A couple of Thursdays ago I did my laundry at Pastor Jered’s house. I usually do this in order to save quarters from the laundry mat down the street that likes to eat my socks. While I was there, Jered asked me if I wanted to go with him to an appointment to talk to a guy about the missional communities that we’ve started. I jumped at the chance to share, so off we went. I offered to drive. On the way out to the car Jered asked if we could stop at the safeway down the street to pick up some beers as a welcome gift to the guy’s house.
We were standing in line discussing the product in front of us, Bumpits. We couldn’t understand why someone would want to put something on their head that is a combination of the words, “bum” and “pits.” Thats when we heard the sobs and hysteric shouting. A lady in a two piece adidas track warm up uniform was standing at the customer service desk on the phone, with tears pouring down her face. She looked to be in her mid 30‘s and her short brown hair was askew and her face was smudged with what remained of her makeup.
All the people in the safeway were purposefully not looking her direction. I won’t lie, it was extremely awkward! The awkwardness ended abruptly as the sobbing woman slammed the phone on the hook and took deliberate, measured, chaotic paces out of the store. Jered paid for the beers and we received a smile from our checker that seemed to say, “I’m really sorry about the crazy lady in the track warm up.”
While my Pastor and I took deliberate, measured, sure steps out of the safeway, Jered asked me if I wouldn’t mind if we looked for the track warm up lady.
Once outside she wasn’t hard to find. She was pacing the walkway in the parking lot with joint in her hand. We approached. Jered asked her what was going on and if we could help her in any way. She said it is a long story but the gist of it is she’s stranded and needs to call her boyfriend to come get her. Jered lent her his phone, and we relived the hysterical shouts that experienced in the safeway. She started to cry as she screamed at the guy on the other end. She yelled her fury so everyone within ear shot would know that you don’t just leave someone in a strange town with no money, no phone and no hope! but there was hope. “This sounds like it isn’t worth it” Jered interrupted her, “We’ll give you a ride where ever you need to go.” I smiled. That meant I was giving her a ride. But I jumped at the chance to help this lady, although at the time I wasn’t sure why.
In the car there was an awkward pause that I knew was coming. “So,” I said, “where am I going?” Once the silence was broken the track warm up lady told us her name was Karina. Jered and I introduced ourselves and Karina began to divulge her dramatic life’s story to us, while I drove where her fingers pointed for me to go. To sum it up, Karina was from Astoria up north, and she was here in Portland for a hospital visit. She had come here with her boyfriend who was everything that your parents say to stay away from in a man. Karina said that she has this problem of seeing just a little bit of good in everyone and then believing in that good more than she should. Jered encouraged her to get out of that unhealthy relationship and find a church body where she can be loved as a part of God’s family. We encouraged her as best we could in everything she told us.
As we arrived at her fathers house we began to pray for her, and she said that she really appreciated our help and prayers. She said that she was impressed to find people in a town like Portland who would love and care for her even though she was a wreck.
As I think back on this day, I’m glad that Jered was there, because I would have done what I always do in those types of circumstances: ignore it. I don’t know where I started thinking this way, but I always think that people who need help like Karina did are just trying to scam charitable people. Pastor Jered helped to show me what loving people really is, in applicable ways. God was glorified by our willingness to help, and Karina was saved from a night alone on the street. I feel the callus that has kept me from helping others being peeled away. God please, continue to tear that callus off!
