Clear 2012 - Week 6

Week 6 - Shreveport, LA

Week 6 for us has been back home in the lovely state of Louisiana.  After being in Chicago for three weeks it has been good to be home for a short while before heading down to the Houston, TX area.  

All week we have been working with a ministry called The Hub Urban Ministries located in downtown Shreveport.  What we’ve been doing is working right alongside them in what they are already doing.  

The Hub works with homeless and low income people in the bottoms, a neighborhood located here around downtown Shreveport.  We’ve played bingo at the hospitality house, walked around to different places passing out flyers for events, hung out and talked with people in The Basement (one of The Hub’s locations), and helped with two different community meals in different places.  

Through all of this, I’ve once again seen God do some crazy things.  Before I go any further, I’ve had a hardened heart to this class of people for a while.  I don’t know if it was the what I was taught growing up in school or throughout life, but I haven’t really cared for or liked this social class.  (I only use “social class” because I know no other way to describe it.)  What I’ve learned is that not every homeless person is greedy and expects handouts from others.  Yes, there are those, but our team has had some great conversations with people who are very ambitious and want to work for what they’ve been given.  

Another great part of the week was when we held a water day at the park for neighborhood kids.  It was fun just to watch kids be kids.  I’ve learned that some of these don’t really have that opportunity in their home environments for whatever reason.  We also got to show kids a small portion of God’s love.  One of our guys held a small girl for a long while because she just wanted to be held.  I can only imagine that she doesn’t really experience that at home, and as I think about it now, it kinda breaks my heart.  

God has also shown me a lot about Spiritual Warfare this week.  I began asking God to show me what it looks like in my life, and the lives of others.  Well, I learned that God does answer prayers in a whole new way by showing me that very same day.  It didn’t click till later, but I got to see someone very close to me struggle through a good bit of troubles as we started off.  He showed me later in the week how I can easily let my flesh be a hindrance to the movement of His Spirit.  This was also one of those that clicked later on when I was discussing something with some of our team members.  So I’ve learned firsthand what Spiritual warfare looks like and it’s not pretty.  But our strength lies in the fact that in the end, Satan is defeated.  

Anyway, The Hub is an amazing ministry here in the Shreveport area. They have been working hard in this area to build a reputation as an organization that loves people and the community here sees that.  The Hub is solely supported by donations from individuals and local churches.  Since I can’t give you all the information about them check out The Hub website here.  

I look forward to sharing with you about H-Town next week!

David