Strange Night

nope... not in the market...

I had pretty much made up my mind, last night, not to go preaching in the market tonight. It was yesterday evening... I got a phone call from Terry, a boy in my Sunday School class. He had won 4 free tickets to a junior hockey game on Friday night, and wanted my son and I to go with him (I was to be the supervising adult). He would then find one of his friends to take the fourth ticket.

Now you are probably wondering: "Why didn't Terry get his father or mother to take him to the game? Why did Rand have to go on his night of street preaching?"

The reason is quite sad, and what ended up happening to Terry tonight is even sadder. You see, while Terry is a regular in my Sunday School class, his mother never darkened the door post of our church (or any church for that matter). And church isn't the only activity Terry's mother doesn't share with her son. For the most part, I would say that those kids (Terry has an older sister) are pretty much left to themselves. My pastor and I have literally become a second family for Terry. A family that is actually THERE.

Terry's father? Well... there is no father. He's a complete stranger, and that weighs heavy on the poor lad.

So sincerely desiring to be a good friend to Terry, I accepted his invitation to the hockey game. I really believe that that's what the Lord wanted me to do. Plus, this activity would give me a chance to have a father-son outing, which are too few and far between.

It was a little before seven o'clock tonight when I got to Terry's house. I waited a few minutes thinking he would make his way to the van after he got his jacket and winter boots on. After ten minutes of waiting, I went to the door and found Terry without boots or a jacket. He opened the door to me and explained that his mother didn't want him to go to the game tonight. The official excuse was that it was going to end to late (about 10pm), but that story just doesn't sound right to me. Terry gave me the tickets and asked me to go on without him.

It broke my heart.

I don't have the foggiest idea why this woman would do this to her son. Perhaps there is a legitimate reason that I am ignorant of, but when I told my pastor what had happened, he told me that this wasn't the first time she had done something like this; and he has never seen or heard any good reason for Terry to receive such cruel treatments. We all felt a great sadness over the situation.

Not wanting to break my son's heart on top of everything, we still ended up going to the hockey game. We took my pastor and another boy in our Sunday School, Joshua, with us. It was a nice outing, though my pastor and I felt heavy over everything that had just taken place.

Please pray for Terry. We have put a lot of time and prayer in him and his sister. His sister was once a regular at our church but has stopped coming now for a few months. Terry is only 12 years old, and I fear that when the teenage years come upon him, he too will, like his sister, walk away from everything he has learned from us. In the end, I know that if the Lord doesn't genuinely save Terry, then he naturally will walk away. But like the prophet Jeremiah wrote:

"It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD." (Lamentations 3:26)


Rand