Unwashed angels in the passenger seat of my car (or) The challenge of strangers who ask for help

During the last few weeks I have emptied my wallet 3 times for strangers who ask for help.

Last month getting ready for a Church of the Nations planning meeting in the chapel. Raining hard outside. Bible Study Fellowship is also at our church facility for their Monday gathering.

Bang bang bang.

Some fellow I have never seen knocking on the glass doors leading to the chapel. One of the BSF leaders brought him to me. He comes in and quickly goes on about gee whiz Christians are supposed to help each other and he used to be a pastor and complains no one would stop and help him when he was stuck on the side of the road – on his way home from working in the area has a slow leak in his tire some shop down Nicholson Drive will fix it and he needs something like $23.46. He talks and talks and talks and even calls me out when I respond with a slight frown or furrowed brow.

I do not believe a word he is saying. But frankly he does not seem open to “no I cannot help you” so I walk with him to his car – rather new rather nice (nicer than mine by far) and the tires look great – hand him everything I have in my wallet and send him on his way. I felt manipulated and forced into that and am a bit angry.

The next Sunday Church of the Nations leads worship for University Baptist Church. We do not normally have an invitation but the American church does so I lead it – and some fellow I have never seen walks up and says something about “get back with the Lord” and needing to be baptized so I present him to the congregation that says “thanks be to God”. (For the record I do not approve of this sort of instant receiving of people who make decisions – but that is how they do things.)

Afterward I find out he has an eviction notice in his pocket – tomorrow no less. *Sigh* I am so sick of people who come to the church asking for financial assistance the day before a deadline – they have known for three four or more weeks that their telephone or electricity or such would be disconnected. And we have to help them now without any chance of taking just a day or two to consider their request. For the record this gentleman does not ask for help – he just lets us know about the eviction notice.

I am supposed to be greeting people and driving internationals home – puts me in a bad spot. He says he is going to walk through neighborhood looking for yardwork – I ask him to come back at 5:00 p.m. when I will be back for Harvest Festival activity.

He does. I help him fill out benevolence application. Scan it. Email it to the committee. He prepares to walk home. I object rather strongly – I will drive him home. No no no – he would rather walk. I manage to persuade him. And drive him to the single darkest (as in no house/street lights) scariest neighborhood in north Baton Rouge I have ever been in. I have never been afraid to be somewhere in Baton Rouge but this time wonder if I am going to get shot. Drop him off. Pray with him first. Hand him $20 to buy some food for his kids. Am happy to help him out especially since he never asked for anything. Get the heck out of there and call my wife on the way just in case something happens on the way.

Turns out one of the benevolence committee persons checks things out – he is about three months behind on rent. We are talking more than $1000 – she takes care of it and calls the landlord who was at the courthouse. No kidding. No more eviction. But he needs a job and a car. Comes by the church later that week. Thanks us for the help. Might have a car to buy. Needs $200 – will look for yardwork again. I offer to hire him for $100.

Ah – but to get a permanent job he needs his cell phone on again. Can I advance him what it costs to reactivate? *Sigh* I go to my office and empty out my “secret emergency stash” and hand it to him. Tomorrow around 9:00 a.m. at my house – give him my cell number and address. This time I am irritated and feel manipulated and forced to give something I would rather not give – not until he shows up and does the work.

Next day I am working from home. He never shows. Or calls. I try to text him – his cell phone should be on again right? but nothing. Try not to judge him or jump to conclusions. Maybe something happened.

Next weekend he comes to church but does not find me. Says his bus was in a wreck they all got $700 from the transit company – my wife thinks it sounds fishy – and he has a car. Says he still wants to come by and do that yardwork for me. Cool beans. Theoretically he has a phone… and a car… so he can take that job offer that only requires him to have transportation. He still does not reply to phone calls or text messages. I saw him yesterday morning when I was in the “big sanctuary” to conduct a baptism. He did not come up to me or talk with me. That backyard is not getting cleaned up by itself.

With me so far?

Yesterday afternoon at 1:35 p.m. Do note the time – normally no one would be at the church at that time but Church of the Nations had a fellowship lunch. I was going to head to the hospital to visit Ellis family.

There is a man I have never seen. Wearing what look like hospital pants and an orange vest? shirt? and shoes with no laces. Homeless? He is asking for someone – no Pastor Jay has left. Oh no! He is upset because Jay has been so nice to him and helped him a lot with money. Now it is my turn.

I listen to him cry and stammer out his predicament – he is so distraught and his speech pattern such I can barely understand a word. He shows me various body parts to let me know how sick he is and he can’t sleep because he thinks he will die and not see his kids again and he needs to go to Tulane Medical Center for surgery.

Do you need me to take you and your wife to New Orleans? Yes.

But then how will we get back? My wife will stay with me but she will need to eat and we have no money.

At this point I am wondering how to help him… and get to the hospital… and even if I burn my afternoon driving him to New Orleans what happens a week later when he is discharged?

So I drive home. Get $50 from my other “secret emergency stash”. (I usually do not carry more than $10 on me if that.) Fill a bag with groceries from our pantry. And drive him home. The $50 is for “Mr James” who said he can take them down and back but needs (1) gas money and (2) money for a spare tire. (Yeah yeah I know – that second part sounds a bit strange.)

So I start driving him home along Burbank because I thought he lived off Nicholson. Quickly becomes apparent he led me down the wrong way – the interstate would have been better because he lives off Government. Ah well.

It smells pretty bad in my car at this point. A combination of urine and stale sweat smell.

But while I am heading down Burbank it suddenly hits me: Genesis 15.

What would an angel look like who shows up and asks you to give him lunch or something? I am not saying this guy really was an angelic messenger but I thought “perhaps I need to see how God is present in this person and in this situation”. Perhaps it is a kind of test. How will Rick Wright respond to some stranger in desperate need? Will I turn him away with “go, eat and be well”? Or will I sacrifice time money and resources? What kind of a Christian will I be in this situation? Plus I finally figure out his “language” (hard to explain – the point at which I know how to relate to someone) and we talk about cool cars and such. Oh and he does yardwork.

His apartment is right along where I drive to pick up my kids from school. I meet his wife(?). No kids in sight. I wonder if this whole situation was a scam of some sort. The tears looked real. And if you were working poor and got clobbered with cancer and liver problems how the heck would you get the medical care and the medicine you need?

I still have very mixed feelings about all this. And I still think “look – I can’t keep doing this I can’t keep emptying out my wallet for every stranger that comes by tells a story and expects me to give them something”. Or maybe I can.

I am almost 100% sure the first guy was scamming me. The second person – well he still comes to church although he does owe me yardwork. The third guy – not quite sure but once I thought of the situation as “opportunity/test from God” was much more able to deal with it positively. And it does make this conservative(?) free-market libertarian Republican(?) wonder how do we best help(?) people in such desperate need? The working poor when their lives get blown apart by a single illness or car repair? You know what I’m saying?

What do you think?