WELCOMING MISFITS
Ryan Johnson, minister in Glen Elder, Kansas, shares this story:
I was heading north out of Salina, Kansas when I saw him.
His name was Charlie.
Charles was sitting in the ditch with large army bags.
The cold misty rain was drenching him and his bags.
He wore his Vietnam jacket proudly. It laid over is 400 pound body like a tarp.
I pulled over and asked if I could help. He asked if I would load his bags (and man did he mean bags) on the car and drive them to the gas station that was a hundred yards away, he would appreciate it.
I did. He limped along following the behind my car.
For a few fruitless hours I tried to talk him into going to a rescue mission. I prayed with him and left
I continued to travel North on HW 81 to my home. That’s when Jesus started in. I said "Jesus, I can’t take him home. He could kill me. And Jesus, he really stinks…Jesus there is no way I am letting him stay the night… Now Lord, I prayed with him. I helped him."
I felt the words he said, echoed from Matthew 25, "When you welcome me in...not if you prayed with me..."
So, I made a u-turn on Highway 81.
I pulled up next to Charlie at the gas station. I said, “Charlie get in!”
Charlie said, “Getty up!”
For the next hour and a half, I rode with this 400 lb. man in my small car. I had to crack the window to be able to breath through the stench. I heard the story of how a once veteran becomes a misfits. It was the common dilemma of needing medicine to get a job and a job to get the medicine.
We got to my place. I laid a sheet on the couch. I washed his clothes and belongings.
The next morning I took him to the police station as part of the ministerial alliance agreement to get him a free motel room and a hot meal.
Later that day I received a call from the local hospital’s Social worker. She said that Charles has been admitted and wouldn’t speak to anyone but me.
I walked into room 104 and said, “Charlie what do
...