how i met Bobby

one year ago, a man named Bobby lay in a depressed, drunken stupor calling out for God to have mercy on his life. at 57 years old, he was pleading for God to send someone, anyone to help him out of the pit he had found himself in

across town, a young pastor was trying to help a homeless man who had come to church looking for a handout -- instead, he found warm hands welcoming him in each week. some took him to dinner, others prayed intently for him and with him. Eddie was 47, an alcoholic, and more scrawny than i am. Eddie disappeared for two weeks -- we looked for him, called the police station to see if he had been picked up, even read obituaries from the area -- no Eddie.

then, the Tuesday after Mother's Day 2004, Eddie showed up at the church. Eddie usually looked rough -- but now he looked roughed up with scars, bruises, and fresh stitches. i asked him who did this? his reply, he did. he said he had passed out on the street and the police took him to the hospital. he had wanted to get out and make it home to see his mother in a nursing home on Mother's day, but a few more drinks before he left, left him passed out in a local gas station's bathroom. that's where he woke up, discouraged and at the bottom of life. Eddie pleaded for help, for treatment, for a change.

we arranged for a ministry that would keep him after he was medically cleared to go -- he was toxic at the time and first needed medical help to come down. we knew we would need his ID -- so we had to go get his wallet from his friend Bobby's house.

that was my first trip into East Acres -- a low income housing project blocks from our church. we pulled up in front of Bobby's unit -- Eddie told me to wait because Bobby may be drunk and he didn't like strangers. Eddie went to the door which was eventually answered by a large, mostly naked, beligerent drunk man. The man began to curse and threaten Eddie. As i thought about getting out to intercede, Eddie ducked under the man's arm and retrieved his wallet, sidestepping the drunk man trying to catch him as he ran back out the door and into my car.

i asked Eddie if that was his friend, Bobby? he said yes. i said, no, that man's no friend -- you're never coming back here again.

God had other plans. Eddie was homeless and all the programs we were trying to get help from required proof of residency. that's hard for a homeless person -- you need help to get a home, but you can't get help because you have no home. Eddie had given up and asked to be dropped off somewhere so he could lay down and die. finally, at my insistence for another way, one agency said that if we could provide a letter from someone who had let him stay the night, they would count that as proof of residency.

there was only one house where he had stayed the night -- Bobby's. i looked at the agency representative and said we'll be right back. i took Eddie back to the church to make a letter and to pray. Eddie said, i thought you said i could never go back. i did, but this time i'm going with you and we're gonna get Bobby's help. We printed a letter, we prayed for Divine favor, and we drove back to Bobby's