Had a rather full weekend, so much so, that it demands a two-parter. Let me start at the end. Last October I wrote this post about God bringing certain kind of people into my life. The two people I focused on were Jimmy from Mason and Richard who's been attending Echo. Yesterday things came full circle as I had experiences concerning both of them.
Eight o'clock Sunday morning I get a call from Jimmy's mom, a German immigrant with a thick accent, asking me what happened to Jimmy Saturday night at church. I informed her that I had left CCM almost a year ago and had no idea what had happened. She said Jimmy fell, banged up his eye, and couldn't remember who brought him home. She was a little anxious because it's similar to how Jimmy became disabled in the first place: some drinking buddies were with him when he had his accident and dropped him off on his mom's doorstep while he lay internally bleeding. I did some investigating for her and found out the Jimmy fell while running [which he shouldn't have been doing in the first place] and told the family that took him home that he was OK.
I was trying to be honest with Jimmy's mom, telling her that his meds are affecting his memory and coordination, and that he needs more professional attention. She agreed and thanked me for being such a good friend to him. I was also told yesterday morning by the family that sometimes drops him off that every week he prays with them and he asks God to take care of me, Kelly, and Kaelyn.
So then, a little past six o'clock last night Richard comes into the church wanting to talk with me. Over the past year our people have given him many things and a lot of cash, hoping to make a difference in his life. Unfortunately, our good intentions have done nothing but help him feed an addiction and not work. And he even got in the habit of showing up before church, hitting people up for money, and leaving before the service started. Since his recent incarceration and stint in rehab, we've been withdrawing from giving him stuff.
So last night he sells me a story he's used many a time about desperately needing money and I tell him I've got nothing for him. He then asks me to go to the bank to get some money out for him, and I tell him no way. After seeing he wasn't getting anywhere, he started acting suspicious for a few minutes, walking in and out of the church. I was keeping my eye on him and he then approached Kelly to ask her for cash. I told him to back off and take a seat in the sanctuary because church was getting ready to start. At this he goes outside while I go to the sanctuary to get ready to start our service. Just then Kelly tells me that she watched him getting into someone's car in the parking lot!
Needless to say, I was livid. So I immediately go outside to see him mulling around some cars. I told him to leave immediately, that I was giving him a head start from the police. I said that if something was missing from the car, I'd call the cops and would tell them his address. He said he was sorry and I just told him to go away and not come back for awhile. The car belonged to someone from the choir that meets in the church at the same time. She was very understanding, and nothing was missing. Despite a good service, the rest of the evening sucked for me.
Not quite sure to do with these incidents. I'll try to bring it all together in part two.