angels unaware

so tonight denette began a several part teaching on Holy Spirit.  excellent teaching....wish i were good at recapping such things, but that is not one of my talents.  guess you have to be there.  midway through there was a small disturbance in the back  which ended with a couple joining us on the back row on the other side of the room.

after the service a couple of us went over to greet them only to find that they were in fact, homeless.  he was 30 and she was 29.  they told us a little bit of their story and said that they needed some money to stay in a hotel tonight and only had $2 in coins.  he had a job lined up for tomorrow, but for today they had nowhere to stay and no money.  they wanted a bath desperately....at least she did.  they had found a room at a motel 6 for $52.00, but didn't have the money to pay.  she was limping and said her feet were bleeding from walking so much.  she offered to take off her shoes to show me, but never got that far because someone else walked up.  i quizzed them a little bit trying to discern in my questioning if they were indeed being truthful.  i'm sure others did too.  they seemed sincere.  said they had been to 3 churches and been asked to leave because they smelled bad (i didn't smell anything on them).  i can't imagine that happening, and i still don't know if i believe it did. we are a very small church body and finances are always very tight, so our pastors instructed us be obedient to whatever Holy Spirit was telling us to do.  several of us gave them some money, which ended up being more than enough for the night.  we hugged them, she cried a little bit, we prayed with them, they said they would be back on sunday.  they walked out the door.  when i went out to get in my car a few minutes later, there was no sign of them at all....not down the whole street.  don't know if someone from church ended up giving them a ride to the hotel or if perhaps they had a vehicle. i knew i couldn't give them a ride because i was a woman alone and that would not be wise, even though i sure wanted to.  if they did have a vehicle i don't understand why her feet were bleeding from walking so much.

it really struck me how cautious we are in this day and time when such things happen.  we talk in hushed voices.  we question cautiously with cynical attitudes.*  some of us feel guilty at not emptying our pockets and giving them the shirts off our backs.  we are the ones motivated primarily by the mercy gift.  i have done many foolish things while operating in that gift.  thank God He has protected me through it all. and who knows i guess if i have perhaps entertained angels unaware.  one of several such experiences:  once when i was working in the church office many years ago a woman called and said she and her baby were staying in a hotel in port allen and needed food.  the details are foggy now, but her story so affected me that i distinctly remember going to the store and purchasing some food and on my way home, pulling into the VERY seedy hotel and leaving the bag of groceries outside the door of her hotel room.  she never came out, i just put the bag down, knocked on the door and ran back to my car.  to this day when i pass in front of that hotel i marvel at that experience.  it almost seems like a dream it seems so absurd. 

i don't even remember their names.  his was jeremy.  hers was......charlene or something with a c.  guess i'll have to refresh myself on that on sunday.  yeah, right.

*see?