Tony

Today I met Tony, (one of the crazy people who live next door) he came up and wanted to throw the football around a bit. It was pretty cool! Also this was the first time I could understand anything coming out of this guys mouth! lol Normally its just "GWAAAAA MA GOO" and then one understandable word like "gremlin."

This evening a friend texted me and wanted to hang out so when he came we walked down to the coffee shop and walked back to sit on the porch and talk. It was such a nice day neither of us wanted to be inside. Well as we were talking I herd some grunts and sounds coming up behind us. I had a hunch it was one of our neighbors, when it's nice they kinda hang out by their doors. Now you see this made me a little nervous because most of the residents of these apartments next door have mental disabilities(you never know what the cray people gona do.) Well to my surprise it was Tony (didn't know his name yet). He stood there with a slowly deflating old football staring at me. So I asked "You want me to play catch with ya? " He smiled and shook his head and ran back a little ways so he could throw it to me. 

Now like I said earlier I never really had much contact with Tony. Most of the time whenever we see him he was opening his door and yelling impossible to understand words than slamming it and running back into his house. We would see him pacing in his apartment at night sometimes as well when we would come home after dark.  We would just shrug our shoulders and keep on with our day. 

After throwing around the football around a few times he pointed to my friend and made a few more grunts. So I asked "You want my friend to play?" He shook his head yes again and threw me the football. But right after he threw it he went back inside his apartment and left the door open. So me and my friend passed the old pig skin around a bit and a bit of time passed by and we soon realized that Tony was not coming back out. So I got the football and I told my friend that I was going to take the ball back and thank him for letting us play with it. So I went inside and Tony was sitting there is his chair seemingly just waiting. I said "Thank you for letting us use your ball." and then I herd the first understandable sentence from Tony he said "take a seat, sit down." I told him 'I have company so I cant sit and chat right now but I will soon thank you." then I asked "Whats you name?" and he said with a grin on his face "Tony" he said it loud and proud. Then he turned eagerly and asked "whats your name?" and I said "Shaun". I thanked him by name this time then turned and left to go back to my friend. 

It was really cool to meet Tony and I'm interested to see why the Spirit has brought us to together. I'm looking forward to talking to him later. It was a perfect time for applying what I read through today in Crazy Love, it talked about the passage in Mathew 22 about the day of judgement "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’"(vrs. 35-40) I looked at Tony and tried to see him as Jesus and welcomed him as a stranger. I saw a man seeking friendship and although he looked rough I was not about to turn away when as a believer I bear the image of God. I'm going to try to represent Jesus the best I can to Tony. So if you could would you pray for Tony? I don't think he knows very many people. Looking forward to possibly hearing his story and getting to know him a little more.