I’m Vincent in Philadelphia. Peace to you and grace in the name of our Lord, Yeshua and our Father, the God of Glory.
Some months ago, I received a Twitter invitation to Yeshua Groups. At the time, I was developing a closer bond with a sister of ours. For awhile we had been in an encouraging conversation, one that was actually sparked by a movie called” God‘s Not Dead.” After watching it, I texted the message “God’s not dead!”, to a few people. I received several interesting responses to that message, but this particular sister was very eager to hear what I thought and what has been put in my heart to do for our people. I had begun to use the name Yeshua in our prayers and she was intrigued by that. I had mainly I started to do so because I finally began to see our God as a friend and so I wanted to use his Hebrew name. I bring that up because God is very relational. He used that movie to connect me with a community. Now Yeshua groups is doing the same. It wasn’t too long after those conversations started, I got that first message from Yeshua groups.
Currently I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and my name is Vincent Nyle Cooper. I include my middle name because of how it relates to my story and my current ministry, particularly in remembrance of the pain. God is Good to deliver us, to put us on his Shoulder and bring us back to him.
When I was very young, I was called Nyle. You know, like the Nile river, just with a Y! I wouldn’t find out until I was in my 20s that Nyle was actually my first name. As a agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi Muslim who had become very fascinated with Egyptian culture, learning this fact led me to become very zealous about learning as much as I could about that culture, further forsaking my Christian upbringing.
I had grown up in church, the son of a very church involved family - deacons and my mother was even a reverend who received her masters of divinity. In those early years we were always in church. Then as I grew older first I got into sex, drugs and alcohol, and then experimentation with other religions.
What’s really amazing is that even though I stopped calling on the name of God through Jesus, God still blessed me exceedingly. Though I grew up in the working poor, I was valedictorian of my high school class, I had a received a full scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania, my fiancé - this woman who even now I still love, before I broke her heart - was beginning her Rhodes Scholarship. All of that I say only to highlight how great this fall really was.
But God’s Word is true and when the winds and the rains come they will show what kind of foundation your house is built on.
In very short order, I surrounded myself with hateful, vengeful people; this woman I love sought the embrace of another man; the businesses I was building failed, and I found myself homeless – sleeping in the woods and on concrete, stealing food so that I could eat.
But when it seemed darkest God showed His Light through a group of young Christians who took me in. It was they who showed me a love that is beyond comprehension, who lived out their faith, and in doing so shone a beautiful light into the pit of darkness where I had become entrapped. My deliverance was because of God’s faithfulness through their loving ministry to me.
Shortly after that I became a landscaper, ministering to the young children of the neighborhood in which I was living, eager to do for others what God had done for me.
Those who were close to me urged me to get back into schooling, to get a job that was in agreement with the skills that I had been given. So many times I applied, so many applications I put in, so many denials.... That summer gave way to winter and I started at Starbucks, suffering a lot of humiliation from those who knew me, but at the same time, I was strengthened to be brief and bright, as people would come in and out of the store. For a bookish introvert like myself, that Starbucks register became a ministry.
So let me tell you a story of Mercy and Love and Promise. In the summer before the Starbucks winter, God showed me, through a commercial, a place that I would be working. I was in the waiting room at the doctor’s office watching TV, and as this commercial played, in my heart I knew God purposed for me to be there. In spite of the many rejected applications I had received, during that winter, I put in an application for a research position at the University of Pennsylvania. And, amazingly, with this application I finally got an interview. Some weeks later, I had received the job. God has shown me miracles!
Now, my heart goes to the homeless, those who are spiritually homeless and those who are in need of a physical dwelling place. Since I’ve been back in Philadelphia, working with our brothers and sisters here, we have provided for the homeless those things that they need: hope, clothing, food, housing, and experiences with Yeshua. And this we do through our home church.
Coming out of homelessness is much more than the provision of a place to dwell securely, it’s a mindset - the renewing of our mind – and it is with that understanding I want to create this Yeshua group, or rather steward this group that Yeshua has created. I am asking God to bring like minded brothers and sisters who are willing to go to the homeless brothers and sisters and those who have recently come out of homelessness, to give of their time. I pray that those who are homeless and who have recently come out of homelessness would give them their time to hear the stories that are the foundation of our faith and that truly do change how we perceive the world, and also strengthen us for the work that we are called to do in this world. Though many of the donations have been of a personal nature. Here’s a link to a new gofundme that has been set up as we try now to raise emergency expenses for those on the streets as the winter approaches once more: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-open-door-for-the-philadelphia-homeless
Please keep us in your prayers concerning these matters. I still remember how cold it would get during the night when the rains would come down, and how it felt like the feeling would never come back to my feet. Prayer is powerful, friends. My life was changed because a group of young Christians lived out their faith and love for our God, who told me stories, and encouraged me. I pray that by the Grace of God our new Yeshua group would do the same for others.
I can be contacted at my cell phone: 302-357-4509. Or by email at [email protected].
God bless you all,
Vincent
Interested in starting a group? https://yeshuagroups.com/start
