Lighting the Way on Skid Row

By Grant Huffman

Skid Row -- Grant Huffman (top right) with Downtown Los Angeles in the background. LA County is home to over 80,000 homeless. Most live in cardboard boxes, small makeshift tents or simply sleep on the ground and in gutters.

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. For we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of power may be of God, and not from ourselves. –2 Corinthians 4:6-7

After working in Venice on the weekends with the Lighting The Way team in evangelism, I decided to make the most of a job assignment in downtown Los Angeles for God’s glory. God gave me a burden for the people on Skid Row. I felt led by God to go into this undesirable part of town to evangelize the homeless men and women. In my nice office in downtown LA I kept thinking, “What about the people on Skid Row?” I prayed as I set out one Saturday afternoon, for it was an environment far more pejorative than I had even imagined. I met another Christian there, and we altruistically began walking up and down the strip together with tracts and Bibles, not knowing what to expect, in hopes of striking up a conversation with someone on Skid Row about Jesus.

Driving by the homeless on Skid Row, you see a lot of trash on the streets and makeshift tents set up along the sidewalks, and when you get out of your car, and walk a little closer, you see total misery. Men and women are smoking crack and shooting heroin in the day light hours, right there on the street. Most of them are completely oblivious to others walking by. Some of them don't even care who sees, because the drugs have them in such complete bondage. As I made my way through the streets on that Saturday afternoon, I passed out various resources I had gotten from Dwayna for the purpose of evangelizing these folks downtown. (The LTW team at Venice was praying for us, too). We walked along with our arms filled with tracts, Bibles, and devotionals. Most of the people accepted with thanks; a few ignored me totally.

This one particular Saturday, I was offering to pray for anyone who wanted me to pray for them, when this one man sitting on the sidewalk with his back against a wire fence started probing me on why I was there. I explained to him I was working with Lighting The Way Worldwide to share the gospel with people on Skid Row. I asked him if he knew Jesus and knelt down to begin a conversation with him. He said he was taught growing up that Jesus was the Son of God. I asked him if he believed Jesus was God. He said, “Yes.” I then asked if he had ever repented of his sins and accepted Him as Lord and Savior to follow Him—I asked him if he ever been saved. He said he wasn't sure.

I asked the stranger if he would like to make that decision that moment. He looked at me there on Skid Row, surrounded by people shooting up heroine, and he said, "Yes, I would.” I put my hands out to him, and he grabbed my hands. I led him in a prayer, and he repeated it after me word for word. When I finished praying he had tears in his eyes, and he said, “Thank you.” He told me his name was Michael, and I said I would remember to pray for him.

Right in the middle of this darkness of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, God was able to shine His glorious light upon this man. And to God be all the glory for the prayer of repentance that man prayed!

About an hour later a young girl in her twenties, named Sean, came up to me and asked me for one of the tracts I was handing out to people. I asked her the same questions I asked Michael. She said she knew who Jesus was but had not accepted Him as her Lord and Savior. She also told me she wanted to get out of the relationship she was in with her "murdering, gangbanging boyfriend". I asked her if she would like to ask Jesus to come into her life and be her Savior, and she said, “Yes.” I prayed with her, and when we were finished, Michael walked by to see us talking. It turned out the two knew each other, and they gave one another a hug. The last thing I told them before I walked away was that now, walking in the light of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, they could together pray for the neighborhood and for the salvation of their friends! How I wanted to help them famously escape their neighborhood of Skid Row and their sidewalk homes and keep them far away from drugs and temptation.It was an afternoon on Skid Row, near to the heart of God.

“So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” –1 Corinthians 3:7 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not too short that it cannot save.” –Isaiah 59:1 “Now you are Christ’s body”—1 Corinthians 12:27. “…you are a letter of Christ…”—2 Corinthians 3:4

I pray, as I write this, that God will put on the hearts of many to give of their time in evangelism. It could be right in your own neighborhood, far out of your comfort zone. “Because we are members of His body”—Ephesians 5:30. Sometimes all a person needs is a person to reach out a hand to them and tell them that someone loves and cares about them, especially God.

Just as it is written, “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!” –Romans 10:15

--Grant Huffman