Justin, one of the leader from Syracuse Vineyard, and his kids and I connected on the City Prayer tour on Tuesday and arranged to do the E2 experience together because we believed the Holy Spirit was connecting us and we wanted the kids to lead the way. Before the E2 outreach, I forgot my volunteer badge and felt prompted by the Holy Spirit that I would need my staff credentials to gain access to where we would be going. As we spent time praying and listening to God we felt he gave us the following clues to look for:
· Girls in pink shirts,
· bright red lips with vampire teeth, (I did hesitate and I wrote down "bright red lips with white teeth." and I left off the vampire word because I mistakenly assumed they were reading too many Twilight books.)
· women’s shelter,
· fountains & statues,
· library with an empty bookshelf,
· pornography, homosexuality, bondage, lust, prostitution
· barbed wire, fence
· royal blue and purple
We prayed together and I discerned we needed to head to Monroe- they have a prison (barbed wire & fence), Hustler store (pornography, homosexuality, bondage, lust), Solid Rock’s women’s shelter (bright red lips, prostitution).
We went to the Warren County prison first and prayed over the facility and gained favor with guards. I realized later, this is why I needed my staff badge as pastoral credentials needed to gain access to the prison. We learned everything you ever needed to know about prison life and function. One of the kids in our group had several run-ins with the law and we found out later that this had been a very eye-opening experience for him.
We had 40 minutes left and the group prayed whether to go to Hustler versus the Shelter. We drove past statues and fountains to the Solid Rock Home for Life and were greeted by 2 girls in pink shirts on the porch. The kids asked if they could pray for them and they were welcomed into the home where we were stopped by the front desk lady. She attempted to dissuade us, saying we could have prayed with them if we had called ahead. Wendy (VCC Healing Center Volunteer and attendee), miraculously materialized and was the director of educational services there. Pastoral credentials and her experience serving at HC childcare convinced her we were legit. She gathered more residents and us all in the chapel and the residents shared very descriptive testimonies about their lives with drugs, prostitution, losing kids to BCCS and how Jesus had changed them. I prayed over the group, asked the Holy Spirit to come and then the kids split up and paired with residents to pray and encourage them. Kylie Everett, (her family leads Destiny Rescue, a ministry that rescues women from the sex-trade) was a teen in our group and she prayed with a girl named Angelic who’d been on drugs since age 6 and a prostitute since age 13. She had bright red lips and was missing her 4 front teeth, so her canines appeared vampire-like.
The kids decided to give our money from the E2 experience to Wendy to bless the women in some way and as we were headed downstairs to leave, my eyes were drawn to the library where an empty shelf was prominently obvious. We passed the fountain and statue of Jesus on the way out and gave God the glory as we headed back to VCC.
Recently we received this letter from Wendy at the Solid Rock Shelter:
Hi Cindy!
I found your email off the vineyard site and wanted to say a big thank you on behalf of the staff and women here at the Home For Life regarding SOS and the amazing visit you lead. I thought it was awesome to hear how God lead you specifically to us. Those young people you brought left such an impression on these women-prayer, sharing, testimonies, financial gift...WOW! The women were blessed and it has truly impacted their faith and belief in God.
I also wanted to thank you personally for your faithfulness in leading in SOS and your ministry at the Vineyard. I would love to get together with you or connect somehow to see if you would like to do some future partnering with us-I know we had talked about it briefly-I think it would be great to connect. Thanks again for everything. Could you please send me your address and also the contact information for Justin (I think was the gentlemen you brought with you) and group from Indiana-we would like to get out a thank you card.
I look forward to hearing back from you!
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