A word from Edna

Last night, Mark Lawson, the Gowans, the Bird family, the Cliftons, Coach Crouse, and several players from the MCHS basketball team traveled to Walk on Water on West Hancock in Athens. It's an overflow shelter in the Winter, a church/soup kitchen on Sunday nights and Tuesday nights for the rest of the year. It's a great place where people with literally nothing more than the clothes on their backs worship their hearts out, share a meal, and share community with each other. I always meet the most interesting people there, and it's always a great time. Last night, it was too hot and there were too many people to worship inside, so we sat out in the sun, praised God, and I preached the Word as trucks and cars passed by us. There were children and old men; alcoholics and cocaine addicts; prostitutes and college students.

Then there was Edna. Hardly a tooth in her head, flip-flops that were barely hanging on her feet, clothes torn, and a little more than three sheets in the wind. Edna wandered up long after church was over, and actually, long after the food was gone. When she arrived, all we had left after feeding about 100 people was less that half a bag of Laura Lynn ranch style tortilla chips. I told her, "Edna, this is all we have left". She smiled the biggest smile I had seen in weeks, hugged me as tight as she could, and said "Baby, that's okay...I'll just visit a while."

I hugged her back. My wife, Carly, saw and scrambled to put together the fake doritos, some cookies, and a pound cake that was hidden in a box under a table. You would have thought that Edna had won the lottery...What a smile! She told Kay Clifton later on,"I don't have anything or anybody...I don't have no place to stay...But I've got Jesus, and that's all I need!"

Jesus, make me more like Edna.

"I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was alone and away from my home, and you invited me into your house. I was without clothes, and you gave me something to wear. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me...I tell you the truth, as you have done to the least of these, you have done it unto me."----------------------------------Matthew 25:35-36; 45