MY NAME IS KENNY

(this article has recently been edited and published in Word Among Us Magazine May 2002)

The second story... happened a few weeks ago on our way to the first stop.

I noticed as we approached the first stop I noticed a man staggering behind the building across the street. Suddenly, he fell to the ground and was having difficulty getting back up on his feet. I asked David to stop the car so I could go over to him. When I approached him I noticed a large gash across his cheekbone and a slice to the palm of his hand. He was filthy dirty and was obviously completely drunk.

In one hand he held a bottle of Vodka and in the other a bottle of orange juice. He looked to be 60-70 years old. When I called out to him he began to swear at me, warning me not to bother him. He cried out he didn’t want anyone else to come near him. I asked him if I could help him get to the grass so he could lie down and he refused.

He turned about in circles for a few minutes as if to see if anyone was going to hit him from behind. I asked him if he was hungry and if he wanted to eat. He said no.

I introduced myself and told him I had to go and feed the other men but I would bring a plate to him when I was done. I watched as he slowly staggered off into the distance and noticed he fell amongst some bushes by an old Medical Building. A few of the Lay members, Tammy~ a nurse, and Ian~ a first timer who is a young college student, carried the food and first aide boxes over with me. Tammy and I spoke to him to see if he’d allow us to clean his wounds. He cried out that he was dying of AIDS and that we would die if we touched him.

He repeatedly wondered who was with us. After a few moments we realized that this man was not only homeless, beaten, battered, bruised, bleeding, dying of AIDS and drunk.... but he was in fact blind . I knelt in front of him and we continued to work our way into his confidence so we could treat his bleeding cheek.

He warmed up to us after a few moments and did allow Tammy to clean his wound. He then called out to me and said,
" I really love company you know. I never have company ."
He took another drink and then said, " You seem like nice people. I can’t see you, but I know you must be nice people to sit and talk to me ." With a smile he lifted his bottle and offered us a drink. When we declined he offered to buy us a coke from McDonald’s.

Tammy and Ian stood to the side as I sat beside him and talked for awhile. We talked about living and dying. He said people think he doesn’t care about things, when in fact he does.... With that he picked up hands and pointed ahead of him as if holding a rifle and said, " I held an AK 47.. .."... during this flashback his head and hands dropped and he yelled out, " I am going to hell! " I touched his hand and he pulled away. As he did I said to him that dying isn’t anything to fear and that his current life is already Hell. I mentioned that with Jesus dying is beautiful thing. Heaven would be an eternity free from pain, sorrow and all the things that caused him to be so beaten down. I said to him, ‘ We all have a terminal illness, It is called LIFE. "
He laughed, and said, " I never thought of it that way. " A smile was a nice thing to see if only for a moment.

Next to him, like an angel on assignment, was a stray collie. She hovered over his every move. She had the most gentle, loving eyes of any dog I had ever seen. No matter how loud, obnoxious, angry or drunk he became she would stay within five feet of him at all times. I asked him where he found the angel beside him and he said, " I’m blind, she found me! " I thanked God for that dog... She was the one good thing he did have.

He acted as if he didn’t care about her but you could see a genuine love was there. I worked up the courage to ask him his name. " Kenny ," he said. Then he said to me, " Where am I? I can’t remember where I am, so I don’t know which way to walk to get back home. " Home? Where was home ?

Home evidently was a bush behind the building a few hundred feet further down the road. I asked him about family and he related he had a sister. I asked for her number and dialed it on my cell. As I listened to the answering machine message I knew no matter if I left a message to send help~ that my message would be ignored. I was right!

"Kenny, sing me song!" I said. He smiled and belted out an old railroad tune. When he finished I said, "It’s my turn. How do you like Amazing Grace? " He said that if I would sing for him, he would play guitar for me. I agreed. As I began to sing... Kenny picked up an imaginary guitar and began playing it from his heart. He continued to play as tears filled his eyes.

I found it incredibly difficult to sing because I wanted to just burst into tears. When I was done I said, " Kenny, may I hug you goodbye? " He smiled and said, "I would love that. " As we embraced I felt a hug from Heaven. I knew that no matter what this tired, old man had done to end up in this pit, that he still was worth loving. He is a temple of the Lord, thou tarnished a bit. I was blessed that I did not know the circumstances that lead him here. If I did I might not be as willing to love him.

A great lesson from this was that the Lord approaches all of us with that same love. As though blinded to the sins we have covering us, He looks to the soul crying out for love. His love is always ready to embrace us...

J ust as I was willing to embrace Kenny, not knowing if he were a murderer, rapist, thief, child molester or just an old, lonely soul~ Jesus’ love knows no prejudice and harbors no resentment.

Housed deep with Kenny was the Lord Jesus. I believed if I looked long and hard enough beneath the layers of sin and despair, that deep within his heart their was that candle just waiting to be lit.

Tammy, Ian and I may never see Kenny again in this life. As we left him sitting in the bushes with the dog, the bottle of Vodka and the plate of food~ it looked as though we hadn’t done a thing. We may never know if our stopping that day really made a difference in his life. These things are not up to us to know. Jesus simply asked us to love one another... as He loves us. I felt a glimpse of that in Kenny’s embrace.

Like the man under the bridge who was miraculously healed, he didn’t deserve our love or our kindness. He was neither grateful or moved. The people we meet every day who suffer from depression, greed, anger, materialism, hate, drug or alcohol addictions... all have one thing in common... They need love.

Love is the key to curing the blind man and opening the ears of the deaf and the hands of the greedy. Love allows God’s blessings to fall like a rain in the desert. This rain may appear to go unnoticed because the need is so great the waters cannot quench the dry earth. However, this rain can cleanse a soul of a great deal of pain, making room for love to enter.

Once love is there and the seed has been planted, God will do the rest.

Kenny may wander from now till he dies never receiving redemption for his sins or overcoming the addictions that lead him down this road to destruction, but he will know that one day... someone cared enough to bring him a plate of food, wash his wounds and embrace his broken heart.
Isn’t that was the Lord does for us?

How precious did.... that grace.... appear...... the hour.... I first believed!

I hope this means something to you...

Love Kristin