Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control
A lady at her 50s walked up to us when we were standing in front of a bakery store deciding which direction we should head to. She wept and told us how embarrassed she was to ask us for help. She claimed that she and her 3 children came from Rochester, and one of the kids was ill. Her car broke down, sent to local mechanic for repair, car didn’t get fixed, spent all her money, … , the kids were waiting at McD, no relatives or friends in NY, and trapped in Queens. She asked for our help to give her money (specified $10 each for Amtrak to get back to Rochester) and was willing to write a check for payback and also provide all the identifications to honor that check.
At that moment, several thoughts flashed through my mind. “Should we drive them back to Rochester?” “Do we have $40 on us?” But we didn’t offer any of those.
Chia and I looked at each other for a few seconds, and suggested the lady to ask for help from the church (A church was right across from the bakery). She instantly replied, “no one from church is going to help me.” We insisted on taking her to the church office, so we kind of dragged her to the front entrance of the building. However, the gate was locked. While we were standing there, we suggested her to turn to police for help. She said she had been there three times already, and the police couldn’t drive out to places that are 3.5hrs away from the district.
After much consideration, we turned her down because we only had $12 at that time, and told her we were really sorry. She then went on to the next person for help.
Right after we left her, we went down to the police station and McD that she mentioned, but no positive confirmation from the officer nor the store.
The story ends here. I asked myself, “Did we really give her the help she needed?” “What if all the coincidences were true and real?” “Were we too logical about everything and lost our sense of sympathy?” “Where were those characteristics (Galatians 5:22-23) when we stood before her as Christians?”