We Had an Interesting Good Friday!

Well, we had an interesting Good Friday today. We went for a "Stations of the Cross" walk. At the sixth Station of the Cross (where a pious woman wipes the face of Jesus), we stopped at a crack house in our neighborhood. As the 45 of us set up the cross and began to pray, we could see the curtains on the door rustling. In just a few seconds, the doors opened and four guys tumbled out. Three stayed on the porch. One, a young man named J.R. (whom I knew), walked toward us. As the prayer was going on, I moved to J.R. and offered him a bulletin, showed him where we were in the service, and invited him to join with us. As we finished and turned to leave, I noticed that not only were more people coming out of the house, but there were a half dozen people beginning to converge on us from across and up the street. As soon as people saw the cross we were carrying, things began to slow down.

Jesse, another man I knew, met me in the middle of the street and said, "I saw the cross, and I had to come." The cross was like a magnet to people.

Dramatic. Everybody could feel it.

About three stations later, Kenny, the ringleader of the house where we had stopped, came hurriedly toward our group. I met him just as he reached us. He had J.R.'s copy of the bulletin in his hand, and he pointed to the words above the address — "A pious woman wipes the face of Jesus." He demanded to know what the words said, so I told him. Then I showed him the whole layout, pointing outthe various stops of the Stations of the Cross. He calmed down visibly.

I said, "Kenny, we stopped to pray at your house, to pray for you and the other guys there. Prayer's a good thing, right?" Well, he agreed with that. I invited him to join the walk for the remaining stations. He said he had "a job interview." I asked him to stop by and see me the next week. Kenny replied, "What about Easter?"

"Sure," I said.

"When's church?" he asked. "At 10:30," I told him (figuring there is no way that he's going to make the 5:15 service).

"I'll see you there Sunday," he said.

Mike Mather is Pastor atBroadway Christian Parish, South Bend, Indiana.