Every Wednesday I meet at the local Waffle House with some guys for discipleship and encouragement. My first meeting is at 5:00 AM and we are always the first, if not only, customers for a while so I was surprised to see a girl parked in the spot right where I normally park. She looked kind of agitated, or even distraught, speaking on the phone, looking around the inside of her car, holding her face in her hands, back to the phone.
Just as I got parked and making up my mind as to whether to tap on her window or not, her car alarm started complete with headlights and horn. Then she’s out of the car, no shoes, looking around and not finding what it is she’s looking for. When I asked, “Hey, do you need some help?” she responded that she had lost her car keys. Perhaps they are in the restaurant, I asked, but she had not been in the restaurant.
Just then the cook came out for a smoke; he’s a guy we talk to weekly and have ministered to some as well. He affirmed that she had not been in the restaurant, so I’m like, “How do you lose your keys inside the car while you’re sitting in the car?”
Epiphany.
There was an unopened 12 pack in the passenger floorboard as she told of going out partying last night, passing out and winding up in her car in the Waffle House parking lot. She didn’t know where she left her keys, who brought her to the car or much else. Turns out she spent the wee hours at a bar near NB, so I went over there to see if her keys were in the parking lot; they weren’t. (We now figure her friend locked her in the car and took her keys for her own protection.)
Just before I left I told the cook to give her some coffee and I would pay for it when I came back for my “second shift.” He was cool with it.
At 7:00 I took one of my gathered group, Tean Phillips (who’s also our drummer), and sat with her just behind our other guys. We talked to her for about a half-hour about her life, choices, decisions and where, exactly, God was playing into her life. She committed to attend our Celebrate Recovery ministry tomorrow night (and called the leader while we were at the table). Another one of our ladies picked her up from Waffle House, took her home to get the spare keys and brought her back to her car. She told me that she really did want to stop drinking, so I asked if I could have the 12 pack in her car; she said “yes.” It’s the trophy of grace pictured above. Our pastoral team is debating communion right now ;^)
If you get a chance, pray for her. People in need are all around us. Sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it hits us in the face. I’m glad to be in a church where multiple people are willing to get involved in one person’s life on the spur of the moment because they realize that a young girl, five sheets to the wind is not the enemy-she’s a victim of the enemy and she needs the Savior.
