Hot chocolate for the soul

I’d like to share a story with you from one of our recent AOK evenings.  To provide the context, our team walks the designated route, handing out hot chocolate, and we usually stop by the skate park to hang out with the youth there for a bit. We all pour hot chocolates, sit and chat. On this night, we sat down with a group of young guys and asked if we could pray before we left. They all seemed really responsive and one guy spoke out and shared about his mom’s state of health, saying she’d been on medication for 17 years. Recently she had to have surgery, which she was finding so hard to handle. He was really upset and wanted us to pray for anything to help the situation. So we joined him and pleaded with God to step in. Two weeks later we saw the group again. After some conversation, someone asked the guy we’d connected with before how his mom was doing. In response his eyes lit up…”Dude,” he said, “My mom is totally healed! She is completely off medication after 17 years…it’s a miracle. God answered your prayers. Thank-you.”  I was shocked and couldn’t help almost crying on the spot when I heard that. I know that some of our street friends embellish stories, that’s the reality of addiction; but this guy was different. God used the innocence of a young man to show that he hears our prayers and answers them. Even in my doubt, I had to believe this story! Sometime it feels like I just go hand out some hot chocolate, have a conversation, sometimes pray and then move on…BUT there is more. We do those things, but God stays – he swirls around wherever we move, whoever we talk to and he lingers after. It’s beautiful and I’m so grateful that God moved the curtain that night and we got to see a bit of his plan in the life of  this son and his mom. He’s moving beyond the nights we go out. He finishes every conversation we start and has the power to continue to spiritually “feed” his children beyond our hot chocolate and muffins. Those little glimpses of answered prayers provide hope and purpose to keep on going, keep serving, and most importantly, loving the people God puts in our way well. He will do the rest.  Britney