differences

Very full and interesting day yesterday!

I got an email from someone yesterday afternoon that a guy I know was missing in the canyon. He lives there and I've met him when I've gone to visit the missionaries and Lainee: he does not know God (yet), but he is on his way... Well we spent the afternoon praying for him and last night I called Lainee to check up. They found him, he'd fallen 50 feet and gotten a compound fracture in his ankle. They flew him here to the hospital and we're going to visit him tonight. It's a miracle that they found him, he was off the trail doing some climbing where he probably shouldn't have been, and without water or food.

Last nigth was also my very first time going out and street witnessing. The FCF people are very avid about this, and there was a youth group here doing a presentation in the Square. The first person I saw was someone I've been praying for in our prayer/accountability group. I talked to them fro a while, and they're very open to hearing about God. Pray for them and for me!

We had been given tracts to hand out, but I didn't give any out. I'm not sure how I feel about tracts... I also got to meet a homeless man who was also very open to God, and definately desirous of changing his life around. He knew that the lifestyle he was leading was empty and he was on his way to Tucson to get a job and settle down. Pat and Armando bought him a ticket there. I have to tell you about Armando some time, one of those reminds you of Jesus people...

We met back at the lighthouse and after most people had left there was a knock on the door. It was an FCF guy and two homeless men. he told us a heartbreaking story. One of the men had been sitting on the side of the road asking for change. A man came by him and kicked him, pure malice. He kicked this man so hard, his arm was shattered. Bethany "examined" him after they cleaned up some of the blood to discover that the bone was sticking out of his arm, and that's what was causing him to bleed. The guys drove him to the hospital.

Are people really so cruel?? As if being homeless made this man less of a human, that he could treat him that way. How utterly brutalistic. It is a trajedy that humans treat one another with cruelty when they think other people are worth less then themselves. We've seen it with slavery, the POW's in Iraq, domestic violence. And don't we do it in ways more subtle in every day life? Not only with homeless people, but with those dressed differently than ourselves. I know people my age who are afraid of walking into a church because they've been snubbed before for the way they dress. Because they are different. AM I wrong? Do you remember seeing anyone in your church who had tattoos, peircings, and dark makeup on? I don't.

Can this change? It would take a makeover of the heart. I fully admit to having preconceptions about people all the time, and yet those whom I have met have shown me full acceptance, of my beliefs as well as my style.

I was afraid to talk to the kids around the Square last night because I looked differently from them (vice versa). I hid that fear behind a mask of "Well, I don't want to push them away from Jesus by pushing things on them", but really, it was selfishness. It was fear, and it was denial of the story I have to tell. I have to apologize for that.

Well I'm off to get ready to go back to work. Be blessed and seek Joy!