The unannounced christma.., p.24
The Unannounced Christmas Visitor, page 24
Let nothing, most of all your shy personality, stop your voice from being heard for Yeshua. From this day forward, never fail to acknowledge Him to anyone. For by so doing, He will acknowledge you to His Father in Heaven.
Tiwanna, I will surely miss your fiery spirit and endearing smile. It was my distinct honor to watch you come so far in so little time. You are a kind and generous soul. Keep giving yourself fully to the work of the Lord. Press on daily knowing that your labor will never be in vain.
If and when others treat you badly, always counter by being Yahweh’s living love letter, knowing the problem is with them and not you.
Tiwanna closed her moist eyes, trying to comprehend that she’d just been mentioned by name, by a real live angel.
Seeing that her name was next, Suzie braced herself. To my dear Suzie, I truly enjoyed watching Yahweh slowly but surely transform you from the inside out, these past few weeks. Never lose sight that even despite your present handicap, your eternal dwelling place is so magnificent, so wondrous, the human mind cannot begin to describe it.
Not only will you walk again, you will also fly just like me! Your wheelchair is not welcome here, my dear precious child of God, only you are. But until that day arrives, keep dwelling in the Scriptures and living the sober life. I look forward to seeing you again someday…
Like a projectile, a tear shot out of Suzie’s eye, splashing the card and the new pink gloves she received from Grace.
The “temporarily” handicapped woman closed her eyes and broke into joyous sobbing. Tears eased out from under her eyelids, one after the next, and slowly trickled down her frosty, chapped face.
Seeing she was unable to continue, Tiwanna took the card from Suzie.
Glancing at Pedro, she read, Pedro, the things I have come to admire most about you are your true repentant heart, your unending hunger for the ways of God, and your deep yearning for the lost. Never let the comfort of four walls and a roof over your head extinguish this burden Yahweh has placed deep inside your heart. Keep fighting the Good fight down there. Fulfill the Mission for which you were called, and keep redeeming the time until Yahweh restores what the locusts have eaten away in your life.
Leroy, words cannot properly express the joy I felt watching you go from one life extreme to the other. The moment Yahweh rescued your soul from perdition, I knew you would be the one chosen to replace me one day.
Our Maker made a wonderful choice! Kindly see that my personal belongings are distributed accordingly, with one exception: the green blanket. Since there is no official torch to pass along, as the new city park spiritual leader, please accept it as a small token in memory of me.
The leadership Yahweh blessed you with at birth is desperately needed at the city park! So keep pressing on, mighty warrior, and always be a Mission waiting to happen. Your reward will be great!
Normally the talkative one, Leroy was rendered speechless. He lowered his head and brushed tears from his moist eyes.
Tiwanna finished, I look forward to seeing many of you again at the time of Yahweh’s appointed choosing. Hopefully Troy, Dillon and Rocky will be among them. But that much is up to the three of you.
Until we meet again, I challenge each of you to cherish this brief but blessed opportunity Yahweh chose for you to be alive at this precise moment in history, playing a small role in His eternal plan.
Merry Christmas, my dear fellow parkies. I love you all so dearly.
Tiwanna folded the sheet of paper and handed it back to Suzie.
Pedro said, “Now I understand why he never told us where he came from. How can someone properly explain Heaven to us lowly humans?”
Tiwanna removed a glove to wipe tears from her eyes. “I can’t wait to see him again someday.”
“Me too,” John said. There was this ever-present glow on his face that wasn’t there last time they met.
Tiwanna’s eyes widened. “No, really?”
“Yup, I officially became a true child of God last night!”
“Praise God!” Tiwanna embraced her new brother in Christ.
“Welcome to God’s family, John!” Pedro said.
“So, you were Enoch’s Mission after all, huh?”
John paused to consider Leroy’s comment, “I think it’s safe to assume Enoch was answered prayer for all of us. So, in that sense, we all were his Mission. Because Enoch truly was who he said he was, his actions provided the perfect example for all of us to follow.”
“True that,” said Tiwanna.
“If Enoch can do it, why can’t we, right?”
“Right, John,” Suzie declared, raising her hands skyward. She looked like Sylvester Stallone in the movie, Rocky, only in a wheelchair wearing beggar’s garments.
John handed the green blanket to Leroy. “I think this belongs to you.”
Leroy clung to this most prized possession wondering, How can I possibly replace a real live angel?
“You can’t replace him, Leroy,” John said, knowing what his friend was thinking, “but you can rest assured knowing that you’re off to a very good start as the new city park spiritual leader. I mean, look at me. The impact you made the other night was nothing short of life-changing.”
The two men embraced.
“I look forward to seeing you at the next feeding, brother.”
“Me too, John. Me too.”
JOHN’S PARENT’S LEFT AROUND 8 p.m. that night, with the same level of concern and disdain Lydia’s parents had shown toward Enoch.
John’s mother kept looking at her son as if he had lost his cotton-picking mind, for allowing a stranger to live in their house.
His father was more of the happy-go-lucky type. Now that the old man he refused to call an angel was gone, concern was replaced with peace. “All’s well that ends well,” he had said, leaving it at that.
But John was now convinced that his father’s statement was only true for those who belonged to God. Now that he was counted among His children, he looked forward to one day sharing in the magnificent eternal liberty everyone in Heaven gets to experience.
John’s prayer from this day forward would be that his parents and in-laws would all come to faith in Christ Jesus. Only then could they, too, experience the greatest miracle that could ever happen to a person, the soul-saving miracle of receiving God’s salvation.
Before going to sleep, for the second time this day, the Jensens dropped to their knees on the living room floor and prayed together, as a family. Soon after they were bedded down for the night, they were confronted with yet another shocking revelation.
Grace couldn’t stop thinking about Enoch. After a while, she quietly got out of bed and tiptoed down the stairs in complete darkness.
Plucking the still-wrapped gift she got for Enoch from under the Christmas tree, she dashed back up to her room and turned on the light. This way, whenever she missed her second-best friend, all she had to do was look at the picture frame.
To her great surprise, when she unwrapped the package, Enoch’s image was no longer displayed in the photograph.
Only hers was there.
Grace burst into her parent’s room, “Look!” she yelled.
As her startled parents slowly adjusted their blurred vision onto the picture frame, Grace stormed Matthew’s room and practically dragged her still-sleepy brother into their parent’s bedroom.
Lydia turned on her tablet, and frantically waited for her Facebook page to open. Sure enough, all photographs and videos taken of Enoch were gone. Everyone else was still there, only he wasn’t.
Grace started weeping.
Gathering his little girl into his arms, John felt like weeping too.
He kissed Grace’s right cheek and said, “Only his image is gone, sweetheart. Nothing can ever remove Enoch from your heart and mind. Whenever you find yourself missing him, you have the power to recall the many wonderful memories you have of him. And never forget that you will see him again someday...”
Grace smiled. It felt good to take comfort in her father’s words again.
John stared at his family sitting on the bed with him. A smile broke across his face. After seven long difficult months, he felt incredibly blessed again to have such a wonderful family.
He silently vowed to never take them for granted ever again.
Grace was right. This really is the best Christmas ever! Hallelujah!
Epilogue
THE GREATEST THING TO happen as a result of Enoch’s letter being read aloud at the city park was that it finally caused Troy, Dillon and Rocky to examine their own lives, and the dangerous direction in which the three were headed.
The fact that the coolest old man they ever met was no man at all, but a real live angel, gave them a supernatural high that no drug or alcoholic beverage could possibly duplicate.
Confused by what Enoch meant when he said he was hopeful of seeing them again, but that much was up to them, gave Leroy and Gang the perfect opportunity to explain the Gospel to them while they were still sober-minded.
After sitting under Leroy’s tutelage all week and hearing God’s clear-cut plan of salvation, the trio became convinced that God really did love them. Even though He foresaw their every fault and every sin, His heart remained fixed on them despite it all.
To prove it, God sent His own Son to die in their places.
With their spiritual eyes and ears opened, the three-former wannabe grunge rockers finally saw Calvary for what it was: God’s supreme demonstration of Divine love. With great joy, they became the city park’s newest members of God’s eternal Family.
When the Jensens arrived for the last feeding of the year, on New Year’s Eve, they rejoiced upon hearing the wonderful news.
While eating their lunches, Rocky pulled Lydia aside and, speaking on behalf of the three of them, asked her to hold their government-issued cards that were set to reload electronically the following day.
For the first time in the four years they were homeless, they wanted to be drug and alcohol free.
“Instead of using the funds for drugs and alcohol,” Troy had said, “we want it to go toward food, clothing and grooming products so we can look more presentable when we go looking for jobs after the new year. Having the cards in our possession will only cause temptation for us.”
Lydia happily agreed to their wishes, and even offered to take her three brothers in Christ shopping whenever she was needed.
A few days later Troy, Dillon and Rocky found work. Two weeks after that, they were no longer homeless.
To start, they rented a cheap hotel room not too far from the city park, until they found a small two-bedroom apartment to share.
At the next feeding, all three gave their testimonies, explaining how God had saved their souls. In a hopeful attempt to encourage his former parkies, Dillon ended by saying, “They say most people living in homes are only a few weeks away from being homeless. Let this day serve to remind you all that the same is true with homeless people, only in reverse. We did it. By the grace of God, you can too!”
Everyone clapped their hands. It was a touching moment for all.
Before leaving the park that day, to everyone’s great surprise, Wanda, the quiet and shy one, insisted on closing out the session in prayer.
Tiwanna was the most shocked of them all. As she listened to her best friend praying, she shed many tears of joy.
Troy, Dillon and Rocky became members of John’s and Lydia’s church the following Sunday, and even got to put their musical talent on display, on occasion, with the church band. They went from having too much time on their hands at the city park, wasting their lives away, to leading busy and productive lives in the service of their Maker.
They never missed church on Sunday. Nor did they ever miss a Wednesday night small group Bible study John Jensen had started at his residence shortly after the new year, or a Celebrate Recovery meeting at their church. And they certainly never missed a feeding at the city park.
These four things quickly became the pillars upon which God was rebuilding their new lives in Christ Jesus.
As the Jensens, and their growing army of volunteers, fed the homeless each Saturday afternoon—to include local businessmen and women, churchgoers, college students, teenagers and even toddlers—Troy, Dillon and Rocky provided all the worship music.
Their music style didn’t change all that much. What changed was instead of singing songs about things that had totally consumed them for so many years—sex, drugs and rock and roll—now stone in love with Jesus, all songs glorified the One who rescued them from the pits of hell not too long ago, and completely delivered them from drugs and alcohol along the way.
A couple of weeks into the new year, Pastor Flores, encouraged by what he kept hearing from others, joined them at the city park to share the Word of God with the homeless before serving them meals.
A dozen or so members from church joined him that day, including Ann Chen. Ann was forever changed by the experience and came to love her new friends at the city park. Whenever she saw any of them in church, she practically begged them to sit with her.
Many other pastors in the community followed in Pastor Flores footsteps, by volunteering their time as well.
Regardless of who preached on Saturday, Wanda closed each session in prayer. It was her special way of openly acknowledging her Maker to everyone within the sound of her steadily rising voice.
Wanda looked forward to telling Enoch all about it someday...
THREE MONTHS LATER, EVERYONE’S joy knew no bounds when Pedro came to feed one Saturday afternoon. What made this day particularly unusual was that he wasn’t alone this time. And there was a certain bounce in his step that none of them had ever seen before.
The reason was the young girl walking beside him, hand in hand. She looked taller and a little older than in the photograph Pedro always clung to in his days living at the park, but it was undoubtedly his daughter, Erica.
The eleven-year-old felt awkward at first being showered with hugs by a bunch of homeless people. But after being introduced to Matthew, Grace and Matthew’s best friend, Bryce—who now came each week—Erica was able to find comfort in the company of those in her age range.
The smile on Pedro’s face as his daughter fed the homeless was so wide, a small bird could have easily flown inside his mouth.
After just one feeding, Erica was hooked and promised to come back whenever she was in her father’s care.
THANKS TO JOHN JENSEN, Tiwanna, Wanda and Suzie also found places to live; one place, rather. The mother of one of John’s coworkers had a four-bedroom house she’d lived in for 53 years with her husband, until he died leaving the grieving widow incredibly lonely and all alone.
Her children had tried on several occasions to persuade their mother to sell the house and move to an adult community, where she would receive constant monitoring. The 73-year-old mother of five, and grandmother to twelve, stubbornly refused each time.
Her most common reply was, “Your father spent his last night on earth in this house. I plan on doing the same thing!”
The only solution to curing her loneliness was to find Christ-centered females to move in with her. On John’s word that Tiwanna, Wanda and Suzie were dedicated Christ followers and that all three were completely clean and sober—and on John’s guarantee to make things right if the need ever arose—the women were invited to stay rent-free, the first six months.
In lieu of cash, the three women were expected to maintain the house and property. Suzie kept herself busy throughout the day folding laundry, ironing clothes, sewing, loading and emptying the dishwasher, and dusting the furniture, while Tiwanna and Wanda did the things Suzie couldn’t do.
After just one month, the house and grounds never looked better. Grateful for having a roof over their heads, it was the least they could do, for the woman who lovingly took them in.
The elderly woman grew quite comfortable having the three women living in her house. What she looked forward to most were the 7 p.m. Bible studies they had each night, followed by rigorous prayer.
It was like having church each day without ever leaving the house. The old woman came to love Tiwanna, Wanda and Suzie like her own family.
IN MID-MARCH LYDIA celebrated her fortieth birthday. She ended up having two parties; one at home and a surprise party at the park. One day after the feeding, those who were the object of her kindness the past few months, formed a circle around Lydia and surprised her with a cake they’d purchased themselves.
Led by Troy, Dillon and Rocky, the City Park Choir sang Happy Birthday to the woman everyone had come to deeply love and respect, then presented her with a framed gift, Lydia hung on the wall above the front door when she arrived home. It read:
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it”
(Hebrews 13:2).
TRUE TO HIS WORD, Leroy remained homeless knowing it was where God wanted him for now. But with one stipulation: after every Saturday feeding, the new city park spiritual leader gathered all dirty laundry from his fellow parkies and took it over to the Jensen residence, where he slept each Saturday night.
After taking his weekly hot shower, Lydia and Grace helped him with the mountain of laundry that needed washing.
After church service, as John drove Tiwanna, Wanda and Suzie home, Lydia and the children dropped Leroy back at the park with several bags full of clean laundry. Then another sermon was preached for all who were interested.
Sitting on his tattered green blanket, the City Park Preacher ministered to the steady flow of new homeless people to his domain.
Most were troubled souls battling various debilitating addictions. But just as God had loved him at his darkest, Leroy was committed to loving his fellow parkies through their darkest times as well, by extending the same measure of grace he was given, not too long ago.
The Jensens constantly reminded Leroy that he was always welcome to stay with them full time. He politely refused each time, saying he was a “Mission waiting to happen” at the city park, just like someone had once been for him.
