Breaking More New Ground at SLM: Gay Pride Parade Outreach

This past weekend marked New York City's 44th annual Gay Pride Parade, as well as Street LIFE Ministries' first outreach to the Gay Pride Parade. Saturday we prayer walked the entire parade route beginning on Fifth Ave. and 36th St. and ending at Greenwich St. and Christopher St. in Greenwich Village. Akilah voiced what many of the team felt in writing, "The prayer walk was crucial to the parade ministry". The team was broken up in groups of two and set out to push back the powers of darkness as well as release the word of the Lord - words of life and healing over the area. We each felt the importance of what we were doing spiritually to prepare the way for the outreach on Sunday, as well as to make sure that God would receive glory through our prayers and lifting high His name. We concluded Saturday evening with more worship and prayer back at the SLM base. Sunday morning we left with eagerness and anticipation at what the Lord would do. There was tremendous favor for parking, setting up the table to pass out free water and lemonade, as well as participation and receptivity as our team used a survey to engage in conversation with those present. We recognized much of the fear some initially felt was intimidation from the enemy and an illusion to keep us from reaching out to those who identify as LGBT. They are people who need to hear the love and truth of God just like everyone else. Speaking of an encounter with a gay young man Angela shared, "Brian didn't ask for prayer for himself but for world hunger. I told him that was good but that God was interested in him. That Jesus loves him personally, which is why we were out there. Before leaving he said he liked our approach." We set out to represent the Lord, build relationship, and plant seeds, which we believed happened. We look forward to more opportunities to reach this community. 

The Fruits of Intercession

We met Ling at the Flushing Prayer Station about two years ago.  That day she requested prayer, asking,  “Can you pray for my brother to start going back to church?  He also has a very bad gambling problem.”  We prayed together that day for God to intervene on her family member’s behalf.  Her faith is evident when she seeks prayer for someone in her family.  The next time we connected with Ling she was very excited.  “Do you remember that I asked you to pray for my brother to start going back to church?  He went to church the very next day after we prayed!”  We have prayed with Ling a number of times since for her family.  A couple of weeks ago, she reminded us about what happened with her brother.  She further explained how he had an addiction to gambling for ten years and God instantly delivered him from it as a result of prayer.  Two years later, he has not gambled and he is also in a relationship with a godly woman in his church. We love hearing how God is showing His faithfulness to Ling and Robert as we pray together, and we want to thank you for helping make this possible through your faithful prayers and support as well! 

God Answered Robert's Prayers

A few weeks ago, Bobby and Jess met a man named Robert who came up to the Prayer Station in Flushing. He explained how he wanted prayer for his anger issues. At this point, he shared that he didn’t when have a job and that he kept losing his jobs because of his anger issues.  The next week, he saw them out there again and stopped to let them know that three days after they prayed for him, he got a new job! Bobby asked him if he could pray for him again and what he needed prayer for. Robert said he was having problems with a man at his job that had been bullying him. Bobby prayed for peace and joy for him and for the bullying to stop. Robert came back to the Prayer Station the following week and told them that, once again, their prayers were answered! The man who was bullying him was transferred to another department. Robert exclaimed, “When I pray with you guys, something good always happens!” It is such a joy to hear that prayers are being answered in such a specific and tangible way. Please pray for Robert, that as his prayers are answered, his faith in who God is and his own relationship with Him would be built up and deepen beyond what He has ever known before.

Beautiful One Celebrates One Year

As of May 2013, we have now been bringing God’s love to women in the sex industry for one year! Truly it has been a glorious year of favor, answered prayers, divine connections, and joy for those of us who have prayed for this ministry for many years. A few Saturdays ago, we had a party to honor and rejoice with those who have been involved from the beginning. It was a joyous time of recalling all that the Lord has done and how far the new ministry has come. Here are a few highlights:

• Sharing the Gospel with many women who come from a Buddhist background (in the massage parlors) 
• Hearing two ladies say that although they are propositioned constantly, they refuse to provide sexual favors to customers 
• Hearing one woman say that because of us, she knows she has friends in America 
• Watching one of our girls get baptized on Easter Sunday 
• Being taken out to dinner by two owners of massage parlors 
• Training five new team members in the past few months 
• Adopting several new massage parlors 
• Adopting four strip clubs as of March 20, 2014, the first day of spring. (The verse from which we got our name says that the winter is over and spring has come.) 
• Bouncer: “So you want to just come in here, give gifts to our dancers and tell them they’re loved?! Yeah, you can do that anytime!!” 
• Customer: “The Church is in the strip club?!” 
• Giving a female bouncer a rose. Later she emphatically declared that she would be the one to lead us to the dressing rooms.

Helping Jose Find A Church

A man named Jose, who was visiting from Boston for a few days, stopped by Tompkins for the first time last week. When Ryan asked him about whether or not he attended a church in Boston, he said that he did not because he had bad experiences with churches. So he sat with Jose for a while and carefully went over biblical examples of what to look for in a solid, healthy church body. He said that important qualities to look for include believing that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative word of God, loving prayer and devoting themselves to it corporately and privately, loving others, and being dedicated to the work of God in building up the body of believers and reaching out to the lost.

Jose was very thankful for the conversation. His ears really perked up when Ryan started talking about love because his past experience made him feel like the church only wanted him to come so they could get his tithe. Jose admitted that he had sort of given up on looking for a church to go to but said that when he got back to Boston, he was going to make more of an effort to find a church that lived out some of the things Ryan had mentioned. Pray with us for him to get plugged in with a church that can help him grow in his knowledge of the word and the objective realities of Jesus Christ.