Scary Exteriors, Beautiful Interiors-- Chandy

I would say that frontline/inner-city ministry is one filled with lots of loss. Although we are beginning to get used to the overdoses, homeless freezing to death and stabbings, it doesn't make things hurt any less. When it comes to the homeless, it's sad to say that we might be their only accountability to still being alive. I've mentioned before that when one of our regulars doesn't show up for a few days, we really start to worry and even might go looking for them in alleys and abandoned houses. Here is just a short recap of 4 people in our staff prayer time this morning, I felt a lot of loss today. Pray for them too.

- Anthony- A homeless man we have known for a number of years. He and his girlfriend, Lily, usually stop in for some food or to use the phone about once a week. I've heard stories of fights he's been in and how mean of a man he is. I've never seen that side of him. We heard last night that he is in the hospital in a coma from getting beat up really bad. There is a good chance he won't make it.

- John- We call him John the Baptist. He is such a precious servant. He comes in every day and does fix-it kind of chores all around the mission. His years of addiction and homelessness have left him pretty rough looking, but he is such a beautiful soul. He sleeps under one of our houses but we haven't seen him since last Thursday and that worries us a lot.

- Lori- A former (and maybe non-former) homeless, prostitute. A few months ago she came in and gave a wallet-sized photo of herself to Luke. On the back she wrote, "thanks for the prayers". She died this weekend of a probable overdose.

- Michael- A homeless man who played college basketball at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. He has a special friendship with Luke. For the past year he has come every day. Usually with some request written on a small notecard. At one point he was actually pen pals with Luke's grandma so that he would have someone to talk to. For the past month or so Luke has been giving him candles everyday to burn overnight to keep his "hole" warm that he sleeps in. He even uses us as his own safety-deposit box. Whenever he has anything of worth he brings it to us to keep safe. We haven't seen him in about 3 weeks now. We don't know who to ask, because he has not one single friend or family member. Luke's been checking the obituaries.

I don't share all of that to make people sad who read this. I share it to put names with faces of people you might see sleeping in an alley or abandoned building. I share that to make sure we all remember that those scary exteriors often have beautiful interiors.