Nathanael Rowe

Today I Came in to Westside early, around 11am to write out my Sermon for this weekend on being flexible, and instead God decided to just show me what it really means to just sit back and let Him have control. The following is all the seemingly random things that happened today.

A man came to the church asking for “El padre de la iglesia.” I am not fluent in Spanish, so it took me a while to understand what he was saying, but I caught on when I heard him say, “confesión.” He was asking for the pastor, so that he could say confession, a practice we are not very familiar with in the Christian Church. None the less, I pointed him to Sean, and he went on in to his office for confession.

Then Prophet Alonzo came in, and started sharing with me what God had been telling him through his word that day, and if you have not gotten a chance to hear the Prophet speak about God, then you are missing out. Anyway, he shared with me some stories from his life some failures of the flesh, and some conquering moments of the spirit. And how God has raised him up to be the man he is today. His story was impactful to me, and very inspiring.

While in the midst of the Prophet telling me a story about how he found himself ministering in an underground gambling club, Sean walked in. And we all started talking about what we see God doing in our lives and at the church.

Before I knew it, it was time to start setting up for Skateside, but before I did that, a guy a know from Skateside, who is 20 years old told me about how his girlfriend is four months pregnant, and was just sharing with me the burden he feels to now provide for his coming child, and hopefully his future wife. So I tried to counsel him on that a bit, but I really don’t know what to say to someone going through something I have never been through.

Then I went to set up Skateside, and Mike Donnelon and Daniel Timtim showed up.  These are some really cool guys that are responsible for building skateparks all over Long Beach.  In fact Mike had a lot to do with the Silverado park being put in just up the street from our church, and Daniel is helping run skate contest and put in some new skate parks near Poly High School. They came to give me a deck signed by Tony Hawk and Chad TimTim (Two Professional Skaters) as well as some other BMX riders.

While I was talking with Mike and Daniel, a guy came in to the church office and ended up talking with Alonzo and Sean. I was not there for this, but apparently they both started just praying over the man who was struggling with alcohol, and what seemed like some blatant evil spirits in his life.

As halftime approached I met a friend of Robert’s named Mark, who has been saved and clean for 8 years now, but had a crazy testimony about being in gangs and in and out of prison that he wanted to share with the Skatesiders some day. So I started chatting with him, about talking with the students in the next couple weeks.

Joe told me he wanted to do halftime, which I was planning on doing, but he just kind of felt the Lord telling him something, so we let him do it.  He ended up sharing this really intense story about how he got arrested just for hanging out with two guys who had sold some weed, and he ended up spending a week in jail. It was crazy, but I think the kids really connected with what he was saying.

Some of the Skatesiders did this.

As I was taking Joe to the metro, we decided to stop and get some food. He started telling me all about his family, and the gang violence in his neighborhood and the abuse he and his mom went through from her last boyfriend. How he had to watch this guy put a gun to his mom’s head, and a whole bunch of other violent crazy stuff. So then I started sharing with him about how it is hard to see while we walk through it, but God uses our pain to help mold us into the exact thing person he is calling us to be.

It was a great day, and I pretty sure I left 50% of it out.

Tonight we had our first community dinner put on by the youth.  It was actually pretty awesome.  We had a lot of people from all different places come and eat dinner with us.  We made some pretty simple, yet delicious spaghetti, and just hung out and ate with people.  The plan is to do that the first Wednesday of every month.

We had a few folks show up after we had already put some of the food away, one of which was of course Peter.  So we microwaved him up a couple of burritos, and gave him a plate of food too.  After we gave him some food, Matt one of my favorite skatesiders was telling me about Peter and how we shouldn’t help him cause he is mean and he will just waste what we give him anyway.  It was a great opportunity to sit Matt down and tell him what I believe to be one of the most important stories Jesus ever told.  I told him the story of the Sheep and the Goats found in Matthew 25, and then I asked him, “Matt, who do you think is the least of these in this neighborhood?”

He didn’t have to waste a second to answer, “Peter” he said.

“I think you are right Matt, and I think at the end of our lives Jesus is going to judge us on how we treated Peter.” I told him.

“But I’m nice to people who smell good, Peter is just messed up and he says crazy things about hurting people, and he is just gross.”

“Yes he is Matt, but I think when you stand before God, he is going to ask you about how you treated Peter, and he is going to count whatever you did to him as if it you had done it to Jesus himself.”

I was so stoked that God used the community dinner, and Peter, to teach a much more alive Bible lesson than I ever could have done in a sunday school room.