Compassion was the theme last week at the Willow Pond Kids Club. With the tag line: “Healing the hurts of others.”
There is a man who lives alone in one of the apartments near the basketball court. He has often been harassed by the kids and vice-versa. Then, one day, some of the kids threw rocks at him.
The solution? Cookies and a card. The kids made the cookies in the Community Center themselves. The card included an apology. And the cookies were, well, because everyone likes cookies!
Two weeks earlier, we decided to jump in the golf cart for a little “prayer drive” around the property. We also do “prayer walks” but on this day a drive sounded better. We had gotten a dozen chocolate chip cookies from the Subway across the street to take with us for whoever we met.
The first person we saw was a man digging through a dumpster for cans. He had a mostly-full bag of cans in hand. When we pulled up, he was sure that we were coming to remove him from the property.
So, he seemed mildly surprised when our first words were: “Want a cookie?”
He came over and we loaded him on the back of the golf cart to drive him to the next dumpster. On the way we began to learn his story. Kenneth was his name. Kenneth was well-spoken and easy going.
We asked him about his relationship with his family…to which he replied: “I’ve been a big disappointment.”
His father is now deceased but he has a grandfather—who he does not see. When he talked about his grandfather, he said, “He has lots of grandchildren—it’s not a big deal (that Kenneth is not around).”
And he followed up by saying it again. “I’ve been a big disappointment.”
Then he asked for another cookie.
I hope we can be a mouthpiece for our compassionate God. This temporary home of ours is chalk-full of disappointment, pain, and broken hearts. And then there is our God who “bindeth up the broken hearts.” Our God is “gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger and rich in love.” (Psalm 145:8).
We invited Kenneth to come see us again and to feel free to look for cans. We hope we see him again.
Back to the man who lives next to the basketball court. Salco, former rock-thrower-in-chief, asked if he could be the deliverer of the cookies (for more on Salco, see the blog entry entitled “What’s in a Name?”) So, Suzanne and some of the kids ventured to the apartment by the basketball court. Suzanne asked the man if she could pray for him. He said yes, but first wanted to go get his Bible!
She prayed for him. And in one little corner of the world, there was less rock throwing and more compassion.
-- Dean Wilson and Will Dowell
