On Saturday, I was blessed to be a part of ACTIVATE, a workshop of loving people well. While there, you encounter amazing worship, hear amazing teachings on love, and hit the streets in teams to love others well. It’s really an incredible workshop, and on Saturday, a couple of our teams went to Carlsbad to pour out our love through God’s heart.

At one point, there were five of us walking down the sidewalk (two in front, three in back), when a couple, then a homeless man, passed by on the left going in the opposite direction. Henry and I were talking, and when the homeless man passed, I looked at him, said “You’re amazing,” and kept walking in conversation. All of a sudden, the man turned back to stop us, so we did and met a man who deeply needed to be loved.

His name was Robert. He didn’t even hear what I had said, but the mere fact that I spoke to him blew his mind away. We learned that someone had stolen his shirt. He had pants and a jacket on. He asked for thirty-eight cents, so I told him it would cost him prayers, that we would get to pray for him. Immediately, he wanted to join hands with us in the form of a circle, and “he” began to pray. Part of his prayer was vengeance on whoever took his shirt. Then, it was our turn.

As a friend named Melissa was praying, he began to cry. It was like a wall was broken down. He was very worried about crying. He was definitely taught that that wasn’t a “manly” thing to do because he kept apologizing. He was just so overwhelmed to be talked to, paid attention to, prayed over, hugged…loved. For a moment in time, he was so happy and a memory was formed in his mind.

How easy it is to BE love for people! For those of you who live in San Diego, if you ever have a chance to be involved in an ACTIVATE workshop, I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve never prayed for people on the street but would like to. God is amazing, and just speaking amazement into this man’s life grabbed a hold of his heart. We were so blessed to meet him, to hear his prayer, to pray over him, to love him!