5/29/2010
Morning was still new and the sun had just started to warm the ground, when we left the hotel. The second day was long; much longer than we had planned. From the beginning of the drive on Friday, we had stopped at rest areas along the way to anoint the ground with oil and pray. That day was no different, except we were on the turn pike so the rest areas were travel plazas. We pressed on to Atlantic City, wanting to reach there late afternoon or early evening.
Upon arrival, we immediately ran into a young woman in her late teens who asked for help. Her voice was so quiet, that I could only read them from her lips as she spoke. The young woman would be put on our hearts and be lifted in prayer again and again over the next couple days.
We found a small piece of beach, and anointed the sand and prayed. Jeff spotted a homeless man as we prayed and could not be contained. As he walked across the boardwalk, I continued to pray. The voice of the Lord spoke and said, “Those I sent to you; those that cross your path, love on them.” Two mornings before we left on the drive the Spirit had given me John 14:14, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14). It was with that promise that we called on the name of the Lord for those God put in our path.
As we walked the boardwalk, we saw families with their children, gambling houses and their customers, drug dealers and their customers, open street bars and their customers, hookers, satan worshippers, and elderly men and women in wheelchairs. The Spirit pointed out the ones we were to speak with.
As we walked, we saw an older woman who sat all alone with a small plastic cup in front of her on the boardwalk. The boardwalk was filled with people who walked by her, making a wide half circle to avoid coming close. The Spirit in our hearts would not let us pass her by. As we spoke with the woman, we felt her pain and her sorrow. Each of us put something in her cup, and each of us prayed with her. It would be easy to confess her sins to you, but they have been forgiven and cast into the sea. The Lord was calling her name and pulling on her heart. Jeff was on the boardwalk to minister to 10 or 20 people, but God had sent me there for that one woman – to speak into her heart and encourage her spirit.
There were many people that we ministered to in alms and in word, but the young woman and older woman are the strongest on my heart. A young man wanted prayer for a job at McDonalds; an elderly black man wanted to talk about the sins of the white man; one man, with everything he owned on his back, wanted the alms but not the word; another man cursed the name of Jesus and blamed God for the death of his son; a man with no hands desired prayer for his soul but never said a word about his hands. In the middle of a town designed to please the flesh, God has a presence and a plan. There are children of God lost in a confusing message of money and lustful pleasures. Atlantic City is an eye opening – right in your face – example of this world’s systems and temptations.
When we left Atlantic City, our plan was to stay in Philadelphia and visit Washington, DC the next morning. But there were no hotel or motel rooms in all of Philly or the surrounding area. We drove four hours, stopping at every town that advertised a hotel or motel, and found nothing until midnight. As we traveled on, it became obvious that God had a plan that we didn’t know about.