Please pray for Brandon…

This email was posted on this  blog today. Please pray for Brandon.
Natan

20966808

Sir,

I don’t know if you remember me. I contacted you a few months ago and asked you some questions, commented on your youtube a few times.

Im asking you for prayer. I wish I had the money to eat kosher, but Im constantly facing poverty and homelessness. I have been homeless a few times. I had a job for 2 years but recently tried to take a step up in life and fell down. Now I am wondering what to do, I might move into a homeless shelter in the city.

But anyway Im asking you pray for me sir. I remember most Churches I have ever been too I was homeless going through a rough time and they just looked at me and didn’t really care or even bother to put me in a warm bed for a night, and when I was dressed in rags they really didn’t care. I slept out in the cold, under bridges, clothes torn and worn, attending their Church and they treated me like a leper. People wouldn’t even approach me. I was a burden to them.

I was not too impressed with these “brothers and sisters”. I believe in Isaiah, thats where God talks about clothing the needy feeding the homeless. Hes all about helping people and the Apostle Paul said he was “eager to remember the poor”.

However most “Christians” I meet are so far from him. I don’t know of any Torah observant ministries around here to disciple me, and there aren’t many jobs where I am out in the country. I don’t have a car and Im on the verge of going homeless again.

So I might move into the city and be homeless again. Maybe I will meet more Christlike and Apostle type Christians and maybe they will help me. Please pray for me I dislike sleeping outside on the ground. I will if I have to but its not my favorite thing to do.

Just make a special prayer request for me ok? By the way, keep using those goofy glasses!

Your distant friend,

Brandon

 

5 thoughts on “Please pray for Brandon…

  1. will do ,wow so many of people who follow God failed him they must be going to the wrong church, I guess people in the church with fancy duds are brother and sisters and don’t consider anyone else brother or sisters only who they want, but we have them all over the world homeless or not homeless they are still are brothers and sisters, they should know God might test them one day to be in his shoe’s it wont look pretty for them.. I’m sure God is testing this man for something tougher and better, hang in there..

  2. Will pray for Brandon. Sorry to hear of his difficulties. Is there a way we can help him, Natan? May not have much, but if we all give – it can make a difference. Please keep us informed, and yes! Prayer is going up!

  3. I am troubled with this man’s accusations and complaints against fellow believers. I would ask him to give me the names of the churches who turned him away and go to them and respectively listen to their side of the story. I have been in churches for over 30 years and not once have I ever observed someone in need being turned away. His letter made me think of the Scripture in Revelation that talks about “the accuser of our brothers…who accuses them day and night before our God.” I will pray his heart is filled with love for believers and I will pray that his plate is full of food each day and he has shelter over his head.

    • You’re right. There’s always two sides to every story.

      As a pastor of a very small congregation for 16 years, I can tell you that some small congregations don’t have the resources to support a homeless person. Often they barely have enough money to pay building rent and the other minimal expenses to keep their doors open. This has often been the case with our congregation, and I don’t even take a salary or remuneration for my pastoral services, and it’s still a struggle financially. I can’t tell you how many other pastors I’ve talked to over the years who are in similar situations. Many churches are closing, or merging with other churches because giving is down and economic times are hard. When I say this, I’m only speaking about very small churches which are operating on a shoestring.

      We get many calls to our ministry from people looking for financial help. Frankly, we’re able only to help people financially who are part of our congregation at this time. When folks in need call us, we try to steer them toward ministries or social services who have the resources to help them. I also often pray for them on the phone, give them an encouraging word and some biblical advice relevant to their situation. It may not be much, but it’s the best we’re able to do. Susan, I hope you can appreciate the struggles that small congregations face.

      Whether Brandon was talking about his experiences with large churches that are well-funded or small churches that are barely hanging on financially, I don’t know. But I thought it would be appropriate to this discussion to share with you another point of view on this subject from someone who’s been in the trenches for many years.

      Blessings!

  4. I echo Susan’s concern in her comment above. I don’t doubt this kind of thing happens or that it even happened to Brandon, but there is something God wants to do on both sides, and giving money alone to Brandon is only a short term help. Natan, perhaps you know of a Messianic congregation in his vicinity that would be willing to accept Brandon in a home where he would expect to work in some capacity for room and board if possible and also submit to some inner healing work on his own woundedness that is part of the problem. So while I am not brushing off his “accusations,”nor am I minimizing Brandon’s own pain of rejection, I would be asking him to take responsibility for his “own stuff,” which is surely hidden to him right now. In my own case (though my problem wasn’t homelesness), unfair accusations and unjust judgment (in my view) did trigger a deep, hidden place in me that I would never have taken responsibility for, except our loving Father would not let me off the hook and kindly let me look in a mirror and see places in me that were hurting me AND my family line. It was the start of a very big shift in being able to receive the Father’s Love. My “persecutors” did have a problem, but it wasn’t really MY problem — it was sent to me by God to reveal a deep woundedness in me, so I could bring it into Yeshua’s light.

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