For years, I continued to minister to the homeless with my “new face. My burden for the homeless, addicts, and orphans continued to be within me. Now that I was medically retired, I certainly was blessed with more time to spend with the precious ones on the streets.
I would visit homeless encampments near our neighborhood, where people lived in tents along the railroad tracks. As I saw homeless individuals in Santa Ana, I would encourage them, chat at length, share the love of Jesus, and sometimes take them to church. I would periodically go to the Civic Center in Santa Ana to serve the homeless, and on occasion, I saw people shooting up drugs. I perceived that many people cast these precious ones aside, believing that they were living out the consequences they deserved.
Guy and I knew that the homeless all had their own unique stories, and some of them had been a part of our household throughout the years. We were aware that oftentimes they had been orphans or foster kids, passed from home to home. Some had endured horrific sexual abuse, choosing to self-medicate after becoming victims of twisted and perverse acts that would truly be unfathomable to most. Others simply followed the wrong crowd – making poor choices that eventually escalated into drug and/or alcohol addiction. Burning bridges was evidenced by their loss of jobs, homes, and families. The dear Lord continued to lay a burden on my heart for them, and I knew they needed Jesus. After I had recovered from cancer, as the Holy Spirit led, Guy and I welcomed many wanderers into our home. They stayed temporarily as our best efforts were put forth to obtain the resources they needed, always knowing that Jesus was their only true hope.
In 2018, I heard that Federal Judge Carter was holding a meeting with many officials to discuss the crisis of homelessness in Orange County. I eagerly attended with several friends and sat in an overflow room to listen because so many people were in attendance. The discussion genuinely seemed to have the end goal of helping the homeless, not simply complaining about them. I heard many godly buzz words spoken like “gentleness,” “kindness,” “faith,” “diligence,” etc. I thought to myself, this is beginning to sound like church. However, on the contrary, I also found out that there had been a lawsuit in Orange County regarding the homeless. Some cities were dropping homeless individuals off in other cities to eradicate the unwanted homeless “problem” in their own regions.
I realized what Orange County really needed was prayer. Sometime after our prayer gathering with Pastor Kevin, which had taken place eleven years prior, we were told that gang violence had decreased. If prayer had changed things then, I hoped it would change things again. We needed to pray, not only for the homeless, but also for gangs, sex trafficking victims, law enforcement officers, sexual sin issues, etc.
The morning after attending the meeting with Judge Carter, I awakened praying and saw an empty stadium in my mind. I recognized it as the Santa Ana Stadium. I believed it was God’s idea to have a prayer gathering there.
I began to consider assembling people to pray in the stadium. I shared my idea with Guy and different friends, asking for prayer about orchestrating such an event. I told the women at a cancer support group that I was praying about an event called the First Love OC Prayer Gathering. My hope was that people from the thirty-four cities in Orange County would come together and pray. Immediately, a woman handed me a check for five thousand dollars to put toward renting the Santa Ana Stadium. Could this be confirmation that my Father was encouraging me in the vision?
I had also been praying for about a year with other believers at a local church. We gathered every Thursday morning at six a.m. to pray about things such as the spiritual awakening of Orange County, the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit resulting in the conviction of sin and repentance, revival, etc. After seeing the vision of the stadium, five or six of us continued to pray for First Love OC.
Two devoted sisters in the Lord joined in the labor of love by helping with various tasks. One precious sister-friend, Darchelle, visited many churches and city officials with in-person visits and calls. She worked tirelessly. Another dear sister-friend, Sharon, volunteered herself to serve as the appointed photographer at First Love OC. Oh, what treasures they were to us!
Guy and I began meeting with many people, asking friends and leaders to cover us in prayer, getting city approval, and inviting mayors, city officials, etc. to join our event. I even wrote a letter to Judge Carter to get his blessing.
Darchelle and I went to Vanguard University and spoke to their Senior Director of External Relations, David Vazquez. After hearing the vision for First Love OC, he immediately texted a woman by the name of Kiersten Ellis and told her about what we were trying to do. Kiersten gave God her “yes” and agreed to help before ever speaking to me! She explained that the Holy Spirit nudged her, assuring her that this event was from Him. Next, Kiersten reached out to her friends, Robert and Alicia, and told them that she didn’t know why but she felt like a “God thing” was happening. After asking them if they would be interested in helping as well, they both said yes.
The next day, Kiersten and Robert met me at a coffee shop, and we went to the Santa Ana Stadium. For the next two weeks, we worked on building websites, creating social media awareness, spreading the word, getting sound equipment and worshipers, doing sound checks. and procuring speakers, prayer warriors, and security guards.
By God’s grace, He pulled all the right people together to bring the vision to fruition. The authorities we needed to rally behind us embraced the vision. Leaders from churches, Christian nonprofits, radio shows, and friends from near and far were supportive of OUR gathering.
From the very start, I decided not to ask for donations, inspired by the ministry of George Mueller. This nineteenth-century hero of the faith opened several orphanages throughout his lifetime and always trusted God to provide. Mueller made a choice not to ask for money but instead trusted Jesus to lay donations on people’s hearts. In the same manner, I decided to trust in God’s provision for renting the cost of the stadium. One man from our church handed me one thousand dollars in cash to help cover the costs. Another young man up in Oregon mailed us a generous gift of money. As word spread, provision came in different forms. Guy and I also contributed from the inheritance my mom had left me after her death. Three months after the even we were reimbursed for a large chunk of the costs. People amazed us, and the city officials were simply wonderful. We will forever be amazed and filled with gratitude at our Father’s multi-faceted provisions.
The stadium was rented. The flyers were out. The social media posts were up. The radio station interview was done. We were ready! However, of course, the enemy of our souls did not want a prayer gathering that united people in Jesus to succeed. The spiritual attack against us was strong. Just days before the event, I was at a church in Fullerton. There were many very steep stairs to climb to get to and from the pastor’s office. I left after meeting with him and got in my car when suddenly my heart began pounding. lt was so extreme that I truly thought I might be having a heart attack. I made it back toward the church and slumped down on the stairs as I called out to the church staff, “HELP!”
They called 911 right away. The kind staff came to comfort me as we awaited the paramedics. When the ambulance arrived, my heart rate was two hundred beats per minute, the paramedics calling my condition supraventricular tachycardia. The EMTs gave me an IV right there on the very stairs that had so severely and abruptly taxed my heart. The medicine slowed my heart rate down, and the medical professionals eventually transported me to St. Jude Hospital.
I am so thankful that God has the final word, and He wanted me at the prayer gathering whether Satan liked it or not. Shortly after my admittance to the hospital, I was well enough to be released. Guy picked me up from St.Jude, and days later, we attended the gathering together.
On June 16th, 2018, the vision I had received came to life. Hundreds of people gathered in the Santa Ana Stadium to pray, worship, and seek the Lord’s face together. Rich people, poor people, homeless people, black people, white people, brown people, old people, and young people came. They settled into the stadium, and many worshiped the Lord. To God be the glory.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says, ” . . .[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (New American Standard Bible, 2 Chronicles 7:14). Following God’s instructions, many humbled themselves, repenting of the sins entangling their hearts and communities. Brothers and sisters in Christ sought the Lord’s face together. It was a beautiful assembly of people from all walks of life. As one body, many prayed that God would heal our land! We delegated different time slots for worship and then prayed for specific issues such as sex trafficking, sexual immorality, gangs, homelessness, drug addiction, etc. Many who were gathered there were crying out for God’s visitation, a powerful: awakening, and a much-needed revival in Orange County. Being involved in the production of the event, it was difficult to gauge how people’s hearts were responding out on the bleachers; but after the prayer gathering, the testimonies flooded in! Here are just a few (some parts paraphrased)
My sister was late to the First Love OC event, and as she was driving down the street, she could hear my voice as I was speaking into the stage’s microphone. She was shocked and rolled down her window, making sure my nephew caught it on video. The thing is, that video was the exact same scene I saw in 1996 when God called me out of law enforcement into education. I used to work for the city of Costa Mesa as a crime scene investigator. I was driving my police unit in Santa Ana, heading to the crime lab, and I saw kids walking along with a chain-link fence just like the one in the video). I heard God say, ‘Change careers. I want you to be with these kids every day as an educator.’
I could hear His voice so loudly. I pulled over and cried and said, ‘YES!’ That moment in Santa Ana started my journey in education. I always thought I would teach in Santa Ana but never did. But that’s where I first used my voice to pray for His Kingdom to come and be established in education – the place where I had my first encounter.
All those years later, I saw that exact same scene caught on video outside of First Love OC. when my sister captured me speaking/praying on behalf of education in Santa Ana at First Love OC. It was profound because I was in the city where God transitioned me from law enforcement to education. That stadium is by the court and sheriff’s department where I used to spend a lot of my time.
I had always wondered why God moved me from my dreams of working in criminal justice and prison reform to education. About my third year as an educator, God told me that I was called to impact lives on ‘this side of the fence’ and prevent them from entering the system by educating them in the presence of God.
I’m overwhelmed with thankfulness that God called me to teach and that I get to stand firm on what He wants for these kids. It’s such an honor. I was reminded of God’s goodness by the fact that my sister caught this scene on video and that my voice is so clear in the video. My voice, crying out to God. matured in 1996 and still, matters today!
What we say, what we believe, what we do really matters and makes a difference. I’m so blessed and overwhelmed by the whole thing. And, if you look closely at the video, you’ll see a police car in the scene – back to my roots – because God is fun like that. I know He put that there just for me.”
-Renee Rose
“At First Love OC, we prayed against a bill that was passing. The House and Senate won with overwhelming support. It outlawed religious freedom to preach against the LGBT lifestyle and counseling for anyone who had unwanted same sex affections. Evan Low the assemblyman who drafted the bill, being for the LGBTQ community, denounced the bill himself.
A gentleman in the crowd was granted last-minute permission to speak by one of the pastors in attendance. Then. appeared as a mysterious spokesman. No one seemed to know him, and his name was not on our roster of speakers. Yet, there he was, brave and bold, standing on the field in the middle of the stadium. He jumped up on the stage with his two beautiful little children and shared his testimony. He had formerly lived a homosexual lifestyle and had wrestled through an identity battle. After radical encounters with the love of Jesus, his sexual desires changed. Subsequently, he married a woman, had children, and felt impassioned to tell people about how his relationship with Jesus had transformed his life. He stood on the stage and prayed for the bill to be overturned. This was no mystery to our Heavenly Father, who found great pleasure in his testimony.
Not long after First Love OC, we received word that despite the overwhelming support of this bill, it would no longer be pushed. In fact, Assemblyman Evan Low himself pulled his own bill! After meeting with many pastors, churches, and former LGBTQ people who had been transformed by Jesus, Low’s heart was changed. His decision saved the church from a slew of fraudulent claims and the inability to testify about Jesus’ saving power. Despite his own personal sexual preferences, he saw the love of Jesus toward all people displayed through many of His followers, and his heart was softened. The bill attacking the teaching of the Bible was revoked.”
-Kiersten Ellis
“For the past three decades, our church family has been praying for the unity of the body of Christ and for a move of God in the City of Santa Ana as well as in Orange County. We have always sensed that God wants to move in a powerful way in this region of California and beyond.
I was serving as a volunteer counselor at the Courtyard homeless shelter in downtown Santa Ana and had a week of support group meetings with residents. During our support group, we sometimes did prayer walks with our homeless friends through downtown Santa Ana. We prayed for the homeless crisis as well as for the residents of the city.
I heard about the prayer meeting to be held at the Santa Ana Stadium through an email sent by a chaplain at Olive Crest where I was working in the adoptions program. I invited several of our homeless residents in the support group to attend First Love OC, and many accepted the invitation.
Roberto was one of those who decided to come. He had been struggling with drugs and alcohol for many years. He had a family that lived in Orange County, and two of his young adult children had been keeping in touch with him. Roberto shared that being at the support group at the homeless shelter gave him a ‘sense of belonging’ that he needed. He volunteered to help at the shelter in the area of maintenance, but he often found that his unresolved issues with anger would get in the way, so he would resort back to drugs and alcohol.
Roberto talked about faith in God, but he struggled with understanding how a holy and loving God could accept him as a child.
That day at the prayer gathering, while we were sitting on the bleachers, Roberto surrendered his life to Jesus and received His unconditional love. He told me that since that moment in the stadium, he finally felt free of the burden of sin he had been carrying for so long.
Today, Roberto has a closer relationship with his family. He is still a resident of the Courtyard but succeeded in acquiring a part-time job. He has attended a men’s weekly Bible study with our church and stays in touch with us when he has prayer needs. We have been praying with him over the phone recently, and his faith appears to be strong. He is sharing his faith with others and has been praying that his kids will all surrender their lives to Jesus.
When I saw Roberto with his hands raised in surrender to Jesus, the word ‘freedom’ kept coming to mind. When he himself told me that he felt he was ‘set free’ that day, I knew it was not only him but also many others. Why? Because the body of Christ gathered as one voice to appeal to heaven on their behalf. Praise God for His freedom that still rings loud and clear to release the captives! All the glory and honor to our great and awesome God! Many Robertos were freed that day!”
-Edith Lozano
Testimonies like these brought me to tears. From a human perspective, I was tempted to consider First Love OC a failure. There were thousands of seats in the stadium, yet only hundreds were filled. I was thankful for those hundreds, but I still had doubts. People told me that if I would have brought in a “big name preacher” or famous singer we could have easily filled the stadium. Others told me I wasted money by not using a specific church’s nonprofit status to get a cheaper rental rate for the stadium. However, I had honestly felt firmly in my spine that the event was to be a prayer gathering that didn’t belong to a specific church, one big preacher, or a famous Christian musician. It was meant to glorify no other name than the name of Jesus!
After First Love OC, a woman named Alicia Hilton contacted me to let me know that she heard the Lord speaking His Scripture to her while in the stadium: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few- So, pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields” (New Living Translation, Matthew 9:37-3.., Alicia had been fervently praying for years that God would send workers to tend to His harvest. When she saw the empty seats in the stadium stands, she wasn’t sad but actually felt the open seats were purposed by the Lord. Alicia sensed Him say, “The seats in the stadium are filled with angels! I never intended to fill these seats with humans I intended to fill the seats on the field. Look at the seats on the field. Those are my workers.”
At the end of the prayer gathering, a man approached Alicia with – encouraging confirmation, telling her, “God told me to tell you that the seats here were filled with angels!” And can you guess the name of the man sent to deliver this news? Angel!
I thought back to my original vision about First Love OC. I realized the Lord didn’t show me a full stadium; He just showed me the Santa Ana Stadium. Sometimes all we can do is act in obedience and trust God to do the rest. What a blessing to be a tiny part of God’s story. We got to see a glimpse of His divine goodness wooing an entire county with love as many believers joined together. The joyous thought of watching Roberto and others running into the arms of a Heavenly Father made every dollar and every moment spent worth it all for Jesus’ glory!