Just 1 Reason

So, where was I? Oh yeah, the warehouse full of stuff. Well, after that, George was tired and off to bed. Stacy decided to show me the rest of the house. Yes, there was still more. I hadn’t yet seen the basement. Which, of course, holds amazing stories all of it’s own. Part of which are a couple in their 50’s living down there. I’ll share about them later. The basement is set up with part of it being a game room, I can’t remember exactly what was there, pool table, ping pong table I think. Couple of couches. And the other half is a dining room area, with a kitchen. Well, okay, it’s big, so more like a cafeteria, not dining room. This is where they have dinners every week, and where they have services. As in worship, preaching, ministry. I hesitate to call it a “church service” because our brain slips into religious slumber and we have a picture that goes along with those words. But, WE, people, ARE the church, and when we gather together and worship…well, that IS the church worshiping together. I just have a feeling that the Lewis House is not all about a nice, neat and tidy church service, that’s all. LOL!

The cafe/meeting area looks pretty rough. Hasn’t been remodeled down here yet. I would imagine that most “refined” people (translated:living life for their own purposes) probably wouldn’t sit down here eat on purpose. To me, it was SO beautiful! Because of WHO gathers and eats in this room! Which I will get to…don’t rush me!

Kelly, one of the interns who was showing us around this level, told us that they just had their first wedding there. Wedding and reception in the dingy basement hall. Now, you probably got married in a beautiful church with amazing windows overlooking some incredible scenery, and sweet church bells ringing afterward. But when you understand who the Lewis House is reaching out to…this was a reason for celebration all in it’s own!! I was imagining that the people who were married there probably would have just been standing in a courthouse to get married, had not George married them at the House. I could just imagine the excitement and celebration there the day of the wedding!! So, finally, off to bed. Not like I could sleep, but it was close to 2am, so I figured I had better try.

*The beginning of the Lewis House*

The next morning, I meet Sarah, Georges wife, in the kitchen for coffee. “Sarah”, I said, “Tell me how all of this started”. I knew I had just opened a door to the most beautiful sunrise in a story I had ever seen, complete with the song of morning birds singing:) Forgive me if I splotch some of the details, and Sarah, feel free to correct me on anything I share. 12 hours is not a lot of time to take in all that I took in that day!! I am so going to have to ask you to tell me this story again, because much of it is already so blurry, except what God burned into my heart.

Sarah tells me that her and George are 26 years old, and have only been married 2 and a half years. Both of them were part of a church in a ministry capacity, as a help to the Minister, I believe. George’s mom decided to look for a place for her frame business, and found what is now the Lewis House, up for sale. She bought it, but for some reason I can’t remember, asked George if he would like to buy it from her. So, he and Sarah did. But it was a MESS. BIG MESS. If I remember right, it wasn’t even livable at the time. They really didn’t have anything quite in mind with this house, but knew that God would use it somehow for ministry. The Lewis House just happened to unfold in front of their path one footstep at a time. I don’t remember the timing, but I believe this gentleman who has a construction company came to them and said that he wanted to help them remodel this house. A nice well-to-do couple, living in their own nice house. And not only was he going to work on the house, but they wanted to live there, in the basement, while they worked. They were also prayer intercessors. That would be the couple living in the basement. And the remodeled parts of that house are absolutely beautiful!!

*Hot chocolate, peanut butter and jelly, and buckets*

So Sarah is telling me that they still don’t quite know what they are doing with this house, but that they have it in their hearts to reach out to people in inner city Toledo. They started off making a giant water cooler/thermos full of hot chocolate down to the bus stops when it was cold, and handing out cups of hot chocolate to the people waiting there. She said many of the people there are physically or mentally impaired. They would give them hot chocolate and just tell them that Jesus loved them. Then their were times they would make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and go to the parks in the middle of the night and give sandwiches to the homeless people, and eat dinner with them there!!

Another outreach they started, and yes, this is outreach, TRUE outreach, was they took buckets down to this park where a group of Goth teens hung out all the time, and just played music on the buckets, like drums, and sang in the park. She said they were not exactly musically inclined, but the kids would come around. And they began to build relationship with them. That’s how they met Naomi. She was a goth kid that they reached with the gospel, and she gave her life to Jesus. Then her mom died. And her dad decided he really didn’t want anything to do with her or her brother, so he left. George and Sarah decided to take her and her brother in. They became the first residents in the Lewis House. And Naomi, she was rockin saved! Quite the fireball! And she just joined right in with the ministry that George and Sarah had begun. As I shared earlier, Naomi’s part of the ministry is the bread ministry. She takes bread to the homes in the inner city that are in need, and just gives them loaves of bread and tells them how much Jesus loves them, or prays for them, or whatever they need. She’s the official Bread Girl now.

*Bring them home*

Sarah said they did this all summer, meeting with those kids in the park, until it started getting cold out. Then they started praying, “God, what do we do now?” God said “Invite them into your home”. Her reaction…WHAT??? Those kids do lots of illegal stuff down there!! But God did not relent on what He said. George and Sarah decided they would feed them. They would make a spaghetti dinner on Saturday and invite them all to eat, and have hang out time, and worship and ministry. She said at this time, they barely had enough money to buy their own food, but took $20 and bought the stuff for dinner. She said for a long time, somehow, it was never more than $20, no matter how many people came.

So the outreach and purpose of the Lewis House was started with hot chocolate, peanut butter and jelly, and $20 spaghetti dinners; those who were emotionally and mentally impaired, homeless people, and forgotten kids in a park.

*And two became three*

Naomi and her brother were the first “mission house interns” to live at the Lewis House. Which, let me backtrack. Sarah said that her and George had no intentions of living at the Lewis House. They had their own apartment and were going to keep the house seperate for ministry. Except the cost of living for both places wouldn’t allow that, so they also were living at the Lewis House. So, Naomi and her brother are there. They are having a group over every week for dinner and worship. Somehow, I can’t remember how, George and Sarah met a crack addict named Diane. Diane had been addicted to crack for 45 years, since she was 10 years old!! Diane gave her life to Jesus, and came to the Lewis House everytime there was something going on. God delivered her miraculously from crack addiction, with no withdrawl!! The only problem was, she still lived in a crack house. So everytime she was go back there, there was nothing but trouble and problems. Diane had been giving her government check of some kind over to a couple of guys at the house who would spend it on crack. Every month. Sarah said that one day Diane was at the Lewis House, and these guys came banging on the door. They wanted Diane to sign the check over so they could cash it and get their drug money. Somehow Sarah convinced them to come back the next day, since the bank was closed. I don’t remember if they ever did or not, but that night Sarah decided they couldn’t ever send Diane back to that crack house again. She had already been praying about it for awhile, so that was when she made the final decision that Diane was going to stay with them. She was their third intern. And the one who would bring the love of Jesus to the crack houses.

Over the next few months, somehow word must have gotten out about what they were doing. I don’t know the details, but they began to get stuff donated to the ministry there. Lots of stuff! Such favor! And they also started taking interns into their program. The dorm area of the house was finished, and I believe they have 5 interns now. All there to go into the inner city and rescue the hopeless with God’s love.

*Deliverer*

Diane, Kelly, Eric, Amanda, Jeana, Me, Naomi, George & Sarah @ The Lewis House

It was a good 2 hours past when Stacy was suppose to pick up her friend at the airport in Detroit. We prayed that God had her on an assignment of her own so she wouldn’t be upset at the wait! (She did know we were late, so all was well) I didn’t want to leave without these people praying for me though. I wanted what they had. I wanted my eyes off of me, off of the “function” of the organization of the church, and onto those who we are called to go into all the world and be God’s love to. I was DESPERATE for that!! They all gathered around and prayed over me. I can’t really remember what any of them said. But I do remember Diane. The former crack addict. I knew she had a word from God to speak over me, and I told her so. So she came over and stood in front of me and began to pray and prophecy over me. I don’t remember at all what she said, but I do remember one thing. Standing in front of me, in a body named Diane, was Jesus, The Deliverer. I recognized Him. I remembered Him. I had met Him before…when I first gave my life to Him. That morning, My Deliverer took my hand and delivered me once again. He walked me out of complacency, out of the four walls of the church, and into the very purpose that I was put on this earth. And I’ve not been the same ever since.

….and I THOUGHT I was just going to Toledo for an awesome prayer and worship service!

As soon as I have time again, I will write and share about my recent trip to Grand Rapids. To a church without walls.