Ok so here’s a recap of yesterday…

Well it started like every other Thursday morning actually. But Megan left for Ski Invasion. So I decided since it was Thursday, well, I can work an extra hour. You see my normal work schedule is 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. But I have the wonderful benefit of flex time. Sooo if I come in at 8:30 well… then I can work till 5:30 and its all cool. Or if I take an extra 30 minutes at lunch, I can just make it up at the end of the day. So that morning I decided I can get Megan to church at 7:30 then hang out for an hour or so and get to work a little late. No big deal right? I mean, we meet at J-cup around 6 or 6:30 and I don’t leave Macon after work anyway, so I’ll just hang out in the morning then work a little that night.

So around 8:15 I decide to head to the office. But alas, what do I see but a puddle of green colored liquid dripping from under my engine. Lovely. I just spent $3600 getting the motor replaced in my truck. So nooooooow Im off to the shop. Drop off my truck, with ALL the stuff for downtown packed inside, and they give me a ride back to my office. I don’t know what time it was when I got there. 9ish or so I guess. Dang it sucks not having a vehicle.

Ok, so 4:30 rolls around and I catch a ride with a friend to go pick up my truck. Yes, I left at 4:30, that means I have to spend a couple hours of precious leave time. Oh well. Go to pick up my truck and the guy is like… oh sorry, its not REALLY ready it will be about 30 more minutes. That’s mechanic time btw, which translates to 45 mins to an hour in real time. So heres the deal with my truck. Apparently there is a defect in the head. So the head casket wont seat correctly, thus allowing coolant to drip out. Its still under warranty for the new engine so it wont cost anything to fix. But I will be without a truck for another week once the new new engine comes in. So, Im driving it now because I had everything for Thursday night AND all the tools for working on my house in the tool box. I just have to make sure I add water.

Dang I just realized I have typed half a page and have yet to get to the REAL story. So here we go… I made it to the cup just in time to get the buns from Brandie and go to the Macon Rescue Mission. I catch most the service there then head downtown. It was pretty cool Brandie invited like 2 people who in turn invited 3 or 4. So we had a pretty good group of new college students join us last night. That was cool. And Nathan was in town. Hes always a lot of fun to have around. In fact, I like Nathan.

Ok so as I am walking around talking to people I enter into a conversation with Sam. He’s pretty much a regular downtown. He was telling me how hard it is to get a job if you are a homeless person in Macon, GA. Even with some construction going on they simply wont hire him. They have a fear that he doesn’t really want work. That he is just scoping them out to later rob them or something. When I mentioned, well they just don’t realize, anyone can find themselves in your situation given the right circumstances, he started telling me his story.

He doesn’t want to be homeless. He doesn’t want to be an alcoholic. He wants to get a job, buy a house, be able to buy dinner for his kids (who he hasn’t even seen in years). He was telling me he was married, had a good job and had been working there like 16 years, had a nice house, two kids. Life was good. Then a series of events happened. His wife divorced him. She got the house and kids and invited some other man to live there in his house with his wife and his kids. That really hurt. Then he had an accident at work. He showed me his leg covered with long deep scars as he pointed out where the pins are in his bones. At this point he had lost everything. The pain and hurt of it was too much for him to bear so he covered it with alcohol. Time of missing his wife, missing the physical contact you get from a marriage, he tried to fill that emptiness by hooking up with what he called crack whores. (His term, not mine). Because they would do anything for just a couple bucks to try and score their next hit of crack. He soon discovered this wasn’t working to fill the pain and emptiness. So he started using crack as well. He has gone through recovery programs. He began to explain what happens. He begins to get clean. Begins to feel healthier. Begins working and making money. But as his mind clears, thoughts of his past life and pain begin to flood in. He cant help but think of all he has lost. He told me he can never forgive himself for all the times he has used even his closest friends. Betrayed their trust for a few bucks he then spent on drugs or drinking. He feels like there is no forgiveness for all he has done and the pain gets unbearable so he turns back to the only thing he knows, drinking. It doesn’t take long from there before he finds himself living on the street again.

These are the moments God has placed us there for. Yes, hotdogs fill a physical need. But we are there to reach into the spiritual as well. I don’t always know what to say. I had the opportunity to explain Gods forgiveness. To explain how I believe when you accept Jesus and you confess those things to God and ask for forgiveness, well then the blood of Jesus actually covers up all those things and God no longer sees them. You are forgiven. I told him he is forgiven. The hard part is now accepting that forgiveness and forgiving yourself. He agreed. I was able to pray with Sam. Asking God to fill him with an unexplainable peace, to release him from condemnation, to release him into forgiveness. It was good. I believe God is working in him. As we both wiped some tears from our eyes, I said good bye and went to talk to some other people. Grace and Peace Sam, grace and peace.