The Story of Justin or The Story of How God Used Love Piru to Share. Some of you met Justin. He was the young man on Center Street that just enlisted in the Marines because he couldn’t get a job elsewhere. He goes to training camp in the fall, but it actually might happen earlier. Most certainly he will be stationed in the Middle East for a time. At first he was very reluctant to allow us to do anything for him but even so he did let Michele pray for him. We kept on offering to prune his roses and finally he allowed John, Dee Dee and the crew into his front yard. This led to other work being done. Eventually, when Michele left after the roses were cut he thanked her not only for what the team had done but especially for praying for him – because of that she went back and gave him a Bible which he promised he would read.
The Story of Leslie or The Story of How God Used Love Piru to Support. Few got the opportunity to meet Leslie. She is the young single mom who took her 6 year old to his baseball game as we were getting started on the day (I think I later overheard that he got a homerun!). When our prayer team approached her to explain that we were there from a local church and we wanted to minister to her by gardening or other help, she gasped. She explained that she had attended a Bible study for the first time ever just that Thursday and was planning to go to church in Fillmore that Sunday. She could feel that God was doing something very intentional in her life. (Incidentally, this was the house that as Bill was digging out a tree, he found a live large caliber bullet hidden underneath!)
The Story of David or The Story of How God Used Love Piru to Inspire. Most of you got to know David. David Matthews is the contractor, Street Captain and Piru resident that worked with us. In fact, I believe David worked as hard or harder than any of us at all of the houses . . . until we got to the one on the corner of Church and Central. There, he got real quiet. He kept saying not to worry about doing this or that. He could get to it later. It turns out it was his house. Humbly, he allowed us to do the work. As he saw Michael mowing his lawn (with a weedwacker) and Curtis trim his oak tree, he explained to me that he and his girlfriend had been wanting to go to a church but hadn’t found the right one. He asked for directions to Calvary and promised to attend this Sunday. He also said that he had been wanting to use his contractor skills to help elderly people in Piru, and that what we did was the inspiration for him to do that.
From Jonathan who led the Love Piru – Brown Team