Being a missionary to the streets.

Yesterday I was downtown and though it is getting pretty cold, I was amazed at the number of panhandlers out. Over the years, we have seen an increase of homeless and those not homeless but still in need hanging out on the street asking for spare change.

I will be starting my 37th year ministering to the streets in Burlington, Vermont.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be doing this for so long and as my primary ministry.  It seemed right in the beginning, I was a hippie kid who just got saved and began to minister to other hippies like myself who were hanging out at the time downtown.  Coffee Houses were in vogue then, and there was David Wilkerson's book "The Cross and the Switchblade", which was a huge inspiration for me.  Arthur Blessitt  with his long hair and carrying the cross on the streets preaching in areas where the church did not go.  The Jesus Movement was in full swing, and people still had a respect for the bible and would listen to us, and people got saved.

But that was then, this is now.  the Jesus movement is over, Nobody has heard of the "Cross and the swithblade, and Arthur Blessitt.  And people no longer care nor respect the Bible.  And we are not seeing the numbers getting saved as we did in the early seventies.

Looking back, we had a lot more people who use to go out with us, seemed to have more committed people, more energetic, of course we were all in our early 20's.  We were not married, we did not have kids, and spent a lot of time sharing the gospel through many different means.

What will it take to really make a difference in ministry to the streets today?

#1 - We need more committed workers.  This is always an issue.  I have seen over the years many who come to me and tell me that God wants them to minister on the streets.  Most of them never do, and a few others come and work with us for a short time, but either get burned out or they want to do something on their own, and slowly fade away.  It is very hard to get people who can work as a team.  It is so hard to get people who are committed to the ministry, who can be consistent and show up.  And we need younger workers.

#2 - Churches must see the Streets as an important mission field.  Until the Churches locally see the streets as a mission field that must be reached, and must be one of the priorities, we will not get the workers or the support to do what we need to effectively minister out here.  We need Churches to commit to supporting us financially as well as with people.  We need youth!  Why not making this a priority for the youth group?  The homeless are getting younger and younger, and our workers are getting older.

#3 - We need powerful prayer support.  We have had difficulty getting planned prayer events supported.  We need prayer walkers, we need people to be downtown on Friday Nights praying while our teams are working.  We need people to sign up for our 24 prayer events.

I sometimes find myself looking back at what was, but what was will never be again.  Today we live in a different world, and we need fresh visionaries to be street missionaries who can be committed to reaching our streets to reach our city to reach our nation.

My wish for the new year, my 37th year of reaching out on the street, is to see 10 new committed workers, 10 committed prayer warriors, and 10 new financial partners.  Can we see revival on our streets?  Yes, we can.  Will we?  That I do not know.

Your Missionary to the streets,

Dave