a surrender - 31

(Continuing "a surrender," chapter four, "the anawim")

After I returned to my parents’ house in the fall, I only stayed a short time before starting out again. This time I went further south, where it was warm enough to walk and sleep outside all winter long. I walked until I ran out of road. Then I came back for another short rest and started north again in the early spring.

This time I felt more connected to people than I had before. I passed through some towns I had visited in previous years. And I had met some people through the internet that were interested in my walks and the way God seemed to be supporting me. I could write to these new friends from libraries along my way. Many of my encounters with people on the road were similar to what I had experienced before. But there were also some happy surprises.

One Sunday evening I came to a little charismatic church, with a sign that said there would be a service soon. So I waited. No one showed up for the service, though, and I was getting ready to leave. Just then, several women arrived. They said they had come to dance, and invited me to join them. I’m not much of a dancer, but I enjoyed talking to them and seeing their unusual, physical way of praying together. It was beautiful, and it was also very much together. The dance was synchronized in parts and improvised in parts, a very charismatic form of worshiping God. It was inspiring to see how these women felt about God. Afterwards, many of them asked me questions, and one of the women invited me stay with her and her children that night.

She was a single mom, with two young kids. And another young woman lived with them also. They had met her at a homeless shelter, after a difficult start to her life, and eventually they had asked her to join their family. I was overwhelmed by the courageous kindness of their invitation to me. I realized what a big risk it was, whenever anyone invited me into their home. But this little family didn’t seem scared, just full of life and happy to share it. After some more conversation the next morning, the mother took the kids to school, and I got ready to leave. But then the young woman asked if I would join her morning communion. She brought out some bread and wine. “It’s real wine,” she said, “don’t tell anyone!” We prayed some simple prayers together. Then ate and drank together. She said it was something she liked to do, and I was the first to join her. That made me feel even closer to that family. I really felt a deep love for them, a love that seemed to come from God. As I walked away that morning, it felt like God had brought me to them, saying, “Look, I’ve got someone here I’d like to show you.”

Continued...