I made it to Maryland yesterday and was super excited to hang out with some good friends, Daniel and Becky Haverkos. Since they know me well, they know one huge key to my heart is via hot wings and they didn’t waste any time getting to my heart. We went out to grab dinner after a full day of fighting through traffic and battling the freezing cold. I seriously don’t think I’ve experienced this level of cold.
On our way out, Becky, at eight months pregnant, said we needed to stop the car. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but when Dan didn’t react, I just thought it was normal. A couple of minutes later, Becky walked up to the car window with a giant man, bundled in jackets and shivering. We invited him into the front seat and boosted the heater to full blast. It blew my mind that this guy was going to try and sleep on the streets tonight.
We got to hear a little of John’s story and his lack of luck over the past couple of years that put him there. Dan told John that we had a few errands to run, so he was welcome to just ride around with us. He never stopped shaking. John told us about his life on the streets and how God had provided for him time and time again through other people. He was actually invited to a church that just launched a few weeks ago, and is close to being one of their first members.
As we circled the city, we found out that many people would just drop off layers of clothes and food for him sporadically, but he still couldn’t shake the cold and with an increasing pain in his foot, he could hardly walk. John also told us how he tried a shelter, but his pack was stolen, along with all his goods his last night there. We just kept circling the city and praying for John to warm up. We knew we couldn’t drop him back off on the corner.
Finally, John told us he had family not too far away and we convinced him to call home. Becky had to dial the number for him because his hands were still shaking. We eventually were able to get John home to his mom’s house, but it wasn’t before this guy heard the good news repeatedly and knew that God was the one looking out for him. There’s really no other reason for a pregnant woman to risk getting out and approaching him on such a freezing cold night.
As we pulled away from his house, I thought about how easy that was. We try to make ministry out to be this incredible task that really should just flow out of who we are. It shouldn’t have to always be planned, weighed, and orchestrated. Sometimes it should just happen. Sure there was a huge risk to approaching a guy like that on the street, but it’s an even bigger risk to just hope he’ll wake up in the morning. Every now and then we need to just minister out of the overflow of our heart and not worry about the risk or schedule…
