Taking “Uncommon” Steps

“When we first went out to the streets of Denver, my friend Cordelia prayed that God would give us a chance to see the full homeless experience.  We didn’t know what we were praying for.”

It was Natalie’s first time at the Denver Christmas Conference (DCC), and she wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Coming off of a tough semester as a sophomore at the University of Missouri Kansas City, she was hoping to be refreshed in her relationship with the Lord and have a fun break before returning to her challenging class schedule.  She never imagined she would spend a day on the streets of Denver caring for a disabled homeless man.  But God had planned an eye-opening afternoon for Natalie and a group of her friends at DCC.

This year around 1,000 college students from Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Illinois and Missouri came to the Denver Christmas Conference to spend a week growing in their relationship with Jesus.  On the last day of the conference, after several days of amazing worship and godly speakers, the students were challenged to participate in an Urban Insight Faith Experience.  They took cardboard signs out to stand on the corners to experience a small part of what it might be like to be homeless on the city streets.  At each determined stop, there were specific actions and prayers meant to open the eyes of the students and give them opportunities to interact with people in the city.

About half-way through their walk, Natalie and her group met Jimmy, who was in a wheel chair and homeless.  He was being pushed by a woman named Brenda.  They talked with him and shared food with him and then continued to their next stop.  On their way back, Brenda pushed Jimmy over to Natalie and said “This is as far as I go” and left.  Jimmy was unable to move by himself, and Natalie wasn’t sure what to do.  Jimmy asked to be pushed to the front of the building in hopes that he might be able to find a cab to take him to a hotel for the night.  He had recently been evicted and beaten.  Natalie and her friends decided to help him get a cab so he could get a hotel room, but what seemed like a simple 20 minute good deed soon turned into a 5 hour adventure in helping Jimmy.  That afternoon and evening, they experienced a slice of urban life through the eyes of a homeless man: injured and unable to transport himself, dreadfully cold without winter gear, ignored and turned away by taxis and hotels, threatened by aggressive men with weapons, and desperately lonely.

During the frustrating afternoon when nothing was working out for Jimmy to get a place to stay for the night, he asked Natalie the burning question on his mind, “Why are you all doing this?  You don’t even know me and you are helping me so much.”

“Jimmy, Jesus loves you and that means I do too. So I am going to help you as much as I can today. We are going to make sure that you have a place to stay tonight.”

Along the way they stopped at Arby’s for a break to warm up a bit, and as they were sitting together and chatting, Jimmy began to speak.  At first, Natalie couldn’t understand his words, but she finally heard him say, “I want what you all have. I want the Holy Spirit.”

In a beautiful moment at a simple Arby’s table, Natalie and Cordelia were able to hold Jimmy’s hands and pray with him as he trusted Jesus with his life.

Eventually, they were able to find a hotel and pay for a room for Jimmy, and also gave him information about the local rescue mission for free food and lodging for the next night.  What started out as a frustrating afternoon that did not go as planned ended up not only changing Jimmy’s life, but changing Natalie’s life as well.  As she returned to the last session of DCC, she realized she felt angry about the way the day had gone and how much time and energy it had taken to help Jimmy.  As the conference ended in worship, she shares her experience in her own words:

“It was in that moment that I saw the sin in my life.  My pride had caused me to view the whole day with an attitude that I wasn’t going to learn anything.  My desire to control the situation was like telling God that I was okay by myself and that I didn’t need Him.  My fear showed me that I didn’t truly trust God with everything.  I realized that all this was just a mirror to what I had been experiencing all semester.  Then, I heard the words to song the band was playing:

You are good; you are good when there’s nothing good in me. You are love; you are love on display for all to see. You are light; you are light when the darkness closes in. You are hope; you are hope. You have covered all my sin.

With tears streaming down my face, I lifted my hand to worship the God who used me despite my sins.”

Praise God that He moved in such “uncommon” ways to change lives through the Denver Christmas Conference this year.