Praying for an Empty House

The house next door to Brooke and Justin was like a revolving door of new neighbors. Over a five-year span a stream of people rented the house, then just as quickly would disappear and move out. With each new neighbor came the excitement of getting to know them, but that was quickly followed by the letdown of a quick departure.

Then a couple moved in and stayed. Brooke and Justin began to pray for them and looked for an opportunity to connect. But this new couple wasn’t interested. They would come home from work and drive into the garage. They wouldn’t be seen again until the next morning when the garage door opened and they drove away. An occasional “How are you?” followed by “I’m fine” was as far as the relationship ever got. Then that couple moved, too.

Brooke and Justin were frustrated but they prayed, “God, you know this house is vacant again. Please give us some neighbors we can love and do life with.” 

Another young couple, Lauren and Quentin, moved in. Brooke and Justin went next door and welcomed them to the neighborhood, intentionally using the practices of B.LE.S.S. The next week they invited their new neighbors over for a cookout. That meal included a long conversation about jobs, favorite sports teams, and restaurant recommendations. It was a great time.

When Brooke found out their new friends had not yet bought a lawn mower, she “encouraged” Justin to mow their yard when he mowed their own. He continued to do so every week without being asked. It was hard for their new neighbors not to notice that their grass was magically shorter every weekend!

Finally, Lauren asked Brooke, “Tell me. Why are you so different? Why do you seem to always go out of your way to help us out?” Brooke began to share some of her story about Jesus.

Not much later, Lauren came over and said, “I wanted to update you on something.” 

“Yeah, what’s that?” said Brooke. 

“Quentin and I decided to stop renting and buy our house. I wanted you to know the biggest reason we bought it was because of the neighbors. Thanks!”

 Several weeks later, Quentin crossed the lawn and told Justin, “I just got news that my uncle died suddenly. I'm having some really deep questions about God and what happens after you die. I know you have faith. Could we talk?” The two of them sat down in the front yard for a couple hours, and there, Justin led Quentin to Christ. The following Sunday he baptized him, with Brooke and Lauren in church along with them.

Brooke would tell you, “It all started with us praying for that empty house; asking God to give us neighbors we could love. Now they are some of our very best friends.”

Lawn Wars

Kim and his wife, Maria, and their three boys were moving to the U.S. from Australia. Because of the expense, they brought very little with them and depended on contacts in their new community to provide basic items they would need to settle into their new home. On moving day, several people brought furniture, kitchen appliances, and other necessities. Most of the items were loaded into pickup trucks and minivans; while they had the best intentions, a few of these well-meaning friends backed up onto the lawn of Kim’s neighbor instead of Kim’s driveway.

At about 9 p.m., Kim’s new neighbor kicked open his door and yelled, “Get off my F-ing lawn!” (Welcome to the neighborhood, huh?)

Kim is one of the kindest people you could ever meet, He loves Jesus and more than anything wanted to live out the B.L.E.S.S. practices in his new neighborhood. “While I was fearful of him, I also wanted to share the love of Jesus with my neighbor, so I just started praying for him,” Kim recalled. “His name was Stan. And every time I saw Stan I would wave and say, ‘Hello Stan.’ And he would reply by waving back with just one finger. Yes, his middle finger.” That went on for months, but he just kept praying for Stan and being as nice as he possibly could to him and his family.

Over time Kim and Maria became friends with Stan’s wife, Sarah, and their daughter, who was seriously ill, which meant lots of trips to doctors’ appointments. Kim and Maria shared with Sarah that their son was going through cancer treatments. 

Eventually, Stan had his driveway sealcoated, so he had to park his car down the street and carry his daughter back and forth from it to their house when they went to the doctor. One evening Kim saw Stan carrying his daughter from the car and yelled across the yard, “Stan, why don’t you use my driveway?” Stan responded by asking, “Why don’t you have a car?!?” 

Kim explained that it was currently broken down, leaving the driveway free for Stan’s use if he wanted it. For the first time, Stan softened.“Isn’t your son sick?” he asked. “Yes, he has cancer,” Kim said.

In that moment Stan—the mountain of a guy who just weeks before had wanted nothing to do with Kim—burst into tears! Kim had the opportunity to pray for him and his daughter. And that was the beginning of a friendship.

Later that winter after a significant snowfall, Kim heard what sounded like shoveling outside his front door. He looked out the window: there was Stan shoveling his driveway! Kim and his boys joined Stan outside and together, the four of them began to bless their entire neighborhood by shoveling all the driveways together. Stan is now Kim’s close friend.

B.L.E.S.S. in the City

Lawrence worked for a nonprofit on the North Side of Chicago, a couple miles from where Jon lives today. He was excited about the opportunity to reach the people in his neighborhood with the love of Jesus.

Lawrence said, “I knew we were called to live in the city. And while we lived there we wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the people we encountered.” Lawrence doesn’t remember exactly where he came across the B.L.E.S.S. acronym, but said, “This tool solidified for us the trajectory of what we felt the Holy Spirit was already telling us to do—to simply be Jesus in very practical ways to people around us.”

Whenever he was around people, Lawrence would keep the B.L.E.S.S. practices in mind. On one occasion, he sat down at a bus stop next to Gerald, who was texting on his smartphone. “I whispered a quick prayer for him under my breath, and then we just started talking. We continued the conversation while we rode the bus together, and before Gerald got off the bus, we exchanged phone numbers. That was the beginning of our friendship.” 

One of the things about B.L.E.S.S. that Lawrence loved was how it helped him be much more intentional about reaching out to people and simply praying, listening, and sharing coffee or meals together. He said, “I also found that these practices helped me exchange phone numbers with lots of people while I lived on the North Side.” 

Lawrence continued to build a friendship with Gerald. Most of the time when they got together it was in local cafes. On one occasion, they were in the middle of a conversation when Jon walked in. “I had met Jon before,” Lawrence recalled, “but I just about fell off my chair as one of the very people who came up with these B.L.E.S.S. practices walked into the cafe while I was actually living them out.” Lawrence, who had already explained the B.L.E.S.S. practices to Gerald, told him that one of the creators had just walked in. Lawrence reintroduced himself to Jon and said, “You’re not going to believe this, but I am doing the “E” in B.L.E.S.S. right now. I’m ‘B.L.E.S.S.ing’ my friend at that table over there.”

That was the beginning of a growing friendship between Jon and Lawrence. Since then, they’ve gotten together from time to time to share life and discuss how they can better B.L.E.S.S. people in their community. Lawrence says, “If I didn’t have access to the simplicity of that tool you guys developed for Christians like me,  I’m not sure I would have ever built that meaningful friendship with Gerald and many other people in my neighborhood, and I doubt I would have ever gotten to know Jon.”