Me, I am my kids' teacher

Chandy always makes up names for the folks she writes about at Cross & Crown. It protects the privacy of the people she talks about. The teens. The illegal immigrants. The drunks. And all of the other children of God she has the blessing of working with every day.

I have a little story about a "friend." We'll call her Dawn because when I see her, I see myself, or what could be me or any of us. We could also call her Jesus.


Dawn and I go back a few years. I met her at the mission. We've visited off and on on Sunday nights. I've given her a few rides. Bought her milk now and then. We ate dinner together once at a local Chinese restaurant when I was writing an article about her for the mission's newsletter. (Not because I just wanted to take her out to eat to visit). Recently, I've seen her walking in my neighborhood. When I see her, I always think of scriptures about entertaining angels, and doing for the least of these. Most of the time, I look the other way.

I know she likes egg foo young and vanilla ice cream. She likes whole milk and she always wears a scarf over her hair. Her purse is a plastic grocery bag. She gave me a dollar once for gas. She believes in Jesus. She wears sandals. And when I see her feet, they at once remind of Bible times and the necessity/courtesy of washing one's feet when entering a home, and also make me cringe because her feet are so dirty and worn. She walks. Everywhere.

I helped her move once.

After that experience, I kind of "dropped" her. The experience was very frightening and disturbing. And it showed me exactly how torturous mental health disease could be in this life. And it gave me a poignant picture of what heaven will be like for people like Dawn when they will not suffer any more. Heavenly!

Dawn is someone who needs help but you can't help her. She's someone who is desperate but survives. She is also funny.

Tonight I dropped her home and found out where she is living (wew. safe place.) She was telling me that recently she was "resting her eyes" in a well lit parking lot of a convenience store. Someone woke her up. I thought she was going to tell me that they wanted her to move, or to give her some money.

Instead, she said this man asked her if she had a quarter.

We both belly laughed. I don't know why it was so funny. Of course, she gave him the quarter.

Posted in: on Sunday, November 18, 2007 at at 9:11 PM