Some ‘Splaining to Do

Part 6 of the Life on the Street series...

By the time I arrived at the school – I had a couple of ideas in mind. It turns out that by the time that I had arrived there, Frank had reached my wife – he finally did pick up the phone after I left of course – and she "reluctantly" agreed to pick me up there at the mission and return me since she verified that I really did have a commitment to my daughter that day. The problem was – I had texted her to tell her that I was at the school already. She called on my 'almost dead again' phone and asked why I was not at the mission like the guy said. I told her that I would explain when she got there but that I had escaped. Not really but it freaked her out that I was not where they thought I was. When she arrived at the school, I explained everything to her and she immediately wanted to know where I was sleeping that night. At that point, I had to honestly tell her the options but that I was not sure yet. I agreed to keep her posted since it looked like I was going to wing it.

It turns out – I also had some more explaining to do to a new friend of the family. As I stood in the auditorium while my daughter warmed up, a new friend to our family (my daughter and their's hang together) came up to me and asked if I was home from my trip. My mind raced… "Trip? What trip? What is he talking about? How could he know this?" I answered that I was sort of still on a trip. He looked very concerned and so – still not knowing what he was talking about – I thought that since he does not go to our church yet that I could share what I was doing and it would be safe and sound.

I gave him the nutshell version and why and he sighed with relief. He shared how glad he was that I explained that to him. It turns out that on Friday night, my daughter had gone out with their family and he had asked where I was because he had emailed me and I had not replied yet. My daughter shared that I was on a trip and the natural next question was "where?" She did not know so that was what she said – as they conversed and it became obvious that she was hiding something he backed off but was concerned. From all he had experienced – these kinds of conversations had the signs of family trouble and he was trying to figure out what he had to offer to a pastor whose family was falling apart! When he saw me looking like I was on Saturday – his concern grew and he approached me to start a conversation to see what he could learn about the situation and how he could offer some sort of help.

When I explained the truth – he told me all of that and was so relieved. We laughed but it turned out that when he went home and shared that with his wife – they came to church on Sunday because they had to know "the rest of the story"!

Check the next blog – "Walking, Begging, Hitchhiking and Dumpster-Diving" see what the rest of Saturday held for me before I finally warmed up.