Layton Testimonies
Just wanted to share a testimony! My self and a few others 1st BSSM friends were hanging out the other night and my neighbor stopped by to say hi, but to really seek some prayer for healing. She and her husband came over because our neighbor (who's name I won't put here) had recently just got home from the ER. She had a couple of mini-strokes or something similar which left her with Aphasia. This condition is represented by slight brain damage and speech impediments or slurred speak that is difficult to do. So we surrounded her with prayer and the love of Jesus. We all declared total recovery and speech to be restored. Well, guess what! I saw her yesterday and she's speaking perfectly normal and even better than she was before all this happened! Come on Jesus!!!
Michael, Layton House
Michael, Layton House
The ministry of Brandon Showalter ’07 isn’t about the state: it’s about how community can transform souls.
The ministry of Brandon Showalter ’07 isn’t about the state: it’s about how community can transform souls.Mother Theresa once said that it’s very fashionable to talk about the poor, but less fashionable to talk with them. The poor, she said, were her friends and family.
Brandon Showalter ’07, who has been doing ministry in northern California, has taken that to heart. “To solve the problem of poverty and its attending vices you have to throw people at it, not money, particularly people who are willing to identify and suffer with those in need. That is true compassion. No government policy aimed at combating chronic poverty, no matter how well-intended, can actually love the broken soul next door. It absolutely must start there. We have to build little platoons of relationships and renew the social structures from the inside out before we can ever expect to witness any meaningful improvement. And that is a messy yet necessary process. Even as I struggle to make ends meet myself, God animates me with his joy.”
"We have to build little platoons of relationships and renew the social structures from the inside out before we can ever expect to witness any meaningful improvement."Living in one of the poorer, crime-ridden parts of town, which is infested with drugs and addictions of all kinds, there is a real darkness that permeates Brandon’s neighborhood. Very few of his neighbors, he says, have any hope that things will ever change for the better. Many of them live in grinding poverty and are living on some form of government assistance—some are worthy recipients, while others are clearly gaming the system. Northern California is known for a high presence of drugs, especially marijuana, and Brandon and his roommates often smell its skunky odor wafting through the air. A drug dealer’s presence next door casts a shadow on the neighborhood, including its prospects for recovery.
But each week, Brandon hits the streets; getting to know people, asking how he can serve them. He’s not hesitant to talk about Christ—a real challenge in an area where social trust has evaporated—but he’s combining it with caring for neighbors’ material needs as well. “Some of them resist the ‘God stuff,’” he says, “but a few of them will let us pray for them.”
When he takes his neighbors food, or invites them over for dinner, he is met with hesitance, guardedness, and downcast eyes. Once in a while he is warmly received, but mostly the experience has been a sobering look at what has happened in contemporary American culture.
“A friend and I just a few days ago took food to a man whom we had not yet met, and upon being invited in we were overcome by the stench of body odor mixed with alcohol. We ended up praying for him, though I doubt he understood much of it, as he was intoxicated. It broke my heart. But there are a few neighbors that I have really gotten to know and love. I know their stories, their kids, their victories, their despair, their tears and fears. Everything. They are my friends and I will never forget them.”
Brandon faithfully walks the streets several times a week with his fellow ministers, praying for their neighbors. “Prayer is powerful,” he says firmly. On one such walk, they found police officers about to raid the home of the drug dealer next door and were able to pray for their safety and the health of the neighborhood. Soon after, they noticed with joy that seven houses in the area were being refurbished.
“Though progress is slow here, the Kingdom is advancing,” says Brandon. “I continue to hold onto what the apostle Paul told the church in Colosse: that because the Lord has reconciled us to himself we will ‘continue in [our] faith, established and firm, and [will] not move from the hope held out in the gospel.’ That hope, though slow in coming at times, does not disappoint.”
Brandon Showalter ’07, who has been doing ministry in northern California, has taken that to heart. “To solve the problem of poverty and its attending vices you have to throw people at it, not money, particularly people who are willing to identify and suffer with those in need. That is true compassion. No government policy aimed at combating chronic poverty, no matter how well-intended, can actually love the broken soul next door. It absolutely must start there. We have to build little platoons of relationships and renew the social structures from the inside out before we can ever expect to witness any meaningful improvement. And that is a messy yet necessary process. Even as I struggle to make ends meet myself, God animates me with his joy.”
"We have to build little platoons of relationships and renew the social structures from the inside out before we can ever expect to witness any meaningful improvement."Living in one of the poorer, crime-ridden parts of town, which is infested with drugs and addictions of all kinds, there is a real darkness that permeates Brandon’s neighborhood. Very few of his neighbors, he says, have any hope that things will ever change for the better. Many of them live in grinding poverty and are living on some form of government assistance—some are worthy recipients, while others are clearly gaming the system. Northern California is known for a high presence of drugs, especially marijuana, and Brandon and his roommates often smell its skunky odor wafting through the air. A drug dealer’s presence next door casts a shadow on the neighborhood, including its prospects for recovery.
But each week, Brandon hits the streets; getting to know people, asking how he can serve them. He’s not hesitant to talk about Christ—a real challenge in an area where social trust has evaporated—but he’s combining it with caring for neighbors’ material needs as well. “Some of them resist the ‘God stuff,’” he says, “but a few of them will let us pray for them.”
When he takes his neighbors food, or invites them over for dinner, he is met with hesitance, guardedness, and downcast eyes. Once in a while he is warmly received, but mostly the experience has been a sobering look at what has happened in contemporary American culture.
“A friend and I just a few days ago took food to a man whom we had not yet met, and upon being invited in we were overcome by the stench of body odor mixed with alcohol. We ended up praying for him, though I doubt he understood much of it, as he was intoxicated. It broke my heart. But there are a few neighbors that I have really gotten to know and love. I know their stories, their kids, their victories, their despair, their tears and fears. Everything. They are my friends and I will never forget them.”
Brandon faithfully walks the streets several times a week with his fellow ministers, praying for their neighbors. “Prayer is powerful,” he says firmly. On one such walk, they found police officers about to raid the home of the drug dealer next door and were able to pray for their safety and the health of the neighborhood. Soon after, they noticed with joy that seven houses in the area were being refurbished.
“Though progress is slow here, the Kingdom is advancing,” says Brandon. “I continue to hold onto what the apostle Paul told the church in Colosse: that because the Lord has reconciled us to himself we will ‘continue in [our] faith, established and firm, and [will] not move from the hope held out in the gospel.’ That hope, though slow in coming at times, does not disappoint.”