I must have been around 15 years old. On several occasions I had the opportunity to join a Street Ministry run by CLA from Langley, BC. The church would provide coffee, sandwiches and leadership. We would meet up in Surrey to connect with one another over a devotional and some singing, and then we would take the SkyTrain to downtown Vancouver. Our stop was usually at the Granville Station where many homeless people were found. We would walk down Granville and Robson streets looking for people to offer words of encouragement, prayer, food and hot drinks. We often got into great conversations with people. We would usually get there by late evening and made sure to get back before midnight when the SkyTrain would stop going to Surrey.
On one of these nights, we were already on our way back home. It was probably around 11:30 pm. That night our group consisted of two strong male leaders, and probably around ten youth like myself. All pretty tired from walking all evening. We were all dispersed in our seats on the train.
Then two older, maybe mid twenties, guys stepped into the train. We looked up, but did not think much of it, until one of the guys started mouthing off one of our long haired male leaders.
Provoking our leader. The guy started yelling right into our leader's face.
“What are you looking at?”
Our leader gently responded:
“Can I pray for you?”
That only made the guy more angry. He was visibly drunk as well. He started hitting the walls of the SkyTrain and tore off his shirt. The guy kept spewing his angry cussing words.
Our leader said again:
“Can I pray for you?”
Our second leader wanted to step in, but the first one motioned for him to back down. The angry guy’s friend mostly stayed out of it. The rest of us were watching from our seats, many of us praying silently for the situation.
During the guy’s anger he started sharing how hard his life is and how people would not understand.
So one more time our leader said:
“Can I pray for you?”
and the guy calmed down and said...
“Yes”
Right there in the middle of the train the guy got on his knees and our leader stretched out his hand as he started to pray for him. So we all jumped up, surrounded him, and put our hands towards the guy to pray for him as well. When the prayer was over, the guy got up from his knees and gave us all a thanksgiving handshake with tears in his eyes.
This all happened within only a few minutes. Just at that moment the train was coming up to its next stop. There were already two security guys waiting for the guys outside. They must have seen the commotion on security cameras.
The two guys got out, and as the train was pulling away I noticed the guys anger return as the guards were aggressively trying to take them away from the station.
That day I witnessed God’s word played out. I saw the power of love and the power of God.
It was amazing.
Proverbs 15:1
“A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Written by: Ela