“Jane” isn’t out working on the streets because she’s forced to be. She wasn’t abused as a kid and she has a mother and father who love her. In fact, she’s married and has a couple of kids of her own. “I choose to work out here” she tells us; and then the pain starts to surface……. I have a drug problem”.

We had this conversation with Jane after first being completely rejected when we met on the sidewalks of Lake Street at 1 am in the morning. Source urban outreach ministry takes the love of Christ, sandwiches and personal care items to the street farers of Lake Street, Minneapolis to reach the hurting and suffering people of our city.

Jon our Urban Outreach Coordinator continued, we started to hit a lull around 1:30am and figured we’d pack it up and head home. As the ministry team started to gather in a circle to reflect and pray, Jane walked by and yelled at us “hey”, then a bit louder “hey, I want to say I’m sorry. I’m not a mean person but my parents told me never to be around Christians.”

Jane told us her story of how her family was mistreated by the church.  Her parents and grandparents were forced to stop speaking in their native language and forced to stop traditions held in their native community. We represented a painful past for her family. She told us that her husband did go to church and he thought it would be good to go back to us and apologize.

God gives us divine appointments, and I believe this was one! Jane’s husband was a person of peace, our ministry team intended to show the love of Christ and she was hurting. There needed to be reconciliation, there needed to be an apology, and there needed to be forgiveness.  That didn’t happen but this was a start. This was a divine appointment… where we could show kindness and love and she could be tender and vulnerable to people who she’s been warned against. We are hoping that we can have more connections with Jane so we can introduce her to the God of transformation. The God that would rather die for her than pick up a stone to punish her.