Category: homeless

Worth Living For?

by crossroadsministriesmass, posted in Christian, homeless, suicide, Uncategorized

“Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?”

Leonard Ravenhill

While pondering this quote by Leonard Ravenhill, my mind traveled back to when I was twelve.  I hated my life and can remember spending much of my early adolescent years seriously assessing it. I carefully considered the hand life dealt me and weighed my options. To me, life felt totally unfair.  To be forced to live a life I did not ask for or want was just wrong. I had experienced a lot of bad things and had no hope that anything good could or would come from my life. All I could see was what I perceived as my deficits, those of being poor, being Black and being emotionally scarred from growing up in a dysfunctional family while living on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore in the 1960s.  No matter how hard I tried, I could not understand why some people got to be born into families where they were loved, wanted, cared for, protected and provided for, while others, like me, struggled just to survive.  I felt it all was random, unfair, unjust and unbelievably cruel! 

As I mentally processed this, I asked myself questions like, “Since you did not choose or ask to be born, why are you alive? Since you’re miserable and hate your life so much, why suffer through it? And since you are doomed to fail in life without anything good, why continue going through all this agony? Why do you have to continue living it?  Why live a life of misery without hope?” Then I answered, “I don’t!” And I decided to kill myself. I was twelve. Please hear me! By the time I was 12 years old, I had taken a careful assessment of my life and concluded that it was of no value. The pain and suffering I had experienced in childhood and early adolescent years coupled with the fear of being trapped into an unjust and hopeless future without escape, eclipsed every other thought in my young mind.  Continuing to live the life handed to me with no way out of it was unthinkable, so when no one was around, I grabbed the pills I found in the medicine cabinet, downed them all, and went to sleep, hoping to never live another painful day.   

When I woke up from my intentional overdose, my head was spinning, everything was fuzzy.  At first, I thought my suicide attempt had been successful, but as my head cleared, I realized that I was still very much alive.  Devastated and angry, I called myself every demeaning name I could think of. “You dummy, you’re so (screwed) up, you couldn’t even kill yourself.” I had failed to end my misery.  I lied there defeated. Then, I heard, “You cannot die until I say so.”  I looked around.  Who was talking to me? I was alone. Even though it was not audible, that voice was real. One would think I would be awed or something, but no, instead, I was irate!  Who had the nerve to tell me that I could not end my own life? until they said so?  Who felt they had enough power to keep me alive when I was determined to die; To keep me living a life I did not want to live? I now know Almighty God did. I did not know Him then and it made absolutely no sense to me. Why did anyone care whether I lived or died. One of the reasons I had chosen to die was because I did not believe anyone cared. You see, I had picked up the responsibility for my life when I was eight.  I trusted no one, and I felt no one cared about me; so, this was confusing. Someone that had power over my life cared about whether I lived or died.

How does this relate to Leonard Ravenhill’s quote?  “Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?” By twelve, I felt there was nothing in my life worth living for. The fact that I am alive today is a miracle of God’s grace. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, I would be dead today had it not been for God’s intervention.  As I correctly assessed at twelve, my life has not been an easy one, but even though checking out of it crossed my mind sometimes during its most difficult seasons, I never again attempted to kill myself. The one who holds my life in his hand has used those hard times to reveal Himself to me.

Now, in my seventies, I can joyfully say “For me, to live is Christ.” God touched me at the local Baptist Church that same year and gave me the grace to believe in Jesus and to get baptized. I was able to understand that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and He rose from the grave signifying that God had forgiven me for the bad things I had done, but that was about all I knew. Not much changed in my life. Years later after being devastated by my failed marriage, I started reading and studying the Bible. That was when I began to understand what Jesus Christ died for. That was when life began to make sense and that was when I got a glimpse of what I was living for.

The God of the Bible, the God that created us in His image and likeness, loves us.  Remember John 3:16-17: “ For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” Jesus died so we would not perish but have eternal life. In John 10:10, Jesus tells us he came and died so that we (you and I) would have life and have life abundantly.  It became clear to me that Jesus Christ died to redeem our lives from destruction, deliver us from the power of death and give us life overflowing and eternally. In short, Jesus died so we could live the life God created us to live! Our “LIVING” is what Christ died for!  

Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus died not only that we would have a full life and eternal life, but also that we would be able to receive the joy of knowing Him and knowing how deeply we are loved. Knowing, not just being told He loves us, but by Him dying to demonstrate His love and the Father’s love for us. Since coming to know our precious Lord and His love and being blessed to experience the life He created me to live, my heart and life overflow with gratitude. All I can do is thank God for loving me and giving me life to live it with and for Him.

So, what things are you living for? Is it riches, fame, romance, status, material things?  Are they worth Christ dying for? Thank God, I now joyously choose life and answer, “YES,” by God’s grace and with his help, I choose to live my life fully for Him. He is worth it.  He is the only one worth it.  He is worth everything I have ever gone through, no matter how difficult, embarrassing, humiliating, sorrowful or painful it was.  He is worth all that I am, everything I have, and all that I ever hope to be or have.  He is worth living for, and because of Him I live today.  I pray that Jesus Christ is what you are living for, as well.  To me, it is the only thing one can live for that is worth Christ dying for.  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NASB) What about you?

Eartha Harris

40 Years & Remembering Priscilla

by crossroadsministriesmass, posted in Christian, homeless

Wow! Crossroads is entering its 40th year of ministry. To God be the glory! Great things he has done. 

Priscilla Stratton

As we prepare to celebrate 40 years of ministry through Crossroads, we must pause to remember those that were so instrumental in nurturing this God ordained ministry to the homeless, the marginalized and those battling life controlling addictions while in its formative years One of those people was Priscilla Stratton. We met Priscilla and her family mid January 1984 when we (my late husband, Joe Harris and myself) first visited Massachusetts. We arrived there on January 11, 1984, to spend prayerful time with Rev. Sam Perry, our dear friend and my spiritual father. While visiting with Sam, he introduced us to several of his Christian friends, including Priscilla and her family. Upon meeting Priscilla, there was an undeniable bond in the Spirit noted and the Lord’s Spirit knit our hearts together in His love. 

Even though Priscilla had been abandoned by her husband years before and had been struggling to raise their five children alone, she loved the Lord with everything in her, clung to him, trusted him wholeheartedly to care for her family and faithfully served Him. While she had very little money, she had a heart of gold. As a little Greek momma, struggling financially to put food on the table for her own family, she was generous and hospitable, sometimes possibly to a fault. Priscilla discerned the call of God upon our lives to launch Crossroads in Massachusetts, so she invited our family (Joe, Michael and I) to move in with her and her family until we were able to get Crossroads established. Who does that? Who as a financially overburdened single mother invites a young Black family she had just met to come and live in her home with her family? Even though she only knew us by the witness of the Spirit of the Living God, Priscilla trusted the God she loved and served, and to our surprise and amazement, she opened her heart to us and freely opened her home to us, as well. 

And without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists,
and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6

We cannot thank God enough for Priscilla Stratton. She was an amazing mother, oozing out her mother’s love in everything she did and everything she said. She raised her children to serve the Lord, encouraging, exhorting and supporting them as they blessed the local body of Christ through their anointed music ministry. She mothered Joe, Michael and I, as well, welcoming us as a part of her dearly loved family. I remain so very grateful to have been a beneficiary of her love.  God used his love flowing though her mightily to heal the many torn down and broken places inside of me that desperately needed the love of a godly mother. 

Priscilla left us in 2009 to be with our Lord, and is now lovingly serving him in Glory. While we miss her dearly, her legacy remains through her children, grandchildren and all that were the benefactors of her momma’s love. Crossroads Ministries, Inc. shares in being a part of her godly legacy, as it was at Priscilla’s home in 1984, 40 years ago, that this ministry was birthed. Even though God had given Joe and I the vision for Crossroads prior to our stepping out in faith, leaving our home state of Maryland, moving to unfamiliar Massachusetts to live with virtual strangers, it wasn’t until we did those things that God breathed on that vision and gave it life. 

Remembering Jack & Jane

by crossroadsministriesmass, posted in Christian, homeless
Rev. John (Jack) Stonefield and precious wife, Jane.

Yesterday, I joined with one of our local homeless shelters for a prayer walk through their properties. The challenges they face providing for the physical needs of the many homeless in our community seems overwhelming. As a Christ-centered ministry, seeking not only to provide for physical needs of the homeless but to also minister to their holistic need in a way that honors God, by loving and serving the homeless and hurting while seeking to snatch their souls out of the hands of the evil one, they face a whole new level of challenges. Thankfully, when the leadership of this shelter realized that what they were facing is spiritual interference, they recognized the need to call out to God, our Heavenly Father, for the help that only He can provide. As I prayerfully walked alongside their leadership and other prayer supporters, it brought back memories of the years of intense spiritual warfare we, at Crossroads, went through while serving God among the homeless and marginalized in Worcester, MA. We would take regular prayer walks throughout our community, standing against the darkness and seeking God for the manifestation of His kingdom and glory. Over time, we were blessed to see God change that once drug infested, crime laden and violent neighborhood into one recognized even in the secular media for its positive transformation. Having experienced firsthand what God can do when his people stand against the darkness and walk in his light, I rejoiced in the Lord as we walked and prayed at this shelter, yesterday. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5) I have no doubt that God is going to do what only He can and He is going to help that ministry overcome the darkness that is trying to hinder it, and His light will shine brightly through.

When I got home and reflected on the afternoon prayer walk, my heart was drawn to remember two faithful friends of this ministry, Jack and Jane Stonefield. I do not know where Crossroads would have been without the faithful prayer ministry of Jack and Jane Stonefield interceding to God on our behalf. When my husband, Joe, and I arrived in Massachusetts in February 1984, we had little more than our God-given vision to unite and mobilize the local body of Christ to minister to the unique spiritual needs of the homeless and marginalized and clear direction from God for us to be there. We knew only one person. That person introduced us to a few people and one of those people introduced us to their church family. That Pastor and his congregation received us warmly as God bore witness to his call upon our lives, and from there the Lord touched many hearts to support us in furthering the mission of Crossroads.

Jack Stonefield and his precious wife, Jane, were members of that first church and among the first people in it to answer God’s call to help us. They met with us, sharing the Lord’s call upon their hearts to help us by committing to faithfully pray for us. They were not talking about casually praying for us, but that they earnestly believed that the Lord had given them the responsibility of being our Intercessors, to stand in the gap before God, praying faithfully and fervently for us and the ministry of Crossroads. What a blessing! Even though we had no clue what we were up against, God knew all hell would be against us doing what He called us to do and that we were going to need lots of prayer to accomplish the task He had given us. Praise God, He knew we could not do it alone so He called Jack and Jane and so many others to come along side us and help. While I thank God for each and every person he called to walk alongside of us in ministry through the years, I am particularly grateful today that Jack and Jane answered that call. They were an especially precious gift to us in our early ministry years.

While Crossroads had been birthed out of prayer and the Lord had called me to a life of prayer even before meeting Jack and Jane, I know now that there is no way that I could have never carried the weight of this ministry in prayer by myself. The work of God is done primarily in prayer and then performed out of that place of prayer. At least, that is the way it has been for me. I love this quote from Charles Bridges (1794-1869), “Prayer is one half of our ministry, and it gives to the other half all its power and success.” As we walked the grounds of that homeless ministry yesterday, praying to tare down strongholds and for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done there, my heart was willed with gratitude and praise to our loving, merciful and gracious God for hearing and answering prayers. I thank Him for giving us spiritual weapons to use as we fight against those things that manifest as difficulties and challenges here on earth. I thank God for people who are willing to take Him at His Word when he says “call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”(Psalms 50:15 NIV)

As for Jack and Jane, their faithfulness to serve God in praying for Joe, I and this ministry has reaped eternal benefits. Jack Stonefield went home to be with the Lord on September 2020, after living a fruitful life of ministry born out of his faithfulness to answer God’s call to prayer, interceding for others. He was always supported and most always accompanied by his wife, Jane, an intercessor in her own right. In addition to being an Intercessor, Jack was a business executive and served with Crossroads many years as Chairman of its Financial Advisory Board, and as a member of its Board of Directors. As he grew in ministry, he became ordained by the Christian Church of North America (CCNA), and served as a pastor at Redeeming Love Assembly until Crossroads moved its ministry focus from Massachusetts to Maryland. Jack , accompanied by Jane, went on to pastor CCNA churches throughout New England, and eventually grew in its leadership to become the New England District Overseer of the International Fellowship of Christian Assemblies (IFCA), CCNA’s new name, in 2016. where he served faithfully until his homegoing on September 5, 2020.

As I reflect about Jack and Jane, and the love and companionship we shared in ministry for so many years, as they faithfully held us up in prayer and provided us with such godly counsel through the years, I’m reminded that prayer is where everything in Christ begins. God is calling again for Crossroads to move forward in ministry. What I hear him saying that He wants to do is so much greater than anything that I can do and it won’t happen without praying people. I’m wondering who he is calling to pray. He definitely has me praying. Is he also calling you? If so, please say yes. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do this time.