I found him face down.

“I found him face down.”

She came to the driver’s window of our truck. Her name is “Peg.” We have talked with her several times before. Barely coherent, she sobbed her story. “We were all looking for Mark. No one had seen him in two days. I decided to look along the tracks. I found him face down. When I turned him over he was dead. His eyes were open and he was just staring up. I am so freaked out!” We let her talk it out. She went on to tell us, “He was holding the NARCAN in his hand.” Once she quieted a bit we said a prayer with her and assured her that Mark was in a better place. He was with God, the One who loves him. As we prayed, Peg began to calm and her sobs subsided. Before she left we gave her our usual gift of a few dollars, a gift certificate for coffee and a prayer card. We have never been more acutely aware that the most important thing we bring to the street is prayer and the assurance of God’s love.

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”Matthew 5:4

“Jeremiah”

We met Jeremiah two weeks ago. He was traveling with a pal he had met in prison. This week Jeremiah told us that he’d been reading the prayer card we gave him last week with the story of the Prodigal Son, from the Gospel of Luke. He said he had graduated from the Teen Challenge sobriety program a few years ago but had started to drink and use again. “The Prodigal Son story got me thinking about going back to the Teen Challenge program. My girl really wants me to do it.” We encouraged him to pray on it. We gave him our number and said, “Call us if you want to go to an AA meeting and we’ll pick you up.” Time will tell. In the meantime, we will continue to plant seeds, pray and wait upon the Lord.

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”1 Corinthians 3:7

“Ryan”

We have met Ryan several times over the past few weeks. We saw him again in the afternoon as we were heading home. He was checking the poles on Main Street where the Christmas lights had been strung. He told us he was trying the outlets on the poles to see if he could charge his cell phone. He was out of luck, the outlets were all dead. We told him we would stick around and let him charge his phone from our truck. Handing us his phone, he showed how he stored the On the Street prayer card and Prodigal Son card in his phone case and said, “I read them every day.” As we chatted, he told us, “You are the only people who talk to me.” He went on to tell us his mother died when he was six and he was raised by his grandmother. His father was “kind of out of the picture” and died six years ago. As we talked about the deep bonding between grandkids and grandparents Ryan’s eyes filled with tears. “I try to talk to my grandmother every day. I’m really grateful to you for helping me out. I’ll call her as soon as my phone is charged.”

“Grandchildren are a crown of glory to the aged.”Proverbs 17:6