I bought a strange man a hotdog and got a Bible.
PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:54 am
Although yesterday was quite busy, it did start to slow down at one point and I was going to take my ten minute break and get a hotdog from the store next door. A slightly dirty, slightly bearded man comes in asking if anyone has any work he could do. He said he is a Christian and he doesn't drink or smoke. As I am near the door I tell him that there are applications at the cashier booth if he wants. He has applied three times already, so I tell him that he's probably still in the system then. Ok, so he starts to leave then and I do too, but going the other direction once outside. He asks me then if there is anything I could do because he just wants to get food and and a roof over his head. I ask him if he would like a hotdog. He says sure. We walk over and he thinks it's nice of me to buy him a hotdog. We sit down at the tables in the eating area there for a few minutes. His name I believe was Lonny. He lost almost everything a few months ago after a divorce. He comments on how it's hard to find a job with no address. (No shelters in the area that he knows of, not that I expect many in my city.) He goes to calvary chapel sometimes when he can, so I told him about the one just around the street corner and over a little where I usually. (I remember filling in for the receptionist one time and there was a call from a guy in a hotel room who just wanted a meal and a Bible as he was dying of cancer. Also, there are some kinds of programs that exist in places for food. Probably someone could help him somehow.) Well, we spend a few minutes talking about Christians and the Bible and stuff. He really knows the Bible. We talk about how people do and don't know the Bible and stuff and he pulls out the two Bibles that he has from his backpack. One of them I see a little more, look at the inside. It has pages with Bible studies in it right next to the Scriptures. I comment on how that is really neat. He offers it to me. About two of our replies later, I ask if he is sure and he says something about being able to get another one, so I accept. As I walk back towards the store, I think that man is real. He has real faith. It seems he has little else in this world, but perhaps that's what makes him seem to cling so much to it. I have just inherited a nicely used Serendipity New Testament for Groups, NIV from a homeless man.