healing

Hoping for a House Call

| Laura Lee Bonde

Yesterday in the park, God just brought people to me. I don’t know why it amazes me every time. It’s so His Character. He wants people to experience His nonjudgmental Love.

As soon as I sat down, I met a woman named Sandy. She was from Oakland (naturally blessed because she’s a Raiders fan). We began talking about her dog, her visit, her kids, and I told her what I do in the park daily. She liked that. Then, she opened up.

She told me that just the other day, she woke up with the thought that she’s wasted her life, that she hadn’t done well with the time that God had given her. I spoke into her heart how much God loves her, and that it’s never to late. When I asked if she’d like prayer for anything, she mentioned her son, who has an incurable sickness going on. Guess where he lives? Imperial Beach. I offered to go to him to pray over him. She said in surprise, “You’d do that?” I said, “Of Course!” She took my phone number for him. I hope he calls.

After I prayed for her, a homeless man named Dan came up. He was commenting on Sandy’s dog. I asked him questions about his life, his homelessness, his dog. At one point, he served our country oversees. As he was sharing, he stated that it was most important for him to feed his wife, his dog, and then himself. He showed me the food he’d found in the dumpster. He said, “People throw away perfectly good food all the time.” I offered him the candy canes I had in my pocket, but he said he needed to watch his figure.

He let me know where they sleep in the park. I’ll be walking with a friend today, so I’ll see if we can go visit them. God is so good! He loves so deeply, so uniquely. I love that he always has me around dogs. He’s softening my heart towards them, and it’s working.

Jesus is Lord

| Laura Lee Bonde

Sometimes, I make the kids laugh, but last night, I had the little ones cracking up. Here’s why:

Yesterday, as I was heading out on my lunch break, I asked the Holy Ghost where to walk. Then, I set off with the heartbeat of Jesus as my pace. I was telling Him I wanted to look like Him, talk like Him, hear like Him, smell like Him…I wanted to attract like He would.

As I walked on this one path, I started praying against twisted mindsets and saw two squirrels, so I decided to stop and talk to them. (This is where the kids started cracking up.) I told the squirrels, “Jesus is Lord.” Then I thought, “You probably already knew that.” From behind, I heard the crackling of leaves under footsteps. I realized I was talking to squirrels, so I turned to walk away, but this gentleman was approaching me, so I turned back around to meet him.

Within a minute, he told me that he had just suffered two heart attacks within a week. I was so excited that Holy Ghost had brought him on that path. I listened to him explain what had happened, how two stents were put in, how this had been the first time he’d been out and about since.

I asked him if I could pray for him. He said yes but stopped me to let me know that he didn’t believe in anything, that he was very “spiritual” but didn’t believe in Jesus, Buddha or anything else, but he said, “You can pray in whatever energy you believe.” I said, “I believe Jesus is Lord, and whether you believe or not, He’s still Lord. You don’t have to believe in anything. It’s me believing in my heart and praying through faith that will bring healing.” I touched his heart and prayed. Afterward, he said, “That’s good energy.”

He explained how his name was Michael because his mom had named him after the archangel. He thanked me, and we went our separate ways.

Later, I was blessed to pray for a woman who had the habit of putting everyone else first but hadn’t been caring about herself. I love how God cares so much to teach everyone their worth. She said that she’s always been protective of others but never protected herself. God touched her heart in an amazing way!

God loves so deeply. I can’t even imagine living apart from His Love.

Christmas Eve at the Beach

| Laura Lee Bonde

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Before I went with a group to take Christmas to the dump, I followed God’s voice to the beach. Let me explain.

On Tuesday (12/23/14), I was thinking about our trip to take Christmas to the people at the dump in Mexico, and I thought, “What about taking Christmas to people here?” That was the beginning of thoughts. Eventually, I had the idea of taking donuts to the homeless people on the beach in Ocean Beach, but I wasn’t sure if it was “my” idea or God’s.

As I was telling a friend at work, he said, “Even if you don’t do it, it’s a good idea.” Well, a good idea should be followed by action, so I told God, “If You want me to go, wake me up early in the morning, and I’ll go.” I carried on with my day, my night, set my alarm for almost 5 am, and went to sleep. Sure enough…God had a plan!

He woke me up at 4:07 am. I looked at the time and said, “Okay. I’ll go.” I made my coffee, enjoyed my time with Him, and got ready. When I walked into the donut shop, they had all these Christmas donuts, so I asked for two dozen. They looked so pretty and festive. 141224_0000

When I arrived at the beach, I didn’t see any homeless people, but I “knew” I was supposed to be there because I “knew” I heard God’s heart. I decided to sit on the wall where we normally do outreach and wait to see if someone would come by. As I approached the wall to set the donuts down, there they were. They were huddled in the sand down behind the wall, all snuggled up, trying to stay warm. I said, “Merry Christmas! I have Christmas donuts for you!” They were so happy.

A couple of them arose immediately to enjoy the donuts. A couple of them didn’t want to disturb the warmth they had obtained. I sat down with them and started to get to know them. God is so good!

Aries: she traveled from Portland Oregon to engage in “Black Sheep” and has been sleeping outside wherever she goes. She’s so young. Evidently, “Black Sheep” is a week long celebration in the woods where hippies gather to do drugs. It’s in Yuma. I had never heard of it. Following it is a “Rainbow” celebration where the drug-fest continues on. She had a sore throat. God healed her.

Robert: he was so blown away and so happy that someone thought of them to bring them donuts. He kept saying, “Thank you” with the happiest eyes and the biggest grin.

Matthew: at first, he was skeptical, but as I sat and talked with everyone, he softened up. He stayed in his sleeping bag and shared about parts of his life. He allowed me to pray over him. (In the end, he got up to hug me.)

Will: he stayed wrapped in his blanket for awhile but liked talking about our Savior. He was an older gentleman, whose eyes were blue at times.

After eating a donut, Robert went to the restroom and came back with others.

Simon: he’s been on the beach for awhile, scavenges for food and is often given drugs. He showed me his box of special necklaces, rocks, yarn, etc. It was his treasure box. He even played music for us. (You can imagine the type of music it was.)

Panda: he calls himself the original “Panda.” He’s been around at OB for a long time and is well known. He loved the donuts and sat and talked with me for a little bit.

Jacob: he likes to be called “Jake.” He was so happy to have Christmas donuts. He kept saying thanks and hugging me. Actually, there was a lot of hugging going on.

The whole time that we were all sitting around, talking, laughing…there was a grumpy looking man watching us, walking by at a distance, sneering. He never came over for a donut…just watched.

As we were talking, I asked them, “If I could gather up a donation of food, what would be best food to give you, while living on the beach. Cereal?” In unison, they all said, “Yes! Cereal! We love cereal.” The girl hollered out “Lucky Charms!” Which brings me to my next thought: collecting boxes of cereal for these precious ones.

It came time for me to leave, so I headed for the car. On my way, I came near the grumpy looking guy. I stopped and asked his name.

Larry: he was watching to see if I was being for real, what were my motives. He shook my hand, hugged me, and said, “Thank you.”

God is SO Good! He has the BEST plans.