Heaven Bound

      Waikiki at Sunset  

It would be hard to imagine a much more beautiful scene – Waikiki at sunset. But, for the dozens living homeless on the beach of one of the most sought after vacations spots in the world, it is anything but.  When the sun goes down, the beaches empty and people hungry from a day of fun in the sun flock to the nearest restaurant in hopes of finding, some of the best cuisine on the island.  But, for a growing number of others, dinner is a trip to the nearest trash receptacle in the hope of finding, the remnants of an afternoon hotdog or a forgotten slice of pizza, if they are lucky.

For the past couple of years, my friend Nan and I have going to Waikiki periodically for the express purpose of becoming acquainted with some of these people and for sharing with them both the gospel and a few physical necesssities as we are able. It’s been an interesting couple of years and we have met some people, we will never forget (both homeless and otherwise); for a day at the beach, when God is in control can hold some unexpected surprises!

In the beginning, we set out to take small packages of toiletries for giving out but, soon found that a sandwich far and away beat out a bar of soap as far as most are concerned, so armed with a few small bags of food, we made our way to the beach this past Saturday to see what God had for us.

As we made our way down the beach, we came to a large park area, where we could hear a man talking on a microphone.  A number of people had gathered around and were listening and several men were protecting a picnic table of food from flies and pigeons, who were hovering nearby hoping to score an easy meal.  We stopped to listen and although the man had a heavy Korean accent, it was clear that he was preaching the gospel.

Backing up on the story a little, when Nan and I arrived at Waikiki, we stopped to pray as is our custom, before setting out, but, this time, we prayed a little differently, this time, we asked God to bring to us those people, whose hearts were ready to receive the message. So many of the people, we have been talking to over the past few months seem as far from receiving the gospel today as the day we first met them. Sure, they are happy to see us, and sure they want a sandwich, they’re just not sure that they want to receive Jesus. A million excuses, (which, is fine, we love them anyway) but, this time, instead of us finding them, we ask God for them to find us.

As we were standing on the periphery of the group, a young woman walked over to us and ask us what was going on.  Very pretty with dark hair and eyes, she looked to be in her early twenties and was obviously someone, who was out to enjoy the beach for the day.  We told her, “The man on the microphone is preaching, he’s telling people about Jesus.” “Oh” she, said. Nan then ask her, if she knew Jesus and if he was her Savior. To which, she replied, “No, I’m Muslim”. Suddenly, trying to remember everything I had learned about Islam, my brain came up empty except to say, “Did you know that Jesus is mentioned in the Koran, but, only as a prophet, but, the Bible tells us that he is the son of God.”  “I’m not really observant”, she said, indicating that she probably did not much more about the Koran than I did. We then ask her to tell us a little bit about her self and she said, that she was just getting ready to start college. We told her that Jesus loves her very much and has a plan for her life and in fact, just meeting in the way we had was proof  – in other words, a divine appointment.  Warmly interested, she told us that her name was Farusa and, we ask, if she would mind if we prayed for her, to which, she said, “yes”, so there in the park the three of us held hands and Nan and I prayed for our new friend Farusa. And, while she did not make a decision at that moment, we encouraged her to go home and to ask God to reveal to her the truth about Jesus Christ and we assured her that if she asked in sincerity, God was sure to hear her and answer her prayer.

When we had finished praying with Farusa, Nan and I walked over to talk with the men, who were serving the food.  After introducing ourselves, we learned that they take turns with volunteers from various Churches bringing the gospel and food to the homeless in various parks around the city. But, they told us, donations were down and it was getting harder and harder to get food and volunteers together every week.  We took down their phone number and told them that we would be glad to help them and would pass on the word to others, who might be interested. 

Excited about our new contacts and our new friend Farusa, we were walking away from the park, when I saw a man, who appeared to be in his mid-late thirties standing with a bicycle by a trash can. He was very thin and had a back pack, whether, he was looking for bottles or food, I wasn’t sure, so, I asked him if he could use some food.  He hesitated for a moment and the said, “sure”.  As I was handing him the food, he said, “I saw you guys in the park and wanted to come over and pray with you, but, then didn’t.” I was very surprised as I couldn’t recall seeing this guy, but, then, it’s very large park and a lot of people were milling around – but, apparently, he had seen us and, had wanted to come over to us. I told him, “well, we can pray with you now, are you a Christian?” And, he said, “no, I’m Jewish.”  Nan and I looked at each other and were blown away – first a Muslim woman and now a Jewish man -and, he had wanted to pray with us!  I ask him what he had wanted to pray about and he told us that he was very stressed; having difficulty getting his life on track and, had even once been homeless himself.  He then confessed that he felt very far from God and unable to fulfill the things the law (Jewish) required.  To which, I responded, “that’s exactly, the point, we can’t and that is why God sent the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua”. We talked some more about the commandments and I could see that he was familiar with much of the scripture and had probably grown up in an observant home. I mentioned that we had just observed Passover and that we had held a Seder of our own and he seemed shocked that Christians were interested in Passover and sad that he had not been able to attend a Seder himself. I ask him his name and he told me, it was  “Moses”.  His name was Moses. 

He seemed a bit distracted and kept saying, should he or should he not go in swimming as it was getting late and the sun was soon going to be going down. Finally, he decided, yes, he would swim, but, he wanted to pray first. So the three of us sat down on the edge of the sidewalk facing the ocean and with Moses between us, I began to pray. Using every Hebrew word and phrase, I had ever learned, I prayed for Moses.  And, as I prayed, I felt his arms go up as he placed a hand on each of our shoulders, as is the custom of Jewish men, when they meet for prayer. What a touching moment it was!   When, we had finished praying, we said, goodbye, and God-speed and Moses thanked us for sharing our “wisdom” with him and for praying for him and, we in turn, encouraged him to seek Yeshua for himself, knowing that God has promised that if we wholeheartedly seek him, we will find him. (Jeremiah 29:13).

What an amazing day it was. A day of double blessing! For God more than met our expectations by bringing these two very different people our way – both representative of two people groups very much at enmity against one another.  One Muslim and one Jewish, one male and one female; both in need of a Savior. 

Please pray this week for Farusa and for Moses that they might sincerely seek the truth about Jesus Christ and that they might soon come to salvation.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper who love thee”  Psalm 122:6

Watching and waiting with YOU for the soon return of Jesus!  Cindy