Handing out chocolate chip cookies wasn’t enough, Sarah finally decided. The need of the street kids was great, and she had come to love them enough to do whatever it took to help them. So Sarah started a dinner bible study at her home. Several days a week, she would arrive at the square and invite the street kids to come home with her. At first, there were only a few who came, but those who did got hot showers, a home made meal, and a heartfelt devotional about Jesus. Not so long after the time started, many street people wanted to come. Sarah would take several 20 minute shifts to shuttle the homeless people from the square to her house. Somehow, 40 to 50 street people would pack into Sarah’s house, welcoming the time to be loved by this selfless woman.
By this time it wasn’t enough for Sarah to bake cookies and do Bible studies. She wanted to do more. What the street kids needed most was a home, a shelter, a place to be protected from the cold, the rain, the wet, and the predators of the street. So Sarah took a risk. She opened her home to be a shelter for street kids. Sarah prayed that Jesus would send her the hardened kids first. She decided that when He got through to the tough kids, their witness would bring others to Him. So Jesus answered her prayer. Sarah gained the trust of the hardest street kids on the scene. Hardened drug addicts. Prostitutes. Broken runaways. Men. Women. Children. All were accepted in Sarah’s home, so long as they observed the respectful ground rules she set up.
Years went by. Sarah continued to love the street people just as Jesus loved. And she began to see miracles. The same God who did wondrous things in the Bible came alive to Sarah as she saw Him work the same for her. He softened the hearts of the street kids. He gently called them to Himself. And they changed.
Somehow, a banker heard about Sarah’s work. He was taken by her love for the street people. “I want to fund your work” he said. He bought two additional houses to operate as shelters for the street kids. Then he rented out another building so that more people could come to Sarah’s bible study.
“I know that I wasn’t born to this earth just to live” Sarah said. “What is the point of living if you are not going to give as Jesus did?”
Sarah is just another ordinary person who walked downtown and stopped passing the square that was full of needy people. Sarah is simply a servant of the living God who wanted to be His hands and feet to those who need Him most.
(Part two of a three part story....Read part 1 below)
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