Matthew Barnett, pastor and CEO of the Dream Center in Los Angeles, California, is seeing incredible spiritual hunger in the wake of devastating California wildfires that have killed at least 24 people and destroyed more than 12,000 structures.
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Barnett, whose organization is feeding and housing those impacted by the inferno, told CBN News he has seen a massive outpouring of resources and volunteer staff — people from all walks of life who are flooding to his campus to help the Christian nonprofit bring relief.
In the process, these people are hearing — and experiencing — the Christian Gospel.
“They’re not just open,” Barnett said of the spiritual fervor unfolding. “They are telling you stuff that you’re not even asking them. I mean, they are volunteering … their lives … and, just by listening and asking them questions, and then you say … ‘God is with you.'”
Volunteers have been flooding to the Dream Center to help hand out food and resources — people from “every type of demographic you could imagine.”
“As people are working 10 hours a day so joyfully … I’m talking to them as they’re serving … we’ll play worship music and … they’ll be like, ‘I like the song. I never heard before. What is it?'” Barnett said. “And then we’re just talking about God while we’re working together with this whole new community.”
He said prayer has also been on full display, as he and volunteers ask individuals and families coming through the food line if they can pray for them.
As it turns out, the spiritual needs are as plentiful as the physical.
“Everybody wants prayer,” Barnett said. “It really is kind of a revival in action where people just want to know that God is there, but I’m really seeing it in a very unusual way through a lot of the volunteers rubbing shoulders all day long and asking questions … like, ‘Why do you do what you guys do?'”
He said some people go through the food line to be prayed for and to experience the positive, spirit-driven Dream Center staff and volunteers.
“It really is a gathering place, it’s a revival place, it’s a place where people are being told about Christ, it’s a place of people being prayed for,” Barnett said. “It really reminds me of an Acts 29 type of church in action.”
Right now, Barnett said the Dream Center is in phase one of its outreach, providing emergency food, housing, and guidance. As time goes on, there will be new, longitudinal needs that the organization will need to meet.
“We’re feeding people,” he said. “They’re coming through the line. We’re learning a lot about what they’ve lost.”
Despite Barnett’s longstanding work in Los Angeles helping the poor and those in need, he said this experience is different — and it’s something he’s not really prepared to tackle.
“I’ve never been encountered by anything like this,” he said.
Barnett said the Dream Center is planning to honor the hundreds and hundreds of volunteers who have shown up to help and plans to share the Gospel with them while expressing their gratitude.
“Serving is the greatest way to engage people that do not know the Lord because everybody can rally around that,” he said. “Everybody can get behind the fact that the Gospel inspires you to do great things and to love people in practical ways, and it’s an unbelievable open door to be able to share why you do it and what inspires you to make that change.”
Find out more about the Dream Center.
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