Living with Dick and Barbara for the next couple of months was a priceless experience. One of the rules of the house was that we men had to be up at 5 a.m. to “awaken the dawn” for two hours each morning in prayer, Bible study and worship. I had landed myself in a spiritual boot camp. Let’s face it, a mature prayer life really often comes down to two things: 1) Time carved out and 2) the alarm clock. At the time, Dick and Barbara were in their late seventies. They are people of intercession, untainted by unbelief and as wild in faith as mountain lions. I joke that if you are really still and listen carefully anywhere inside the Beltway in the middle of the night, you will hear Dick Simmons howling his intercessions unto the Lord. Barbara is famous for a strict forty-day water-only fast that started the beginning of August, 2001. The day she broke the fast, her fortieth day, was September 11, 2001. Since the Simmons lived just a block from the Capitol, many credit Barbara’s fast with giving grace to the selfless acts of the heroes onboard United Airlines Flight 93 to take it down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania rather than hitting the Capitol dome. Could it be that her tent of prayer was a canopy of spiritual protection over the Capitol? These were the wild folks who took us in and trained us in a lifestyle of intercessory prayer. Ron Boehme, in his “Renew America” blog, once wrote that homelessness is not a problem of the lack of finances or occupation. He explained that it’s actually a problem of relationship. I’ve heard it said, “Every problem in the world is a problem of relationship.” When a person is homeless, is there no one who loves them enough to take them in? I hope we love Jesus enough to take Him in. Since that homeless day we spent in 2009 until the present, our family has yet to have a home of our own in D.C., and friendships have always been the solution. We are now in the fifth location where wonderful Christians have opened their hearts and doors to us at reduced rents (and sometimes rent free), to allow us to exist in this expensive city. Praise God! Every solution is one of relationship. Being on the receiving end of such caring has created a deep gratitude in me and has made me even more zealous for God to be received in our nation like never before. We must find a home for Jesus. We must value Him above all else.
Come, Lord Jesus! Find Your home in me.
