Praying for Dana

I have knocked on many doors since first going out with Adopt-A-Block: doors that open to half awake smiling people who speak very broken English, doors that show family’s overflowing clothes and assortment of boxes and broken toys that spill out to their front porches, doors that open partially to show concerned, sad eyes only seen mysteriously behind a metal screen and doors that stay closed.

Dana was one of those doors that I had knocked on several times and had just about left to go onto to the next one. She told me ‘I don’t want to open this door to you or you’ll be smelling weed’. I told her that I just wanted to meet her, and saw her slowly open the door and give me a skeptical look. I asked her if she had heard of the Dream Center or had ever been to Angelus Temple. Dana smiled and told me that she had and that she had come to a point in her life where she needed to try out God and that God must have sent us to her that day.


She told me about being in prison and crying out to God when she was at her lowest point. Dana said that more recently she had felt tired of being involved in gangs and wanted to better herself, she just didn’t know where to start. I told her how much Jesus loved her and how he wanted to change her life around, that he knew all of her pain. Dana said that she realized that she had tried living life her way and she was sick and tired of being beaten up and high. She was tired of this life and wanted to see what God could do.

I asked her if I could pray and we prayed for thanks to God for giving us this divine appointment. I was able to see Dana two more times since that first encounter and meet her son, she still is happy to see us and gives me a hug hello but I can see in her eyes that she still hasn’t taken that next step to give everything to God and give him a chance. I will continue to intercede for her that she will one day give her life to him. I want to see her happy and restored in the way that I know only God can enable her to become.

Being a part of Adopt-A-Block has made me feel even more the responsibility we have as Children of God to stand in the gap for the lost and intercede on their behalf, why don’t we as Christians make it our prerogative to be stubborn for God, as much as the enemy has his minions to: steal, kill and destroy, let us become more aggressive at taking these people back for the kingdom of God.


-Chaka