In the dark

On Wednesday night, you can always find us under a bridge in Knoxville...the 640 overpass is right over us.  When or if you drive that stretch say a prayer.  We feed anywhere from 2-3 hundred people every Wednesday night.  (Well...not just us...a host of volunteers.)  They get a hot meal, clothing, dental and medical care, sometimes a shower, and prayer.

Last night, when we arrived, our sound van couldn't park because a man was lying on a blanket in that spot.  He had a thin pad of blankets underneath him and one on top.  Several picked him up by holding the pad and moved him behind the pillar he was lying in front of.  

We found out that he had just been released from the hospital because there was nothing else they could do for him.  Our medical personnel said he had maybe 2 hours left to live!  Of course none of us know for sure how long we have, but that was their opinion.  He had kidney failure and heart failure.

Tommy preached last night and afterwards he went over to talk to the man and see if we could call an ambulance to take him back to the hospital.  He didn't want us do.  We never call for an ambulance if someone says no, and they say no quite often.  He asked the man if he could pray for him, and he said yes.  I stood there while Tommy knelt on that nasty blanket and put his hand on that man's head and it was all I could do not to cry.  I rarely cry but was moved to do so last night.

I thought, what must it feel like to die under a bridge, in the dark, all alone, on a bed of gravel.  I don't know, but I know Someone who does.