All I can say is, WOW. I’ve had enough drama today to more than fill up this spring break for me.
Starting off the day, I woke up on one of the couches in the conference room. Apparently last night I had just passed out from being so tired and just slept there. It’s wasn’t that uncomfortable, since I usually sleep on a couch in my dorm room.
Walked back to my room, made breakfast and took a shower. We met up in the conference room again around 9:30, and then headed down to the parking lot to circle up. We prayed it up, and then rolled to Sun Splash.
When I got there, I helped to set up the net on the beach, and then wandered back up to Sun Splash to find some people to talk to.
I wasn’t in the best of moods, so I just went down to the other end to read the bible and pray. I don’t think I’ve ever read the bible and prayed so much in the span of 3 days. I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone, or didn’t see anyone I felt like I could connect with. All I saw were old people or creepy men who were there just to stare at girls. I even had some time of rest and meditation (could also be classified under “nap”). I walked around a bit more, and then went back down to the beach to chill.
I was in a pretty nasty mood. A crappy mood would have been a gross understatement. I just felt like it was useless to talk to people, b/c I wouldn’t be able to make a difference. I knew it was all in God’s control, and nothing I did or did not do would help. I knew God would work out his will, with or without me, so why bother. I was also half wishing God would just come back so that all those creepy old men would just go to hell. I felt a lot like Jonah. I don’t think the two (my attitude and my mood) were related causally, but the combination made for a lethal mix. Gabbi tried to cheer me up, but that didn’t work.
I walked around a bit more, and eventually I wasn’t in such a bad mood. I wasn’t necessarily Mr. Sunshine face, but I wasn’t Debbie Downer. As I was wandering, Gabbi motioned me over really forcefully. She introduced me to Reynaldo, who was a Jehovah’s witness. I was thinking, “Oh boy, here we go.”
So I tried to talk to him, but personally, it was pretty frustrating. He would agree with anything I said, but when I asked him for specifics, or to clarify stuff, I wouldn’t completely agree with him. But it just went around and around in circles. It also didn’t help that he didn’t know his supporting scripture passages very well, and could identify the address of only about 50% of them. By the end, I think we ended up just praying for him, and leaving it up to the Holy Spirit to convict him. Walking away I was frustrated and sort of angry, but surprisingly did not sink back into my super bad mood.
I ate a quick lunch, and then decided it was time to take some photos of the others on the team ministering. Thus far, my photo intake has been far inferior to other years, both in quality and quantity. I’d probably blame that on my bad mood.
As I was walking back to the far end of the park, I saw “Robert,” the 88 year old man from the day before. I sat down and started talking to him again. He told me he had just been thinking about me: “I was just thinking about you; how I had never seen you before, and how I probably would never see you again. But here you are.”
So we sat and talked. The day before I felt like the conversation was there, but not that meaningful. I never really got to tell him why I was there, and explicitly mention Jesus. I’m not the type to shove religion down people’s throat’s, but if I’m talking to you for at least an hour, I feel it’s pretty easy to work spiritual stuff into the conversation. So today I was constantly looking for an in.
Today it was less of us talking, and more of me learning about him. I learned more about the prostitute situation, and it made a bit more sense when I heard more about it. She actually was living with someone else in the apartment complex, and apparently got kicked out. She’s into older men, and apparently picked him up, and not vice-versa. She’s also a drug addict, and pretty much was using him for money. But regardless, sex is first and foremost on his mind. Like I mentioned yesterday, he thinks marriage is 85-90% about sex. While I don’t disagree that it’s a major part of the relationship, it definitely isn’t 85-90%.
I learned about his weekly routine, how he rides his bike and talks to a judge and real estate guy on a regular basis. How he watches civil courts on TV (Judge Judy and the like) religiously, and how he’s seen most of the space shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral. I learned more about his wife (apparently, the 3rd one) who died 7 years ago after battling the after effects of a stroke. There I saw my in. I asked him if he ever wondered what happened after death. He told me the earth was created by a higher power, most likely UFO’s, and how after we died we would become part of a giant puzzle. Yeah, it didn’t make much sense to me either.
Then I asked him if he wanted to hear what I believed. He said he would, and I explained to him the entire gospel message. How when I died I would go to God and would have to answer for all the sins in my life. And how he would not let me in b/c of my past sins, but b/c Jesus paid for them all, I would then proceed to heaven. We didn’t really discuss that at length, but I made sure he heard it in its entirety. For me, that was such a burden off of my back, b/c I felt like the day previous I had been quite timid in my conversations with regard to the gospel message.
I had my camera with me, and he commented that if he had money, he’d give me some so I could send him a picture of himself. I told him I didn’t need any money, and proceeded to take his picture. He didn’t have any pen and paper with him, so I had to go down to get mine. When I came back, I was really excited to show that I remembered his name. When I said his name and asked for his address, he told me to forget what he had told me before. He then proceeded to tell me his real name and address. Apparently, the day before, he wasn’t sure about who I was or what I was up to, so he gave me a fake name. I’ve never had that happen to me, or even heard of it happening to anyone on the trip, but it makes sense. Why would a young guy like me approach an older man like him for some random conversation? Oh, and he thought I may have been gay and approaching him for “other” reasons. It makes sense it you take into consideration that he’s probably thinking about sex and women 75% of the time.
At the end I even got to pray for him, which I think he appreciated, even if he didn’t completely understand the concept. So please keep him in your prayer, so that I can see him again later this week and give him a bible to read.
By that time it was pretty close to 5, so we packed up and headed back. Dinner and debrief were pretty ordinary, so I’ll just fast forward when we went out at night.
There were 6 girls in the group, and 4 guys. We ended up doing an awkward split, b/c 3 girl’s wanted to get Cold Stone first. Lauren and Danny, Dan and Christine, Brent and Gabbi, and then me with Heather, Stephanie and Katie. I personally didn’t like it, since I think 4 people is a real awkward group, esp when approaching 1 other person, but I didn’t want to inconvenience any of the other people, so I just went with it.
While the girl’s were getting cold stone, I got a chance to talk to my dad, which was really nice. I probably haven’t talked to him for over a week, so it was good to tell him how the week went so far, and about how I was feeling. I had called him the night before, but he had gone to bed early b/c he had had an allergic reaction. Even though my mood had improved since the previous night, it was still good to talk with him.
After the girls came out, we walked towards where the clubs were. The girls talked to a bouncer at one of the bars for a bit, but it didn’t go very far. On our way back they talked to a man sitting on one of the benches at a bus stop. He said he was sobering up a bit, and on his way back to his hotel room. Randy was a carpenter working on a house in Daytona for about a month, and had a pretty rough life. He had two daughters, both of whom were in prison. He knew about God and Jesus, but seemed to think he’d done too many bad things in his life. With 4 of us and 1 of him, it was awkward, as I mentioned before. I stood off to the side, leaving most of the conversation to the girls. Heather did most of the talking, with Stephanie and Katie to support her. We ended up reading him the story of the prodigal son, which I think really hit him hard. He may have had some alcohol in him, but I think he heard that story and it really made him think. After Heather finished the story, he was just silent, and then told us he had to go. It was pretty abrupt. As he walked away, we were contemplating whether we should follow him, since he was still swaying a bit.
But God had some other plans for us. During our conversation with Randy, a different guy had stumbled past us. At first I thought he was faking being drunk to be funny, but by the time he got to the traffic light pole, Katie pointed out that he really was gone. We got him to sit down for a bit, but he got up again and scampered across the street. Let me tell you, that may have been one of the most amazing things I’ve seen all trip. The fact that he didn’t trip in the street, much less the curb was utterly astonishing. He wandered down the street and out of view.
By the time we were finished with Randy, the drunk guy, who we would later find out was Charlie, had stumbled back into view. He faceplanted onto the concrete pretty bad, which shook up Heather pretty bad. He was on the opposite side of the street, and I personally had no idea what to do. Heather was pretty concerned for him though, and wanted to get him somewhere safe before he ended up splattered all over the street. So we ran across, got him to stop walking, and tried to figure out where he needed to go and who could come get him.
We tried calling the person who he said he was with in Daytona, but she didn’t pick up. He told us he was staying at the Silver Sand Beach Resort, but at the time couldn’t tell the difference between his silver and surfer. At this point I had gotten really tired of keeping Charlier steady, so I told him to lean against a chain-linked fence behind us. Heather tried to get him to drink some water, and we sent Stephanie and Katie across the street to find out where it was. Lo and behold they found a group of Taylor students in there shopping as well. One of them lived in Daytona, and though he didn’t know where it was, got us the address of the hotel. We really didn’t know how far it was, but knew which direction our new friend Charlie needed to go.
So we started walking towards where we thought his hotel was. He had his arm around my shoulder, and I had to not only help support him, but prevent him from swaying into the street. Considering I was the only guy, I didn’t really have any other options. We walked him down past the Hilton, and at the point I got really tired. I’d say he was at least 200 pounds, if not 250. Not to mention he was super sweaty, and had the stench of alcohol on him like no other. I honestly can still smell him know. We had walked about half a mile, so we sat him on some steps so I could catch my breath, and figure out how far we needed to take him.
Luckily, there were some hotel workers on break, and one of the security guys helped us out quite a bit. He called up an ambulance to get Charlie checked out, while I went to get the van.
I came back with the van, and we picked Charlie up along with the rest of the people who had gone out. We found his hotel, and as we were taking him up the elevator, he kept commenting on how nice we were, and kept asking us why we were helping him out. We just told him that Jesus loved him and so did we. I doubt he’ll remember this tomorrow morning when he wakes up, but I think one of the girls may have slipped a track into his pocket. 
Anyways, that’s the end of my exciting day. I then went to 7-11 to treat myself to a slurpee, which ended up being super disappointing b/c it wasn’t quite slushy as I expected. But it’s kept me awake, as I realize I’ve spent over an hour typing up this post. But I’m sure someone out there will enjoy reading it, if not me in a year or so.
Continue to keep us in your prayers as we make it down the home stretch. I know in previous years, this is where people start to get worn down, both physically and emotionally, and burn out. Pray that the weather can remain nice, and that people will return to continue all these great conversations we’re having. I probably should go to sleep now, since it’s 2:30.
