CD came to the prayer meeting tonight because he was in trouble.

Just yesterday,Luis had approached him while he was sitting outside. The young adult seemed at death’s door and the intensity of his heart break was on his face. Luis was moved to share words of encouragement and promises from Scripture with him even though he barely knew him, except as the son of a distant neighbor. Luis invited the young stranger to come with Him to the HoPE meeting at his church the next day on Wednesday.

What happened next was nothing short of God’s love poured out. CD shared with the group tonight that he had been feeling lost and afraid when Luis found him and he expressed his thankfulness for the kindness of this stranger turned spiritual mentor. Even though he wanted to come tonight and needed to, his day had been filled with distractions. He almost hadn’t made here tonight. He then cried out that he needed God very badly. He didn’t want to get drunk and didn’t know why it happened but wanted to stop. Men got on their feet forming a circle around him while the rest of us earnestly joined in prayer for CD to be set free from the addiction of alcohol and to find peace.

The Holy Spirit was empowering us to disciple and support each other. When I invited  Felix to sit by  the young man as he returned to his seat, I didn’t know that Felix had already prayed earlier that day  for God to send him someone for him to pour his life into.  “He’s my son now,” Felix said with tears in his eyes.  CD will have godly men like Luis and Felix checking up on him this week, praying for him and supporting him on his journey of recovery. Please join us in praying for him,too as he takes steps toward accountability and community.

And just as poignant for us was to see how God brought alive the Bible text that was our focus tonight.

Luke 5 :17 to 26  is the story of some men who brought a paralytic man on a mat and placed him  at the feet of Jesus.  CD became that story come alive. God is still in the business of using people to bring people into His healing presence. There are desperate times when we can’t do it for ourselves and need friends full of of faith to bring us to Jesus. Similar to what happened at the ending of Dr. Luke’s narrative,we walked away while expressing our awe at the remarkable things that God had done tonight at our HoPE meeting.