Tonight, we Sam and I left the ship and made a plan to meet up for dinner after showering at our hotels. I fully expected this and after showering, I sent him a text to meet up at the Mediterranean sandwich shop. Or so I thought. I waited almost an hour to hear from him and then in hunger and frustration I went to text him at like 8:15 and then realized I had never sent my first text! I was already on the street partway there when he texted back and said he had an emergency telecon to attend from 8-9 and he would come out after that.
So, I headed on down to the sandwich joint and had a wonderful Greek salad and gyro. While sitting there, two guys were at the table near me talking about religion. It was a fascinating conversation. One had grown up in a Christian home and was devolving into agnosticism and pluralism. The other was a staunch atheist who was evolving into agnosticism and pluralism. So, they were meeting in the middle from two opposite starts. Their final conclusions were very off though, as they asserted the common anthem that "all relgions are basically the same" and "any path is okay". Then, they started discussing enlightened monks and the Daoists and whatnot and wondering how those people were so enlightened and so close to God. They both wondered if they could ever understand God that much. I was pulling out of my skin with desire to say something and correct all of their crazy talk and let them know that God is close and not hard to find. I couldn't decide how to interrupt them and to politely let them know that I was eavesdropping on their entire talk. By the time I was getting up the nerve to be rude, they abrubtly left.
I felt rather defeated but took note of the way they left and prayed that maybe I would bump into them later on the streets. I finished my meal then headed out in the direction they left. Still no news from Sam. I decided to kill time by walking a mile down Dauphin to Moe's. On the way, the guys passed me in their car. Oh well! Got all the way down there and heard from Sam- the meeting was still going. It was like 9:00 or so now.
I started walking back towards the river slowly. I made it about halfway and was at a park corner when an older black gentleman approached me. He was very nice and respectful and he asked me for some food. I asked what he wanted and offered for him to come into the sports bar opposite the corner. He said he didn't want to come, but would take anything. I was a bit dubious after my last failure at doing this in San Diego. But, I went and sat at the bar and ordered him a nice burger and fries and awkwardly waited by myself. The burger came and I took it out to him.
This guy was in his 60s and looked and sounded just like Morgan Freeman. It was ridiculous. I asked him what his deal was and he said he was a welder from Birmingham (where Freeman is from!). He had gotten laid off 6 months ago from BAE and couldn't get work at Austal because its all aluminum. So, he's had to go homeless and just stays on park benches and tries to get some food for the day. I then started asking him some spiritual questions and he said that he knew the Lord and then he proceeded to tell me lots of stories of his youth, his dad, and his grandad who were ministers. The answers seemed good and correct, but I wasn't totally convinced that he really knew the Lord or maybe just knew the right answers. Then, he really started pressing me for money, although very politely. He started talking all spiritual about us being like spirits and all this. I decided that I couldn't trust him entirely as nice as he was. Plus, I bought him expensive food and didn't have any cash with me anyhow. So, I had to break it up and I left him feeling fairly defeated also because the talk wasn't as clear and helpful as I had hoped for his sake.
After all that, it was like 9:45 and still no word from Sam. I walked more towards the hotel/river and was about to stop at Loda's and wait for Sam. But, then I decided to keep going towards the hotel. Just past Loda's, there's another park on the left and the sidewalk on the right gets really dark for a block or two. I had just heard from Sam and was tapping out a text. Out of nowhere, this tall black man comes spinning up to me on a bike, intersecting me at the curb and starts talking at me. It totally freaked me out and I assumed nothing good could come of this. I walked faster and texted more, pretending that nothing was happening.
But, he persisted and was like "I bet you've heard every homeless story here but I'm different". Then he started saying strange things like "I really messed up when I was young, but I trying hard now to change and be different". I actually hadn't really heard such a line before, so I sent my text acknowledging Sam that he would be another hour, and then decided to engage this guy rather than run. He said a lot of things and then said something about "God providing this bike recently". I thought that strange too. We kept walking towards the hotel and the better lit section and he mostly talked at me while I made short responses. Then, when I had a chance, I pressed him on what did he mean about God providing. His answer was curious- he started talking about original sin of humans and going back to the beginning. It was weird. I was intrigued. He wanted food, so I convinced him to come to Serda's coffee shop with me. We got there just before closing and he was really leery of going inside. It took a lot of prodding on my part which made me worried about his past history. Then, he turned to me and was like "you would go inside and talk with me?" He seemed flabbergasted. I was like "sure, why not". Finally, he left his bike outside and we went in. They wouldn't make a sandwich this late, so he got a cinnamon roll and I got a coffee.
We sat down in big leather seats up front and started chatting- I asked him his life story which basically started with gangs in southside Chicago which lead to trouble which lead him down south into more trouble which eventually he got a felony and spent many years in jail. From his story, he was mostly innocent and got a bad wrap, but who knows. I was surprised with how accepting of it all he was and basically acknowledging that what he got put in for was not his fault, but he shouldn't have even been in the position to be accused anyway. It was interesting.
We got done with that and then he said "I take you to be religious", to which I replied, "of course". Then he said "who do you believe Jesus is?". I did not expect such a question from him! I said "I believe he is God come in the flesh and the Son of God as the Bible teaches". He said "I thought so" and then proceeded to quote a bunch of John 1 and tried to dismantle the notion the Jesus is God. He really struggled with it and was trying to convince me otherwise. It quickly became apparent that this guy was very smart, had an incredible vocabulary, and really knew a lot of Scripture! It was crazy. He was going on and on and then started quoting Revelation and trying to convince me that Jesus was the archangel Michael. He was waving his arms and quoting Scripture loudly when the nice coffee shop girl stopped by to let us know that had closed at 10 like 15 minutes ago. She looked at us really weird!
We went outside to a sidewalk table and continued the conversation/debate. The topics got really varied and pretty deep. He revealed himself as having spent a lot of time in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses which suddenly explained a whole lot about his theology. He said he wasn't a JW because he didn't agree with them totally, but he felt they were closest to the truth from what he has understood. The conversation took a whole new turn and I really tried to drive him to to truth of the Word. It was interesting though. This guy had memorized so much Scripture and could recall it with verse and reference perfect- off the wall stuff too. I later looked up some of them and he was spot-on. I didn't have my Bible with me and I was just totally struggling to come up with any verses to counteract his nonsense. I knew the verses roughly that I was thinking of, but I couldn't piece them together in my brain.
Interestingly, the Spirit started revealing to me that this guy was still struggling with sin and desperately needed to put Christ first in his life to make a true change and stop trying to change himself. I started to take the conversation this direction, making it more personal and less theological. God was helping me to remember Scripture for this task, but I couldn't think of anything to argue him theologically! It was interesting. I took this as confirmation that this is what God wanted me to be doing. So, I really challenged this guy and laid into him a little bit. He was really listening and I hope that it really sunk into his heart. At the end, he was kinda quiet and the just asked if I would pray for him, which I did. Then, he wanted to have a big hug on the sidewalk.
It was nearing 11pm by the time I was done. Sam had just texted me that he was walking out of the hotel. I was walking back into mine when I got it. I decided to go up to my room and bask in the glow of this evening and pray for these guys rather than going out with Sam right then.
It was interesting how God changed my perceived plans and turned them into something totally different. I pray that those time will be useful to these men and lead them to the Lord once and for all.
