Life in Transit: Kind to PeopleLouise Phyn - 17 Jan 2008

Honestly, I'm still not entirely sure if this is a story about kindness or stupidity.  Whatever I reckon, glory to God and I better say thanks to Him too. He manages to make even the screwiest circumstances mirror his love.

It was a Saturday and as such our day off. I was looking forward to a fairly normal, relaxed day. The two boys in the Egham Transit house had ventured off to a conference, so Lauren and I decided to take the kids up to Tesco's, do the shopping for the week and maybe have a cup of coffee together. We didn't expect anything different to happen. I think I probably prayed that morning but, to be honest, I can't remember! I don't think God gave me any particular tips or warnings...

And somehow we found ourselves sitting in café Nero, opposite a Spanish-speaking Rumanian named Dragos.  He was in desperate need of a job and a place to stay. He was in desperate need of help. These are the situations I admire about other people's stories but desperately try to avoid. It was one of those moments when you are confronted with someone's need and a split-second decision must be made if you have the ability to help somehow or even if it's a good idea to get involved

It turned out this guy had been in England a week, spoke no English, thought he could get a job but couldn't. Now he was getting kicked out by the landlord of the friends he was staying with. And, of course, Drago had no money left. Both Lauren and I didn't know what to do. We couldn't put him up for the night, but we didn't want to just give him money for a bit

So without anything more we could think of, we offered him lunch, the use of the internet, and tried to get in touch with a Spanish-speaking Christian community in Egham

We eventually sent him off to try and stay with his friend one more night, with a meeting with "Jesús" set up for Sunday morning. Yes, that's right, Jesús (hey-zoos). He's a leader in a Spanish congregation in Egham. Except that the meeting didn't happen, and Dragos called us on Sunday night desperate to find somewhere to sleep. That was really hard, because we decided we couldn't do that ourselves with two kids in the house. It's not like you can palm him off on someone else for a night. "Hiya, friend I've known one month! Would you like to house a homeless Rumanian indefinitely? By the way he doesn't speak any English and we met him yesterday!"  Slightly unrealistic. Apparently he slept on the streets that night, and then turned up at our house Monday morning. We were all feeling like we had run to the end of our resources. Would we have to house this guy after all

Here's the funny thing: almost by chance we discovered that one of our lovely neighbours spoke Spanish. So she came over to help translate and ended up spending the day with us ringing embassies with "hypothetical" questions about homeless European nationals, and eventually buying him a plane ticket to Madrid! We were flabbergasted... and a little worried. But our neighbour, Anna, literally asked herself the question "what would Jesus do" and seemed determined to do it. Dragos left the house well-fed, with all the change we could find for a night at the airport, and our prayers... I think he was completely dumbfounded by the generosity of a community of people he had never met. I love that somehow this became a community affair.The transit house gave him time and food, but we couldn't solve everything. Even if, in a worst case scenario, this guy was a conman (coz we had no idea really who he was) he must have been blown away still.

After Dragos had left, I didn't get that warm fuzzy feeling of a good deed done. Looking inside myself, the way I had seen the situation was anything but Jesus-like. I had been distrusting, scared, judgmental and uncomfortable a lot of the time. I hadn't had any clear idea of what I could do or should do. To be honest by the end of the saga I really just wanted Dragos to go away. But just by not looking away, not completely ignoring this guy, Jesus used his church to help him out. In some ways I'm amazed that Jesus would have us make all this effort to just help out this one man who wasn't particularly "special" in the eyes of the world. He could be considered untrustworthy simply because of his nationality. He told us that once the people we asked about jobs found out he was Rumanian, they said it would be almost impossible to find work. But that's just like Jesus isn't it? Careering off after that one dumb sheep who managed to get himself indefinitely lost .

I am so glad we got to act even a little bit like that. That's my conclusion about being kind to people. We can look. We can try. We can offer something small- even a cup of coffee. and then when things inevitably get too big for us to handle, that's exactly when Jesus gets mucked in. All my love to you random everyday missionaries (chances are if you're reading this article, you are one!), and prayers for God to be with you Dragos, if you ever read this.