shaggy blonde hair. He had a shopping cart overflowing with his personal belongings. “My feet hurt, I have sores on them, I could use some shoes, and some food are my biggest needs, but I know that is a lot,” he said.

I let him know we would but him shoes, socks, and some food, but I could feel this was not why the Lord had us go back. “Anything else?” I asked, still trying to find out what the Lord wanted.

“I know this is too much, but a big need is a tent.” He stretched out his arm in a gesture to wave off the thought. “It’s too much, though, I don’t expect you to buy it.”

I nodded, knowing the tent was not it either.

“How long have you been homeless?” I asked.

He had been homeless for two years.

“Are you able to work?” I asked curiously, still trying to get to the bottom of this.

He paused and looked around a bit and then he said that he has a meth addiction and had been in and out of treatment. Aha! Maybe this is why the Lord wanted us to stop, to help him get into a treatment center. He went on to tell us that he had been in and out of treatment, and even recently and had not made it for long.

“That’s not it,” the Holy Spirit said.

Louie was listening and occassionally asking questions and offering encouragement, but He knew the Lord was doing something so remained mostly quiet, just neither of us knew what the Lord was doing quite yet.

“Do you have family?” I asked. Parents were deceased, a five year old daughter he loves with down syndrome in foster care. Some extended family and a brother he had not been in much contact with due to addiction.

“You know,” the Holy Spirit said.

I did know, I just knew it all of a sudden, like a curtain was pulled back and I could clearly see why the Lord wanted us to go back.

“We have a 33 acre farm an hour from here and we own a furniture refinishing business that is on our farm. Would you like to come and live with us, work two hours a day for room and board, and work part to full time hours for pay?” I asked him, and I knew this is why we were here. Louie glanced at me but did not say anything. He is really awesome about knowing when the Lord is doing something.

His name is Zach and he looked astonished for a bit, and then he asked, “Can I think about it? I just want to make sure I can commit.”

“Sure,” I told him. “We can go to WalMart and get your stuff and will be back in an hour and you can let us know. If you decide not to go, we’ll go back and buy you a tent.”

Zach agreed and we left for WalMart and bought shoes, underwear, wound ointment, drinks, socks, and such. We drove back to the overpass and he was gone. My heart sank. What had happened? I knew the Lord had been speaking, but now what? Louie pointed and we saw him walking down the street toward us.

It turned out that he had a final bit of meth so he had gone around the corner to use it. He said he could not bring himself to give it up. He confessed to us nearly everything he possibly could about his life, without us asking, and kept saying, “I want you all to know all of this in case you want to change your minds, but if you don’t want to change your minds, I’ll go.”

Louie helped him to load up his belongings from the shopping cart, and Zach has been with us since, living in our home, doing an incredible job landscaping and maintaining the grounds on the farm, and working in our furniture shop part time. Last week, he opened a bank account, and he has been in contact with an aunt who is cheering him on. The men at Post loaded him up with clothing and more shoes.

Most days, we have a Bible study, the three of us together, and he has been going to Post weekly, which is a worship/testimony/Biblical teaching gathering. This morning, during Bible study, I said, “Zach, do you want to open us up in prayer?”

Haha! He said, “Ummm, whew, yeah…Dear Lord, thank you for 28 days clean..”

“WHAT?!” I yelled. “Has it been 28 days, Zach?!”

He beamed from ear to ear and said, “Yep!”

“Wow!! How long has it been since you’ve been clean for that long?” I asked.

“Well over a decade,” he replied.

“Wow!”

We talked about all the Lord had done in our lives, read in the Bible more, and on this day, he gave his life to the Lord and his name was written in the Book of Life. Louie and I could brag on him for days in how pleasant and sweet-spirited he is. He has an incredible work ethic, and will be with us long term until he is on his feet. We don’t have an “end date.” He has goals to share his testimony, work to be a present dad for his daughter, and would like to start a landscaping business.

When he came home with us, I shared with a few prayer friends and our family about him. But all day today, I kept feeling from the Lord that I was supposed to write this. I asked Zach about it and he said, “Yeah, I’m proud of it!!”

This is not charity, he is working for everything – for room and board and for a paycheck. He is making his own way and I could write for hours about seeing all the incredible progress in him.

We are given the Holy Spirit when we believe and turn to Jesus as Lord of our lives, and Jesus makes His home in us. The Spirit of God will regularly speak to you if you fellowship with Him. He leads us on mission, give us guidance and direction, points us to ministries and connections.

He Speaks through His Word and He highlights people He wants us to go to. He is a Counselor, Advocate, Comforter, Guider, Empowerer, and He emboldens us. He removes fear and gives us power and love and self-control to do all the things He has for us. He will guide you into all truth, make the Word come alive to you, and will transform a person who is willing and humble. He can be trusted. If you have not been transformed and you know God, you need to be willing and humble, and you need to obey God in His Word, and sit with Him. It is the relationship that sustains you.

God is not far, we just have to show up. He wants us to seek Him with all our hearts, and then He adds all things to our lives that we need. Greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world. All glory and praise to Jesus our Savior.

I think one of the biggest parts to this testimony that God wants people to know is this: Anyone can be saved, healed, and delivered, but they have to be ready, and they have to be willing to do the hard things – to have fortitude. Those who are not ready will continue the same path. We can give people chances, but they have to do the work to transform their lives in partnership with God, and through that, God develops, perserverance and character, which leads to hope. God will enable them, but only if they are willing.

~Casey Alvarez

If you’re reading this and you need a transformation in your life, you can have it through God and your obedience.