I just met a man named Doug. Doug is a father of a woman named Cassie. Doug has 3 grandkids. Doug is a two time award winning Vietnam veteran. Doug also served in Kenya, Africa. Doug spent his whole life teaching his children to love Jesus. Doug is 70 years old.
Eight months ago Dougs daughter Cassie was diagnosed with cancer. Three months ago she died.
Three months ago Dougs heart shattered. Doug started drinking to forget everything. Doug started doing drugs to feel nothing. Doug is now homeless in the streets of New Orleans.
We woke up this morning expecting to go around all the shops in the square of NOLA and eat all the gumbo we could. We walked outside to stroll around the park, not anything out of the ordinary. As we walked around we saw a man sitting on the stairs. Jordan decided to listen to the faint whisper of the spirit and chose to go talk to him. This mans name was Derrol. He was also a homeless man who just recently got his bike stolen- his only possession. We sat and talked with him for 15 or so minutes and then asked him if he wanted some food. I think our initial thought was to go buy food and bring it back to him- but he wanted to go with us, so we said “AWESOME, lets go!”
All Derrol wanted was Popeyes. This was Jesus testing my patience a bit because I do NOT like Popeyes. But Derrol wanted it, so we went! As we got there, there was a man outside begging for change to get some food. This man was Doug. We said “come on in with us!” And he literally just stood in disbelief. He kept saying “are you sure?!” And “I don’t have anything to pay you back!”
As we continued to tell him we would pay for all of his food, he began to weep. He told us how we are the first people in two months to actually talk to him and treat him like a human. He began to tell us a story about how the day before a seven year old girl came and handed him two dollars. Then her mom came and ripped the two dollars out of his hand and yelled at him to get a job. He kept telling us how he was so shocked that he was being treated so kindly because so often people are so mean to him.
He started to ask us how we could be so kind to him, a Segway I believe was created by Jesus. We told him that if it were us we would want someone to do the same. That we could be so kind because Jesus was so kind to us.
He then began to apologize over and over for how dirty he was. He was so embarrassed to be sitting with us and kept trying to leave because he thought he was disrespecting us by being so unclean. This was yet another Segway created by Jesus. We were once unclean in Jesus’ eyes and he saw past that and loved us anyways. This is what we were doing for this man. We were loving him wholly anyway.
As we got our food and sat down he began to just talk to pour out his heart to us. He began to tell us how angry his is at God for betraying such a faithful servant. He told us “all God had to do was wave his hand and she could have been healed.” He said he would take his bitterness to his grave and not let go of his anger. He also told us how he was afraid God would take out His anger towards Doug on his daughter.
We slowly began to lovingly share the true character of Jesus to him. He was very clear that he wasn’t ready to forgive God and he didn’t want to let it go yet. I think he was afraid that if he let his anger go he would be letting his daughter go. I told him I could understand that and we all made the decision to just love him in this time.
As we got up to leave I hugged him and started crying. I told him how much I love him and how much more the father loved him. It hurt me so bad to see such a man worth loving unable to accept the love of the father.
In that moment God revealed his heart to me for all of his children. He showed me how much he loves those who are deemed unloveable by society, or even worse, by themselves. He showed me how much his heart breaks when one doesn’t turn to him for comfort. He also showed me how much he wants to speak with his children, even if it means they are just yelling at him.
This is how I ended up sobbing in a Popeyes bathroom in New Orleans.
After I somewhat composed myself, my group and I decided we just wanted to sit and have coffee for a little bit. That’s when I started writing this blog. I didn’t want to forget what Jesus did. I didn’t want to forget Doug.
Suddenly, Jonathan, one of my friends yelled out “HEY! There’s Doug!” Sure enough, Doug was walking past our coffee shop with his leftover Chicken and Coke in hand. We started banging on the window and waving, hoping he would come inside to say hello. Thankfully he did, because then God gave us an even bigger opportunity to bless him.
Do you remember how he kept apologizing for being so dirty? Well he apologized one last time and told us “all I really need is to take a shower.” In that moment I heard the whisper of the spirit tell me to give all that I can. I slowly began to round up all the money I could from my wallet and friends and took it over to Doug. He began to cry again.
He told us he hadn’t slept in a bed for the past two months. Every night he had been sleeping on the rocks by the river. He hadn’t had a hot shower in two whole months.
He didn’t once look at how much we gave him while standing in our presence. He just gave us all hugs and fist bumps and told us how much he loved us, then he left. We began to all pray over Doug and then about half way through our prayer he ran back in to ask us if we were aware of how much we had given him. We were able to pull together about 90 dollars for him to get a hotel and food for the night. I wish I could describe to you the genuine look of gratefulness and hope in his eyes, it was such a beautiful thing!
Now I don’t know if he used the money we gave on drugs or alcohol. He very well could have gone and blown all of the money away, but if he did that’s his choice to make. I will never know if we impacted his life or not, or if Jesus was able to touch his heart. I do know though that for today, he was loved. For today, he didn’t have to go hungry. For today, he made new friends that will never forget him.
God doesn’t have to call you on some obscure journey for you to do his work. Jesus is all around us and we just have to listen to what he calls us to do daily and he can blow our minds and perspectives out of the water. Simply living like how Jesus lived and loving those he loves can change so many people’s lives. All we did was go to a park and offer to buy some fried chicken for a man and we ended up with one of the most impactful days of our lives.
I want to challenge you to listen for his call, not just on the big life altering decisions, but on the small day to day ones as well. See those around you for the beautiful souls they really are. See them through the eyes of the father and just love them for who they are.
