pat loughery

I’m very excited about a relationship that I’m developing in town. It’s with Lee, who runs one of the three motels.

For a few weeks now we’ve been getting more than one call a week requesting benevolence help for somebody staying at one of the motels in town. Because our offerings have been healthy, we have more money to give to those in need. We give money to the local food bank and handle direct phone calls also. But Lee has been calling me more and more frequently in the past few weeks.

Of the three motels in our town, one is downright scary; the other two are okay in a 1950s AAA-Travelodge kind of way. One in particular – the one Lee works at – has been getting a lot of business lately, and some of that is from people who can’t afford to pay. The local ministerial association has a fund by which we help people with a gas voucher or a night’s stay at a motel, but sometimes the churches just act directly. I prefer to act directly and meet those whom we’re helping to put a face to a name and smile at them. We’ve never had a single person that we’ve helped out come to the church gathering, though several have told me that they wanted to. It doesn’t really bother me; we do it with no strings attached and no Preaching At Them, but I always love to hear their story as much as they want to share. I tell them we’re a Christian church who believes that Jesus loves people, even when – especially when – they found themselves down on their luck. Often they vent a lot. Our goal is to help as much as possible unless it’s a blatant scam.

In the process of helping people who are passing through, evicted, between jobs, migrant workers, etc., Lee and I talk about the specific situation. He’s got a good heart; he’s not condescending or demeaning at all, and he hears some difficult stories. We’re growing a friendship. We talked quite a bit today and he told me his story. He’s a New Yorker, Jewish by upbringing but not particularly active in his faith. He married a Catholic woman and their kids were raised in the Catholic church – his only stipulation was that his wife couldn’t put a picture of Christ above their bed. (Sounds like a fair deal to me :-)). He says he’s 59 and his kids are my age, but I told him (truthfully) that he looks like he’s maybe 50. He has a brother in the area.

He says he wants to come check out our church (“I’m not looking to convert or anything, I just want to be involved in something and you guys seem nice.”). I told him that was awesome. We like people who believe differently than we do. In fact, since we’re now looking at the book of Nehemiah, with his faith background he might have some good thoughts to help us understand the book better.

So today I had to call him a few more times in order to reach one of his guests, and we’re harassing each other back and forth – guy teasing – and it’s a kick.

I’ll try to hook up with him for lunch or coffee or something later this week, and we may even see him this weekend. It’d be a good time to do it: we’re discussing Nehemiah 5, which is a great story of God’s desire for compassion, mercy and justice.