Rich Wait writes:

During the summer Greg Sharples, John Harrison and myself spent some time in mission to the homeless of Bristol. We would meet for prayer in the morning and ask God for words and pictures, then spend a few hours walking through castle park and broadmead towards Stoke's Croft and the street drinkers that congregate there.

On the last day we were walking through the bear pit towards Stoke's croft when we noticed 2 girls, one with long dark hair and the other with braids. They were sat smoking and talking on one of the grassed areas. We had almost walked past when Greg remembered a word that he'd had earlier in the week about a girl with braided hair. So we decided to go and talk to them. As we approached the dark haired girl said 'I bet you wants us to sort you out some weed'. After thinking about it very briefly we declined her offer and explained that we were from a local church and that one of us had had a word for a girl with braided hair. Greg then proceded to explain what he'd heard, that this girl was worried about her mother and needed prayer. 'No way!' she said, with a worried look in her eyes. Greg then asked if that made any sense.

They looked at each other for a few moments before replying, that she was very worried about her mother who had raised her as a single parent for a long time. We then prayed with them, during which I recieved a word. I explained as best I could that I thought the reason they liked the bear pit so much was because it was a safe place away from so many fast moving dangerous things. Also that I thought that she felt that her life was moving much faster than she wanted and what she was searching for was somewhere safe and constant among it all. She said that that made sense to her. We left shortly afterward leaving them with some Alpha and Pip n Jay information.

Whilst we've not seen the girls since it was so empowering to know that we can all hear God's voice if we take time to listen, and that he speaks specifically to individuals everywhere. Including me and you