Visitor [Adventure]

 

[Adventure 113]: Slightly edited excerpts from an email I sent to our church administrator...

So...as you know we were working on books [for the church book sale].

At one point the doorbell rang and I went to see who it was. It was a man who said he needed a ride home and didn't know where to go or what to do. His Jeep was broken down, he'd lost his phone, and he'd been walking all day. I told him I was limited in what I could personally do, but asked if there was someone he could call. He called his grandmother in Maine, who gave him his sister's number and the number of the guy who lives upstairs from him in a 2 family house. He called and left messages. He eventually talked to his sister and she said she'd pick him up at 4:30 (it was 2:30ish at this point). She asked to talk with me and we chatted for a while. She wanted to know about the church and what we were about. She's fairly local, has children, and is looking for a new church home. 

Skye heated up a Chef Boyardee thing for our new friend and gave him a bottle of water. Our choir director arrived at 3:30 to record and I then got a call from the guy who lives upstairs from our visitor. Apparently people had been trying to figure out where our visitor had gone and couldn't get a hold of him because he lost his phone. He asked if all was well with our new friend and said he would be the one picking him up. We send our visitor safely on his way with a bag of food and our prayers.

Our visitor and I talked a lot about how he was feeling lost and he said he had been praying all day for somewhere he could feel at peace. He said he felt it when Skye and I answered the door and took the time to talk with him and help him. It seemed to me like he just needed someone to listen and someone to have an everyday conversation with. He was very polite and respectful. He wore his mask the entire time, and when eating/drinking, he stepped away in order to properly socially distance.

Hopefully we made a few new friends that day and we'll see our visitor again. 

And someday I'll get the books done, as was my intention that day. Apparently God had other plans.