Burning Furnace of Charity

I saw Liliana today…just before she was taken away in handcuffs for stealing, apparently. She told me she didn’t have money for rent again and she had been sick in bed for the last three days, so no work. I asked her what she was going to do. She said she’d probably steal. “I’m sorry, but I will,” she said.

Shortly after I left Liliana, I saw Virginia (who sometimes goes by Vicky- she's probably in her 40's and cleans inside BT, as well as collects cans to earn money) sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, all bundled up like the abominable snowman. She was burning some trash on the very wet street in hopes of some warmth. I sat with her and listened to her talk about how life is very hard there for her. She began to cry as she told me how people there are very mean. “When you are nice, they don’t help you. When you’re mean, they don’t help you. It doesn’t matter; just no one will help you here.”

I searched and searched my heart in hopes of finding something encouraging to tell her. I just said, “Vicky, I don’t have many answers. I only know the things that Jesus has told us. His words are living, not just like the words in other books. He says that in this world, we’ll have lots of problems, but He will always be with us.” I started to kind of fumble through something else. Then Vicky interrupted me with the excitement of a little girl and said, “Oh, sister, forgive me for interrupting you! I meant to tell you – last night I had a dream. I dreamt I was in my mother’s house and I woke up to come to BT. When I got here, I found the brothers and sisters [they often call Christians "brothers and sisters"] – 3 of you girls and 3 guys. You were doing miracles, but without words. I kept wondering, ‘What happened? Why is it so different here?’ So strange, no?”

Just as I was attempting to process this miraculous dream that God had given to little leathery Vicky, she told me that about 6 nights ago, “I saw Jesus!” And, very tongue-in-cheek, she added, “And he wasn’t blonde.” (Well said, Vicky!) “He had black hair that wasn’t long and it wasn’t short. He had a beard that was also black and he wore glasses. He was VERY handsome! And he drove a super modern truck, not like those cockroaches you see around here.” With her whole heart and with her eyes gazing off in the distance, she told me the story of how Jesus had met her on the street near her mother's house at about 2 in the morning. He asked her where she lived and she told him very close. He told her to be careful because this was a very dangerous path. Many times He told her, “God bless you,” and “be careful.” Then He got in his "super modern" truck and he was gone. She went home and began thinking; then she said to herself, “That was Jesus!” Then she began to sing to me right there on the street, “Jesus Christ is here in this place; I have seen him with my eyes.” And she looked me in the eyes and told me, “He is here, sister.” Indeed, He is.

You could say that these were nothing more than the crazy rants of an old woman who is weathered by a difficult life in BT. Or, you could have heard what I heard – the beautiful story of a precious little woman that God thinks about all the time, the story of little Vicky whom Jesus sings about in the middle of the night while you and I are asleep and she’s walking home on a dangerous road. I have prayed for over two years that Jesus would show Himself in dreams and in visions to the people of BT. Well, He’s doing it. I don’t understand anything of spirituality anymore. I used to think I knew what a prophet looked like and smelled like and acted like. Now, I’ve heard the words of God through a little leathery woman named Vicky. God will do what He wants to do. Sometimes it looks a lot like what we thought, and sometimes it looks like a King coming in the form of a homeless baby shrouded in rumors, or a prophetic word coming in the form of a leathery woman who earns a living these days by collecting empty beer cans in a red-light district. God is super unpredictable. He is beautiful; in fact He’s very good looking, drives a super modern truck and is anything but blonde, apparently. I just know that He is the most eccentric, consistent, wise, kind, gentle, passionate, brilliant, creative, caring, wild, loving, fun, partying, powerful, humble, and intimate friend I know or ever could know. How He knows my name is an endless mystery to me. I love Him.