One At a Time
God instructed me to witness to the hard core, one at a time. What’s hardcore? It’s easy to see in the physical realm but in the spiritual, not so easy. Remember Satan appears as an Angel of light.
On most days of the week, I drive to the office in Bridgeport. I take Route 8 South, get off, make a right onto Fairfield Avenue, a left on West Street, a left on State Street and the courthouse is right there. There’s a bodega on the corner of Fairfield and West and a park across the street. It’s a very active spot. There’s drug trafficking, prostitution and homelessness. And there’s Papo (it takes me two years to learn his name). Everyday he’s out on the corner just standing there, taking it all in. He’s a short Hispanic man with dark brown weathered skin, a nice round face and dark brown eyes that look deep. He appears to be in his mid-60s. We make eye contact every time I drive by; I mean really make eye contact. Not a quick glance and turn away but a straight stare saying okay, I see you. This goes on for two years! We never speak. I never stop. But each day we stare. Eventually we make progress in our communication and exchange slight head nods of understanding.
Towards the end of the second year, after I begin pursuing the prophetic, I start feeling a tightness in my gut as I drive by, a sense of guilt and anxiety. It’s the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I know that God has a word for Papo and I have to trust and obey. Each day it becomesharder to drive by without stopping. I start to dread turning that corner. One day in the office I tell my coworker, and Christian sister, Jane Castaldo, about Papo and tell her that I’m planning on pulling over to talk to him the next day. She understandably cautions me because of the criminal activity at that spot. I tell her I understand but have to do this, and ask her to be praying for me tomorrow morning.
When I pull to the side of the curb the next morning Papo is looking in a roll-off trash bin behind the bodega. The corner is crowded with people as usual. When he sees me pull over and get out of my car, I can see the fear in his eyes as I approach. I’m dressed in my typical shirt and tie, although my personal policy is to never wear a white shirt. I may be the man but that doesn’t mean I have to look like the man! Anyway, I suspect that he thinks I’m a cop because he begins backing away from me.
I start with, “Hi. I know we see each other almost every day but I had to stop because God put it on my heart to pray for you.” He seems to relax and stops stepping backwards. The first sign that God’s plan is working is that Papo speaks good English, porque yo hablo Español un paquito solamente. Entendio más que hablo. So here we go, just Papo, God and me.
I ask Papo if I can pray for him and he says yes. I ask him if there’s anything he needs prayer for and he says no. I ask him if I can place my hand on his shoulder as we pray and he says yes. And I start praying and as I pray for a blessing over his life, I feel God telling me to place my hand over his heart. And as I continue to pray, I feel there’s pain in his heart and I pause and say, “I feel God wants me to pray over your heart, that you have a heart condition that brings on fear and causes you anxiety.” Papo’s eyes suddenly get bigger as he begins to tell me about his history of heart problems and the surgeries he’s had, including the stint that was just recently replaced. And we both rejoice. I pray for God to heal his heart and take away all his fears. Papo shares his story about his Polish wife; how they got divorced because she was tough and always yelling at him. About his two adult children, his son, who lives in Hartford and is a contractor and his daughter who is a teacher in New Haven. I learn that Papo is retired after working in the maintenance department for the City of Bridgeport for 30years. He lives in an apartment over the bodega and knows everyone on the corner. He tries to help people and looks out for those most in need, like the prostitutes and the homeless.
Thus begins our relationship, slow at first but steady as we go. I try to stop every morning I’m going into the office. I speak to the storeowner and learn that Papo has been living above the bodega for the past 20 years. Everybody knows Papo and even refer to the spot as Papa’s corner. I share my testimonies and faith with Papo and he makes an affirmation of faith in Christ. I start bringing a box of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee every morning so he can offer coffee to the people on the corner.
I see a change in Papo. When I come by he is no longer standing around and staring but he’s talking to people. After a while Papo asks me if I have any Spanish Bibles that he can give to those who need one. A holy non-coincidence, there is a box of Spanish Bibles that’s been sitting at the Chapel since we’ve been there. I also find a bunch of English Bibles and Spanish and English Bible tracks.
Papo’s corner ministry goes on for about two years. Sometimes he introduces me to people and asks if I can pray for them. He has to shut it down during the winter, but is back the first day of spring, a new beginning, like being born again. One new spring day I see that Papo is not on the corner. For the next two weeks he’s not there. I finally stop and go into the bodega. The owner tells me that Papa died over the winter from heart failure. He adds that everyone expected him to go a few years ago, as he was constantly in and out of the hospital but the last couple of years he was healthy and happy, always giving people coffee, praying for people and handing out Bibles. My sadness lasts but a small moment and then my heart rejoices. I share Papo’s testimony at the Chapel and in the office and pray that I can see who God has for me next.
John Wood is the president of the Shelton Flag Football League and the meanest man in town. He’s controlling, demeaning, uncompromising, disrespectful, and foulmouthed. He works as the vice-president of a custom floor company. One day he came home from work, got upset because his youngest son didn’t bring in the empty garbage cans, and kicked the family dog, breaking its ribs.
I’ve been a coach in the league since my son was seven. He’s now 14 and wants to play tackle football in a new American Youth Football (AYF) team in Shelton. I tell Kevin Scanlon, the head coach of our team, that I’m taking Jesse out of the league to allow him to play AYF, so Kevin can advise John at the next coaches meeting. Kevin gets back to me to share the flurry of expletives John used in expressing his opinion about what a big mistake I’m making. About a week later, I get a voice message on my cell phone from John, “Hi Ray. It’s John. When Kevin told me you were leaving the league my heart sank. Ray, I’ve been watching you over the years interact with the kids, their families and the coaches in the league and I’ve always noticed that there’s something different about you. I’ve always wanted to talk to you and ask you about it and when I heard you were leaving I thought I lost my opportunity. Would you please give me call? I would very much appreciate it.” I play the message for Paula and we are both in a state of disbelief. I don’t believe it. I think it’s a ruse so John can tell me what an idiot I am for leaving the league. But I know I need to call him. I feel I owe him that.
The next Saturday, a hot August day, I grab the phone and tell Paula that I’m going out on the back deck to call John Wood. He picks up and essentially starts repeating what he said in his message. He tells me that he knows I’m a Christian and just sees a kind of light shining, especially when I’m with the kids. He tells me he was raised Catholic but when his father died when John was 18, he became angry and disinterested in religion. As John continued to pour his heart out over the phone, I looked at Paula inside the kitchen and mouthed the letters OMG. And I felt like laughing out loud. I felt like God was laughing with me, having a little fun with me and teaching me what He means by hardcore. There John was, right in front of me, out on the field. A middle class married white male with a wife and five children. He wasn’t a drug-addicted homeless guy sleeping under an overpass, or a made Mafioso, or white-collar fraudster, or a gang banging drug dealer. He was the VP of a company and the president of the league. I invited John to the men’s prayer meeting at the Chapel on Saturday morning and ended the call by praying for him and his family. Then I told Paula and it’s the first time that God baptized me with the Holy Spirit in laughter. We both started laughing with joy. It felt so good. God is so good, all the time.
And God’s timing is perfect. John starts going to men’s prayer and attending services at the Chapel. I keep him in my prayers during the week and usually call him once a day when I read scripture that I think is applicable to his life at the moment and just to check in. John eventually starts attending services at the Chapel and brings his wife Kyra a few times. The change is startling to those who don’t understand what’s happening to him. He is kind and considerate. He doesn’t curse and has stopped drinking. And he listens. After around six months, I see John sitting in the back of the sanctuary one Sunday morning during a service and I see that he’s undone. He is sobbing deeply, with his head down and his hands covering his face. I mean deep breathing sobs, like waves during a storm. I sit down next to him and put my arm around his shoulder and wait. The Holy Spirit storm subsides and the new John Wood looks into my eyes. I see a new light, a new joy. John shares that he just accepted Christ right there on that pew in the back of the sanctuary in the Huntington Chapel.
You hear people often say that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle and that’s true as long as we’re living according to his plan and purpose for our lives. 1 Corinthians 13:10 says that “No temptation has overcome you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful: God will not let you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way so that you can endure it.” The spirit of addiction has been attacking John’s son, Nick, for quite some time.
A few months after John gets saved Nick is out shooting heroin with his buddies. They’re driving around when Nick stops breathing. His friends drive to the nearest ER, drop him off on the curb outside the entrance and drive off. He is flat lining. By the Mercy and Grace of the Lord, a nurse inside sees what just happened and Nick is quickly taken in to the ER. They bring him back from the dead.
God has prepared John for such a time as this. He loves his wife and children into the Kingdom. Nick makes a full recovery and uses the powerful testimony God has given him to minister to those wrestling with addiction. John has always had the gift of leadership but now uses it for God’s purpose. He becomes a leader in local men’s ministry and impacts the lives of hundreds of men. He is the new John Wood and forever I have this testimony to share.
This is chapter 13 of Hard Faith.
Touching & writing on the hearts of lost souls…
Encouraging the believers
raylbooks.com Foreword
Thanks so much for visiting Project Deadzone (what I nicknamed it when Ray and I first chatted on it). Bring life to his words on the web.
Among many other things, my brother has always been a story teller.
Admittedly, I was/am not always a fan. As we grew up, I would have appreciated a little of the oxygen that he always managed to suck completely out of the room – storytelling or with some other disastrous adventure 🙂
If we are lucky, time gives us a chance to step back and see things differently. Reading his books, it’s amazing how fast life comes at you. Ready or not.
And as much as you think you know someone’s narrative, you don’t. Life is so self-absorbing — making it “hard” to really know what’s going on for the person next to you. For example, first reading his stories made me think I grew up in an alternate universe of our family. The one with unicorns and rainbows. (Well not exactly that.)
For me, his life narrative is about the transformative power of human belief. In his case, that belief system was of a higher order that was benevolent, unknowing, mysterious. His faith in God. As it grew and blossomed within him, it allowed him to love himself for everything he was. And for even what he wasn’t. He went from destruction (hard knocks), to discovery and development (hard love), to the determination to be life-giving in his latter days as death surrounded him (hard faith).
The circle of life. He thankfully had life-giving people in his destructive years. Many folks don’t.
For raylbooks.com, I’m really happy in the way it strips away everything just to showcase Ray & Paula’s words.
Wishing all a wonderful day with the ones you love.
un hermano