BONUS POST:: From the heart of Joy Walter

Prayer walking is what our Detroit team did this morning.  We walked the neighborhood around Detroit Love. Here is where I found a Detroit that is not what I expected and completely what I needed.  Everyone needs a wake - up call in their life. Where “true hard life” pops you on the side of the head and you have to respond. Today, was the day.  

We walked among vacant lots, burned out houses, that had once been homes, closed businesses and a shuttered school.  Life closed down and hope slipping away.

Praying for families, children, schools, jobs, people, government, educators, safety, good healthy food, health care…and the heartfelt – God heard prayers went on.  

Then, we walked down a street…a wrong turn and in front of us was a row of shoes.  Not a row like ones lined up in your closet or like by the back door.

One that was wide and long.  One that wound around the grass and trees.  Shoes dumped and discarded. The path was rough, bumpy, uneven, hard to keep your balance.  It was not a place you would choose to walk.

I was cool with the walk until I had a gentle God nudge in my heart after I glanced down and saw a white pair of baby shoes.  All of sudden, eyes open. These shoes represented lives. The lives of people in this Detroit area, this neighborhood and the neighborhoods around.  

I could step off this path anytime and walk in the smooth easy swaying grass and not stumble.  And yet the people who make the Detroit neighborhoods and projects don’t get to “step off” the path of their lives.    

For them - there isn’t an out.  This is their home and underneath they are people…just like you and me.  People who want to be heard, people with hearts that hurt, bodies that deal with addiction and don’t work, and circumstances that are overwhelming them. Their eyes tell stories.  Eyes that beg you to listen, understand, to pause, and take the precious gift of time and invest…

I challenge whoever reads this blog to join us in prayer for the people in Detroit.  The lives represented in this path of shoes. We serve a big personal God. He is working here in Detroit.  He knows the needs of each and every person. Pray for God to intersect and in their lives. Pray for Him to intersect in the path of their lives.