An afternoon visit

We had a block party last Saturday at the corner of 39th and Odell. For 2 or 3 hours we hung out, fed the people and played with their kids. Then we packed up and came back to the lives we live the rest of the time...and so did they.

I was at Baton Rouge General this afternoon with Pastor Alliece and some of the BRDC volunteers. We were there with Joyce and her daughter. Joyce is a woman who attends Ladies Thrive every week. Just a few hours after we left her at the block party last week her son took 1 bullet in the chest, 2 in his stomach and his right leg was shattered by several other shots. They were able to reconstruct his lower leg by inserting a steel rod and they successfully removed all the bullets. He's been moved out of critical care and has started the physical therapy that will hopefully allow him to walk again soon.

Joyce had told her son that she was going to bring some of her church friends over to pray for him. I think he was a little surprised when a sea of red Serve shirts crowded around his hospital bed. Pastor Alliece talked to him about God's plan for him; how God spared his life and now he had a chance to live a different life. It was obvious that God was dealing with him.

I was talking to Joyce's daughter on the way back out to the van. She's twenty-one and expecting her first child in less than two weeks. She's also meeting her father tonight at 6pm; for the first time in her life.

Sometimes I think I have a lot going on in my life. I get tangled up in my own little world and I forget that, just down the block, families are being torn apart by handguns, hatred and apathy. I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to meet people like Joyce; to ride with her to the hospital, to pray with her and to be there for her in her time of need. I'm grateful that God has placed the Dream Center right in the middle of the action. I believe we're right where we need to be. All glory to God.