Prince

I met Prince in the Bronx, NY on December 18th, 2020 at the intersection of Exterior St. and River Ave. We started talking and he told me about his life. He told me about his childhood and how his mother tried to give herself an abortion with a coat hanger. The coat hanger stabbed Prince’s foot when he was in her womb, which caused his foot to get an infection. When Prince was a few months old, his leg started decomposing; he developed gangrene. At 9 months, his leg was amputated. Prince has a wife and 2 kids. He has housing, but he panhandles to get more income.

Please pray for Prince.

Nelson Joseph

I toured the Mid-Atlantic and New England from August 2nd to August 20th helping people in various cities and towns.

I met Nelson Joseph on my first day on tour in Philadelphia on August 2nd. He was a joy to be around. He told me that he had just arrived in Philadelphia from Florida a few days prior on a whim. He lost his job in Florida due to the virus outbreak (he was working in the hotel industry) and then decided to go to Philadelphia where he thought he might have more opportunity. He told me he prayed to God and left everything in God’s hands. I met him while he was laying down on the sidewalk and I asked him if he needed help with clothing, getting a shower, among other things. He told me his story and he told me that he met a man who offered him a job, but that he needed to get a shower for the job interview. It was perfect timing that he and I met. I gave him a shower with my portable shower system and I gave him new socks, shoes, pants, underwear, shirts, and a belt, and he looked ready for the job interview. He and I stayed in contact and texted each other and he told me he got the job and I’m so happy for him. I know God brought him and I together that day and I’m so glad He did. Nelson then gave an impassioned speech to me where he said how much he loves God and how he knew God brought him safely to Philadelphia and how his faith in God is being rewarded. Pray for Nelson.

Thank you, Nelson, for letting me take your photo and giving me the O.K. to share your story.

There are so many other people I met in these situations on my travels. There are so many other people out in the world moving around in the world holding onto their faith and trying to make ends meet. Pray for everyone.

I pray everyone who holds onto their faith in God and I pray for the people of the world to find God, if they have not yet done so.

Amen.

Update | November 27th, 2020 |

Nelson and I keep in touch. He is not homeless anymore. He has an apartment in Philadelphia. He has a job. He seems to be doing well. Nelson is one of my favorite success stories I have witnessed. He put his faith in God and stayed on the right path and God opened doors for him.

Update | January 1st, 2021 |

Nelson is in a housing program in Philadelphia. He and I met up and spent some time catching up. He has a job. And he told me about some of his spiritual experiences. He told me about how he grew up in Haiti and moved to America. He told me about how people in his family and his community in Haiti were practicing dark magic and voodoo and were trying to convert him into their satanic practices. He resisted them. He left Haiti and traveled to Florida for a better life. Nelson has one of the most amazing stories. He has stories of experiences where he saw miracles performed in Haiti that I hope I can document.

Update | June 17th, 2021 |

Nelson has been working and has received his commercial driving license. His life has really come together in less than a year since I met him.

Howard Wallace

I met Howard in Lake Charles, Louisiana on October 24th, 2020. He saw me and called out to me asking for help. We started talking and he told me he was living in a decrepit house that was damaged from the hurricanes that passed through. The owner of the property hired him to repair a house and let him live there for the time being. His real home was destroyed in the hurricane, that’s why he was homeless. He told me there was a news article published about him and how he lost his home that I found. I will link the news article below.

The first photo is the photo I took of him in the house he was repairing and living in. The other photo is from the news article about him.

Please pray for Howard and people like him.

Update | January 4, 2021 |

Howard has moved out of the house he was repairing and got a job working in the auto repair industry. He is currently living at his job site and he is trying to find housing for an actual home.

Last time I checked in with Howard he needed help finding housing. If you have any leads, contact me at michaelcastingpearls@gmail.com and I may be able to put you in contact with him.

Prasanna

I met Prasanna in East Harlem, New York City, NY at Lexington Ave and E 125th St. on June 26th, 2021.

Prasanna has one of those soft warm personalities. He was so kind and so appreciative. He was living on the streets in a rough spot in Harlem, yet he had the grace of someone who seemed to not have a problem in the world. He loves God dearly.

I meet a lot of people who love God, but it’s rare to come into contact with someone who seems to have every fiber of their being radiating for Jesus. I can’t describe this man the way he deserves to be described, but I will say that Prasanna understands love in a way that people could learn a lot from.

He asked me to sign his shoes.

Some people who deserve the world barely have anything at all.

Love and peace, Prasanna.

Dave

I met Dave in Detroit, MI on June 30, 2021. Dave has a rough story. He told me he hopes his story can help other people from suffering.

He told me he used to have a successful company. He fell ill to drug addiction and lost almost everything he had and has been living on the streets for years. On the day I met him, he told me he found God again in a big way a couple weeks before meeting me. He told me he was going into rehab very soon.

He told me that he was living in an abandoned building and woke up one day and found the other people who were living in the building with him were all dead. He told me all of them had bought contaminated drugs from a drug dealer which caused all of them to die, but he told me that he used the same drugs the day before and somehow survived. But he told me that even though he knew he had bought a bad batch of drugs that could easily kill him if he used them again, he still used the same drugs that killed his building-mates soon after he found them dead. He told me he was embarrassed and ashamed about that, but that’s how bad drug addiction can get.

He told me living in Detroit is rough. He told me, “I’ve seen men raping men [on the streets of Detroit]. I thought that only happened in prison.”

And he told me he is concerned about the young homeless people he sees out on the streets.

Even though he and I had a deep conversation about darkness, suffering, evil, and addiction, he had a lot hope and loved God very much and it’s inspirational to see someone who has hit the pavement so hard and can still stand up and love God and move in the right direction.

Pray for Dave.

The Ronaldo Family

I met the Ronaldo Family on May 22, 2021 in Philadelphia, PA. It’s a hard time for a lot of families and the Ronaldo family was going through a tough time. Some people vandalized their car and the vehicle stopped working and I helped get them a new car. There was no help from the police or restitution for what happened.

Philadelphia is a tough city, but as I was trying to help the Ronaldo family I saw a lot of people come together to try to help them as well. It’s good to see people looking after one another.

Pray for the Ronaldo Family.

Kevin, Aaron, Chubby, and Nikki

I met this group of friends off of South Broadway on June 21st, 2020. They were sitting at the steps of a church together, talking about their lives, their hardships, and they were praying together.

Chubby then took Aarons hand and they had a moment of silence together and prayed together.

I asked Kevin if he would like to share any wisdom with the world. Kevin told me, “I thank God for everything.”

Arron went to school and majored in English Literature.

Aaron asked me if he could write his story for me in my journal. I let him write in my journal. This is what he wrote:

After Aaron wrote in the journal. Kevin, Chubby, and Nikki all wanted to sign the letter together, and they all signed.

I asked Aaron if he would like to share any wisdom with the world, “We’re just passing through. Do you know that saying?

This world is not my home.

We’re just passing through.

We’re going to the Father after this [life].”

I asked Chubby if he would like to share any words of wisdom, “We all need help … [we need help with] housing. It’s not like we don’t have the money for housing, we just can’t find housing [there’s not enough of it].

Pray to God to help us, we need it.”

Aaron added, “There are too many holes to jump over [to get housing].”

I asked Nikki for words of wisdom, “Thank God for everything He has done for me in my life. Thank God for everyone I’ve met in my life.”

Update | July 9th, 2020 |

I have not seen Kevin, Aaron, Chubby, or Nikki since I first met them, but if you come across them, please feel free to email me and let me know how they are doing and what their condition is - thank you.

Patrick

I met Patrick and his girlfriend (who asked not to be named) on June 30th, 2020 in Baltimore, MD. I was walking down the sidewalk on North Charles Street and I heard a somber voice call out, “Jesus, why did they have to kill you?”

I saw a man sitting down on the sidewalk holding a black marker in his hand writing on his arms and pants messages about God and Jesus. He had just been thinking about Jesus and I can only guess he must have been feeling sad that Jesus was killed, despite all the love that was inside of him. The timing of us meeting could not have been more perfect.

On the underside of his left forearm, he had written, “I 🖤 JESUS” and he drew a cross on the other side of his left forearm.

On the top of his right forearm he wrote, “GOD IS REAL”.

And on his left thigh he wrote, “I 🖤 JESUS” on his pants.

This is one of my favorite memories during this ministry.

The two of us immediately started talking about Jesus and God. Patrick introduced me to his girlfriend and we talked. They have been together for 14 years.

I asked Patrick if I could take a photo of him. He was enthusiastic about a photo and started posing for me.

His girlfriend told me she did not want to be photographed, but then she had a change of heart and jumped into the view of the camera.

Patrick asked me if I could give him a Bible. I told him that I didn’t have one on me, but that I would get him one and give him one if I saw him again. The two of us did not know how we would end up meeting again, but he told me that when I got a Bible for him, to hide it in a secret hiding spot where he would look for it. So that’s what I am going to do, hide a Bible in his secret hiding spot.

Loy

I met Loy at the intersection of South Washington and Orleans in Baltimore, MD on June 21st, 2020. Loy told me that he is at this intersection every day. If you want to talk to Loy and help him, you will most likely find him at South Washington St. and Orleans St in Baltimore, MD.

Update | July 9th, 2020 |

Loy is doing well.

I met with Loy for the 3rd time yesterday (July 8th, 2020). He seems to be doing well.

Loy is a thinker. He and I spent a good 10-20 minutes talking about theology, morality, judgement and discernment, how love and caring about people is important. He raised some good ideas about how he feels about people and about justice.
He has strong views about good and evil.

He spoke on how he believes in the concept of separation between those who are “good” and those who are “evil”. He had big thoughts about how honest and loyal people should be cared for and how those who lack principles, lack moral direction and lack honor should be handled differently.

We talked about God, Jesus, and Judgement Day, among many other things together.
I enjoyed our conversation and hope to talk with him more.

Pray for Loy

Update | January 1st, 2021 |

I have not seen Loy for a long time. I hope he’s okay. I really bonded with him. He was one of the first people I met when I started this ministry and he and I really got along. I’m praying for him. He was someone who I felt a connection with, like we had already known each other for years, or something like that. So, if you happen to see Loy, let me know. I would love to know how he’s doing.

Lorie

I met Lorie off of North Avenue in Baltimore, MD on June 21st, 2020. Lorie was a 3rd grade school teacher. She suffers from debilitating chronic pain. Her doctor stopped practicing medicine and she then no longer had access to the care she needed. Life has been a struggle for her especially after that.

Lorie asked me if I knew of a place she could take a shower. I wanted to help her find somewhere to shower, but I did not know of a place at the time. But she got me thinking about how I can give showers to people. I got the idea to buy a portable shower, designed for camping, and drive around and offer a shower to people who need a shower, providing towels and a new clean pair of socks, underwear and a shirt for people to have after they shower.

But the strange thing is, two days later, while I was trying to figure out how to create a shower service for people without access to a shower, I drove past Generosity Global, located at the intersection of North Front St. and Hillen Street, next to the Health Care & Homeless service building in Baltimore, MD. I had just discovered Generosity Global, a shower service designed specifically to give in need and people living on the street a shower. I was driving in my car handing food out to people while, thinking about how to create a shower system for the homeless, and happened to drive right past this shower service. It’s a miracle that I came across I introduced myself to Rich Awko, the founder of Generosity Global. I now volunteer at Generosity Global when I can and when I do my food and care package deliveries to people in Baltimore, if I have a moment to speak to the people I’m serving, I tell them about Generosity Global and how they can get a shower. 

Generosity Global is in operation every Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am to 1pm. Every person who uses the showers of Generosity Global gets a fresh clean t-shirt, underwear, and pair of socks they can change into after they take their shower.

In addition to Generosity Global, I am still planning on creating my own mobile shower service for the homeless. I have met people living on the streets who live far away from the Generosity Global location or have physical disabilities that prevent them from getting to Generosity Global easily, so why not bring the shower to them? I have ordered a portable shower. Besides the shower, I have the necessary supplies necessary to facilitate a shower service. I also have fresh socks, underwear and shirts people can change into after a shower.

Thank you, Lorie, for the inspiration to create a shower service. And thank you Rich Awko and Generosity Global for being years ahead of me with facilitating a free shower service for the homeless.

For more information about Generosity Global, click the link below to be redirected to Generosity Global’s website:

Update | July 9th, 2020 |

I have not seen Lorie since I first met her, but if you come across her, please feel free to email me and let me know how she is doing and what her condition is - thank you.

Pray for Lorie

Joshua Kershner

I met Joshua at the West Chase and North Howard intersection in Baltimore, MD on June 21st, 2020. He is from Hagerstown, Maryland.

He was in high spirits when I spoke to him. Josh told me how he’s looking forward to getting his life together and having a productive life.

He had an attitude that living on the streets was temporary.

He told me about his brother and how his family is one of the most important things to him.

Update | July 9th, 2020 |

I recently saw Joshua at this same location at West Chase and North Howard and he seems to still be healthy.

Pray for Joshua