The clue that church is working is when people bring their friends. Samantha brought her friend Rhoda to our Community Dinner Church and introduced us. “This is Michael, he is a good guy.” To be known and trusted by women on the street as “a good guy” is everything to me. Rhoda and I chatted for a few minutes with our conversation quickly turning to violence and God’s love. Rhoda’s arm was in a sling and broken. She was recently thrown into the street by a man looking for drugs. Rhoda began to cry and asked if we could pray for the man that broke her arm. “He must be struggling and not be in his right mind. Why else would someone do something like that?” To live on the street is to encounter violence and God’s love.

As people shuffle up and down the stairs eating chicken parmesan and cake, Rhoda and I bow our heads and pray. I pray for safety, peace, and protection for Rhoda and all of her friends living outside. Rhoda prays that the man who hurt her would know the power of God and his love. That he would be restored into his right mind and experience freedom from addiction.

“While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body (Mark 14:22).”

Michael Cox