Testimony Tuesday: Alissa Crews of Fort Myers, Florida

Alissa Crews

The following story took place on Monday and although at first I wasn’t sure if I should share, I believe this is an issue that many people struggle with and God has been using this situation to really encourage me.

The other day, my friends Angela, Corey and I went downtown and made our way to a floating dock with a pavilion to sit down. Corey started playing his ukulele and the three of us enjoyed worshipping there for a while. As this was going on, a man came down the dock and sat a little ways off, looking out at the water.  I began to worry that we were being too noisy or disrupting him (even though we were there first, and he probably realized this before making his way down).  As he looked out, I felt a draw to him, despite having no idea as to what was going on in his life or the situations that he might be dealing with.  Honestly, I thought he might be homeless (we were down by the park and he was alone, so I don’t think that was a bad assumption).  All I knew was that in some way, I wanted to help this stranger.

I felt uncomfortable that we were being too loud and happy around someone who obviously shared neither of those attributes, and so I prayed that God would show me some way to tangibly help him, but the phrase, “What you’re doing now is fine,” was all I heard.  But I brushed off these words in the assumption that I was doing nothing at all.  

We finished up and I was disappointed that I hadn’t had the courage to approach this lonesome figure. As we stood up, the man came over and explained that he was very encouraged by our music, and that God had really touched him through it. He told us to, “Keep doing what we are doing.” We had sung, ‘Deep Cries Out’ and he described how the lyrics: ‘Jump, jump in the river’ reminded him of a song he wrote for his son. He had just dropped off this same son and began to tell us about the hardship he found in saying, “Goodbye,” to him.  It was because of that difficulty he had come downtown to the river.

As the man spoke, it was as if God was whispering, ‘See, I told you so!’ in my ear.  God has been teaching me to not worry about what others think (because my assumptions are usually wrong!) and to just live for Him! In doing this, everything else falls into place.