HOUSE OF LIFE SUMMARY

2009 was a deeply challenging year. Walking the streets, driving the car for House of Life team members untill 3 am or even 5 am. ........

Counselling, encouraging, teaching, rebuking, training, organizing, planning et al.

Meeting all kinds of people on the streets- police, a bank robber, drug pushers, drug takers, Hotel staff, church pastors, non profit organizatrions, weeping parents, deserted boyfriends, pimps,  et al.

2009 was a time of growth for me. When you reach out to those ho practice every and all kinds of sin, your knowledge of the word, and your level of wisdom in counseling are challenged to the fullest extent.

As a man in a ministry that ministers to women it was not easy. Of course there was temptation, but since my feet were firmly planted in the rock, Jesus Christ, temptation was resisted or ignored.

The ministry was set up.

The ministry began to produce fruit.

Pastors began to become familiar with the ministry.

Systems were set up to assist in Rehab- especially THE TREE TOOL which pinpoints the main area needing rehab- spirituality, morality, community or skills excellence.

Then there was the daily diary the girls have to do, based on THE TREE,  that was the key to counselling.

I told Petra from the start that I felt I should be there only to set up the ministry with her and get it going. Once it was going, I would have to pray and see if the Lord wanted me to commit to the long term.

In John, Jesus sat down with a samaritan woman. This surprised the disciples since men did not fraternise with women in public, let alone a Samaristan woman!!!!!!!!!!! 

I found the same reaction from some pastors who strongly objected to the presence of a single man in a house full of commercial sex workers undergoing rehab. I understood their worries, but in the setting up stage of the ministry, a man was key to the smooth flow of the ministry. Fixing things, driving, being a man in an inner city environment where mugging is a daily crime, being there at night witnessing to the girls on the street, etc etc.

But now the ministry is set up, running, recognised and is beginning to bear fruit, now is the time to depart and write books and study theology, my love. No man is indispensable, and I believe that two or three commited Christian girls will be able to more than fulfill the role I occupied.

Please pray for Petra as she runs the ministry with Margaret, rescued from the streets, and Martha, a Christian worker from Kenya who is there for just a few months.

Steve Blomefield.