January 2022

I’ve been watching a homeless man beg for money on a corner for the last couple months, from where I study in a fast food restaurant. He is obviously injured, with a limp, and in the same clothes every day.  In the past couple weeks I have given him gift cards and thought, “How does he survive out here in this weather?”  Jesus and I call him “Churning Waters.”  Today, Mr. Waters walks into the restaurant.  I engage, we share names, and I ask him if he is interested in sharing his story.  I purchase him a $20 gift card and we sit & talk for about 45 minutes.  He is from Southeast Baltimore, where much of my ministry has taken place, so we are familiar with many of the same locations and topics.  Mr. Waters’ found Jesus at a young age and then he found drugs.  He got married, had a child, claims to have become a licensed minister, then back to hard times. 

Here’s where things get cool for me and Mr. Waters today.  I never tell him I am a follower of Jesus but prod him about the faith he claims.  I ask, “Do you talk to your Jesus about your current problems?”  He reluctantly replies, “No. I should though.”  He agrees with me that there is a demon over the corner he peddles from and another demon over his addiction.  He says, “I don’t know why I never thought about it like that.”  I tell him, “That demon wants to chain you to that corner and you’ll never get ahead, just like the demon that runs you with addiction.”  He agrees.  Jesus nudges and I asked, “If this Jesus you claim to know was sitting across from you right now, what would you ask Him to do for you?”  He replies, “Wisdom [to get out of this spot].”  So I ask, “Can I pray for you? I’ll do it in the name of your Jesus.”  He answers “Yes.”

I pray for the wisdom he asks for, then Jesus pushes me to ask for more.  I ask Mr. Waters, “What’s wrong with your leg?”  He tells me a story about an accident which injures his knee and foot, then he allows me to pray for it.  When I place my hand on his knee and begin to pray I feel a pop, like the knee cap shifts 45 degrees and back again.  Wild!  I look up at Mr. Waters and ask, “Did you feel that?”  He says firmly, “Yea, I felt that!”  I tell him to walk around, so he starts jumping and laughing.  “No pain” he says.  At this point I grab him again and break the spirit of addiction and the demon from the corner (beggar/poverty spirit).

January 2022

Today, it turns out that the “Demon on the Corner” has manifested.  Mr. Waters sits down next to me in my fast-food restaurant.  He feels comfortable with me since our last meeting and alarms me with a terrible situation he’s placed himself in.  Mr. Waters tells me that he has been staying in another man’s house, in a small room on an inflatible mattress, since after Christmas.  However, after what seems to be a benevolent offering quickly shifts for him and he tells me, “Troy, the guy I’ve been staying with is a [gang member] and takes my money.  He tells me, ‘If you don’t bring me my money, I will beat you until you’re purple.’ I don’t know how to get out of this thing.” This man takes him to his corner and picks him up; at first, as a favor, now as extortion. 

As he’s telling me these things, my face twists-up.  Mr. Waters continues to tell me the guy sits in the Walmart parking lot and watches him, like a pimp.  If Mr. Waters doesn’t have a certain amount of money each day, the gang member beats him.  Salisbury, Md. is represented by most major gangs in the US to include Bloods, Crips, MS13, etc.  They are here to gain market share in the drug trade and extortion industries.  I’ve gathered this information from questioning Salisbury City Police Officers as well as prison guards from Eastern Correctional Institution.