Sometimes They Surpise You

Yesterday was a great day. God really blessed me with some wonderful surprises.

On Thursday a woman called the church building in tears. Long story made short… she has a son who has been through the juvenile court system and she is responsible for all the court payments. It was a fairly large sum and she has had a number of years to make payments. Over the last year she has had some health issues and lost her job due to those issues. This has made it extremely difficult to keep up with the court payments. Her deadline is June and she has a good bit left to pay. If not paid, she goes to jail. Her husband died a few years ago, and she has a 15 yr old daughter at home. It breaks her heart to think of what would happen to her daughter if she has to spend time in jail. (OK, maybe this is the long story). She was extremely upset and crying on the phone with me. I took her number and said I would call her back. After a few suggestions from others that I not “let professionals take advantage of my generosity” I decided not to be so jaded and follow my gut. My gut said help her. I called her back and told her I would go to the court house and pay X amount on her court fees. Again, she broke into tears and thanked me over and over again. She promised that when she got back on her feet she would pay me back. I told her the only payment I want from her is to see her one Sunday at church. She promised she would be there.

On Friday one of our members who is a recovering addict living in a transitional housing program called me to tell me that someone in the transitional housing apartments died that morning. He felt that if the other people living there didn’t have someone to talk to about this tragedy they would all just resort to their addictions as a coping mechanism. He asked if I would come and pray with them. I accepted, but was nervous the rest of the day. I had no idea what to share with these people. I showed up and I let everyone tells stories about the young man that died. Some laughed and others cried. You could tell they grew close to this young man and were having a hard time with his death. I shared a few words from the Word and I prayed with them. I then allowed them to ask me questions, which they did. It was an awesome experience. At the end I simply said, “I didn’t come here to pressure any of you to come to church. I didn’t come here to preach. I didn’t come here to try to fix any of your problems. But I would absolutely love it if you would stop by our church one Sunday. I think you will blessed, but I also think your presence would bless us.” I never really thought I would see any of them.

Yesterday arrived. Before second service someone came to me and said a young lady is looking for you. She said she talked to you this week on the phone. Sure enough it was the mom that promised she would be at church. She was sitting on the second row. We talked for a bit, and after the service she found me again to tell me how much she enjoyed it. She said she would be back next with her daughter.
I didn’t see anyone from the transitional housing apartments. But last night at the LIFE Group I attended, there he was. One of the men from the apartments came walking in through the front door. I found out that he attended second service, but never got a chance to talk to me. Someone invited him to a LIFE Group and he accepted. I was so thrilled. We talked about his past and he shed some tears. He said he wants to change. It was great.

It is so easy to get jaded. I try so hard not to be that way because sometimes they surprise you.