Thursday, October 05, 2006

Strippers, DJs and Vietnam Vets

Postdated Sept.23:

It's Saturday night and I ought to be in bed like a good husband/daddy resting up for church tomorrow, but I'm too wired up to sleep. Spent Friday running Ethan to school and Noah to the doctor (all's well now) and the my folks came to visit all day today, so I've had no time since events transpired Thursday night to relay them to you. I am, however, still excited about them, so hang on and let me tell you…

I hadn't been out to the Toppers outreach in literally months. With Abigayle's arrival and adjusting to being the new director of the Journey this summer and fall, life has just been to crazy for me to have time to stand on a sidewalk from 11pm – 2am on Thursday nights. Finally, life is settling down, so this week I ventured back out.

I'd had a taste of evangelism again lately open-air preaching with a friend at the Tate student center. We preached for 4 hours and the first 2 were dry. Students just kept walking by, apathetic to the Gospel. But then the entire staff of the Wesley Foundation, who were having a day of prayer and fasting, arrived in the plaza to be our "crowd" and pray for us the second 2 hours, and the most amazing thing happened…lots of students began to stop and listen and ask questions and engage us. It was GREAT! So, given how dry my summer has been considering how little I've had to offer anyone else, that day of preaching got me stirred up again.

So out I venture on Thursday night, returning to what I began almost 1 year ago. A handful of faithful guys show up, we prayed with the ladies of Tribe Issachar, and off we went to the sidewalk in front of Toppers. Now, I had several good conversations with people that night, but there are 3 that have really stayed on my heart that I want to share with you…

The first is Forest. Yes, like Gump. He is a large man. Probably 6'2" and close to 275lbs. Gentle guy though. He was talking with Jonathan and some of the other guys initially, but brought Matt and me into the conversation a different points. Turns out our new friend Forest is a DJ at Toppers. He tells us that he knows that the environment that he works in is wrong and harmful, not only to the girls who work there, but to him as well. So we're chatting and he says something that perks my little ears up. He says, "You know, I can see myself where you guys are in 10 years or so…I'm starting to bend this way…" We ask for him to elaborate on this "bending our way" idea.

He is talking when a petite little blond walks up and side hugs him. She's mainly looking at the ground, not wanting to interrupt but I can see enough of her face to see the dark eyeliner and harsh makeup of someone who works on a stage. Our eyes meet and I ask her name. "Carrie," is her reply.

"How are you tonight, Carrie?"

"Pretty good. I'm running an errand to go get cigarettes for a friend inside. I'm a dancer here." Eyes back to the pavement.

"Carrie? My friend Matt and I were just wondering if there is anything that we can be praying for you about."

Eyes peer out, surprised from under a brow and face that is still mostly parallel to the concrete. She studies us for a moment to see if we're serious, and then, after deciding that we're legit, she offers, "My kids."

Well, of course I begin sharing about my kids and connecting with her. She lights up as she relays stories about her 5 r. old and almost 4 yr. old. Carrie almost apologetically offered that her kids go to church every day. They're in day care at a church and she wants them to get a better upbringing than the one she had. It's amazing how the conviction of the Holy Spirit can come on someone you've only offered to pray for. But she knows why we're there and what we're about. She finishes telling us about her kids and I said to her, "Can we just pray right now for them?"

Again surprise lights up her eyes and she smiles and enthusiastically says "Yes!" So we bow our heads, 2 campus ministers and a stripper on a sidewalk in downtown Athens at 12:30am and begin to call out to the God who made Heaven and earth that He would watch over 2 special children, that they might be assured of the love of their mother, and also, that they would be even more assured of the love of their heavenly Father. It was so great to see Carrie beaming as she walked away.

Once she left, I turned my attention back to Forest. He was wrapping up with some of the other guys and getting ready to leave. Now, I have on my person lately several little cards that have the days of the week and a blank line underneath that says next to it "Time of Day." At the top it reads:

APPOINTMENT CARD

Fill in the date of your death

And then beneath the place to fill in day and time it says:

Please don't forget to call me on the day you're going to die. Then we can discuss eternity.

Just under that is my name and cell phone number. On the back is a Gospel presentation. Someone gave me a stack of these and I have been using them a lot lately.

So just before Forest leaves, I ask him about the "10 years from now" thing he said. I wanted to know if he knew that even had 10 years to live. He laughed it off, apparently not worried about dying, so I asked "Can I give you this?" and I handed him the card.

He took a moment to look at it and the expression on his face changed from one of careless enjoyment of the evening to one of sudden realization and concern. He looked me right in the eyes and said "Man, that's heavy."

"yeah, it is, Forest. And the truth is, you can't fill that card out because you don't know when you'll die. It could be next month, next week, tomorrow, or even tonight. Think about it. This isn't something you want to put off – this is your eternity we're talking about here."

Forest went away still looking at the card and thinking about what we said.

Finally, there was Joe. Joe was drunk. Joe is in his 60's. Joe came out of Toppers and wanted to know what we were doing. Joe didn't have any concept of personal space. We began to talk and the short of it is that Joe was in Vietnam, was a preacher, was a police officer and now crawls inside a bottle to try to forget life. He challenged us to quote verses and he would finish them before we could. He knew the Word. He tried to tell me he was Secret Service and was in Toppers to bust a couple of pedophiles. I looked him straight in the eyes and said "If you want to go in there, you're a grown man and I won't stop you. But Joe, you don't have to rationalize your sins to me." He stood there staring at me and turned away in a huff. 10 minutes later he was back in my face.

As he was relaying his story to me in between trips in and out of Toppers, it came up that Joe had been shot twice in the line of duty as a police and that there was some resentment over not having received any commendation for that. He was angry at police and angry about crack heads who got out of jail within 24 hours only to go back to their drugs and crime. He was just angry.

I began to talk to Joe about the failure of the Law to change men. I was explaining that that was the whole idea Paul explored in Romans when the Holy Spirit spoke to me and showed me the more excellent way.

I stopped mid-sentence. "Thank you, Joe."

"What?"

"Thank you. Thank you for being a police officer. Thank you for taking 2 bullets to protect innocent lives."

"Stop it man! You don't need to thank me." He countered.

But Joe, I'm down here tonight and my wife and kids are home alone and it's men and women in uniform that protect my family on nights like tonight. I wasn't there when you got shot, but I want to say thank you on behalf of those who never had the opportunity, or the courage. Thank you, Joe. I mean it." And I placed my hand on his shoulder.

Joe stared and me and then his eyes began to fill with tears. Then he couldn't stop the weeping. After a few minutes of sobbing on the sidewalk, Joe said "I'll be right back," and disappeared into Toppers. 2 minutes later he was back on the street and came to me and said, "I don't need to be in there. I know better. And I'm done drinking. I need to go home. I went and asked the bartender to call me a cab."

Just before he climbed in to the cab to leave, Joe took my hand in his and thanked me and said, "No one's ever done for me what you did tonight." And he was gone.

I think about those 3 lives that I had a chance to touch and I just think how amazing it is that I get to do what I do. Is there any better life than that of one lived in obedience and service to the King?

Mike Satterfield (mike@thejourneyuga.com)

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