How good is YOUR connection?

I've wanted to write all week.

It has been an AMAZING last couple of weeks.

I moved three people off the streets and into apartments. I'm working on two more.

I built relationships with some people on the streets that I'd about written off as hopeless.

AND we are moving closer to our building plans both in town and on the church grounds.

So it has been exciting.

And I've had a lot to share.

Including the call from the social worker at the hospital.

She needed to discharge a homeless man who didn't seem to know (or wouldn't share) where he'd come from.

The psychiatrist ruled him schizophrenic.

I went to visit him to see if he was someone I recognized. (He wasn't.)

Part perseverance with equal parts stubbornness, I peppered him with questions to determine if he was evading criminal charges or truly confused.

He asked his own questions.

"What do you do?"

Thinking we'd already established that I was a minister, I flippantly answered, "Oh I just go up and down the streets meeting people."

"Oh, you're a solicitor..." he deduced.

Wait, what?!! No, I assured him.

I'm a preacher, not a prostitute!

I have GOT to start watching how I word things!

I continued my line of questioning. (Thanks, Dad, for all the detective lessons!)

I finally got the name of a place where he used to live in Leakesville, a town about 90 miles away.

Using my handy, dandy android, I googled it and discovered it was low-income housing for the elderly.

Finding a number, I called and asked if the complex manager could give me any information on a former tenant.

After speaking with him to confirm that she could talk to me, I listened incredulously as she told me he was a CURRENT resident and she'd just noticed that a note she'd put on his door on Memorial Day was still there. Residents thought he'd gone to visit relatives (of which he couldn't remember he had) and she was devastated to learn he'd been on the streets for two weeks before ending up in the hospital.

I alternated being crying tears of sorrow and tears of happiness.

I then called his mother and his sister, and was happy to learn that they are going to become more active in his care, having already known he was suffering from some form of dementia.

So all of this happened and I wanted to SHARE it with my loyal readers, my friends.

But it had rained.

And I live way way out in the country.

So my internet was down.

I had no connection.

It hindered me greatly; I was unable to blog, to check emails, to get on Facebook...

And I was excited when it finally came back up today.

But then it hit me.

What kind of connection do WE have?

Do we go out when there's a storm, only to resurface when all is well again?

Or worse, does it take awhile even after the sun comes out to begin serving God again?

Or do we hang in there, still providing service even in the midst of a storm?

Is it limited service? Or is the connection as strong in the valleys as it is on the mountaintops?

We don't need wires, or modems, or satellites to stay connected to God. There's no excuse for losing connection unless YOU break it.

So what kind of connection do YOU have?