Mike's musings

Ministry to the Samaritan

Got up a 0800 - a serious lie-in. Then to Great Leighs church - which is nowhere near the village! - for the baptism of Lenny, Carolyn's second child. Her first, Tommy, died just a few months old, and they had a poem and prayer after the baptism part of the service, which felt entirely appropriate.

On the way back it was still raining, after a serious rain storm earlier, and a big pick-up truck in front of me spun around 225 degrees whilst negotiating a roundabout. I was rather glad to have left sufficient room. The guy seemed surprised, but hadn't hit anything, so I carried on.

As I drove through Gosfield at 30mph or less, at the front of a line of traffic, I came across a man staggering along the road, in the opposite lane, making no attempt to get to either side. After a second's thought, I stopped. First of all, I made sure that the cars from behind were slowing down, and wouldn't hit him, but he was staggering across to the other side of the road, too, so I called the police, and carried on walking after him in the rain. I then tried to convince him to stop and sit down for a while. He did indeed stop for a bit, and I tried to cajole him into sitting down. He guessed that I'd called the police, and explained that he didn't want to get into trouble. I explained that I didn't want to get him into trouble, but that they might be able to get him home. He talked about going home to get some heroin to kill himself. He kept on walking out of the main village, where the speed limit goes up to 40mph and people often drive faster than that. He kept swearing at me, refusing to stay out of the road, saying he wanted to die. He crossed to the other side of the road, looked like he was going to throw himself off the bridge into the river. He started walking again. I tried to stay close enough that I'd be able to reach him if a car looked like it might be about to hit him, but far enough away that he couldn't get me, particularly if he had a knife. He told me that he'd rather die than speak to the police. I called them again and asked them not to use blues and twos (lights and sirens) when they came. In the end, after about three quarters of a mile, a police came by. He knew him, and I handed over responsibility after explaining what I'd done, and what he'd said.

As I walked back, I came across a woman who'd seen me stop, and had turned her car round, stopped it, and then walked after me, I discovered, trying to slow the cars down so that I wouldn't get hit either. We talked about what we'd done, and I told her that I'm training to become a priest. "Maybe this was God giving you part of your final exam," she said. Maybe it was. I suspect that she wasn't a Christian, just from what she said, but when we parted, I said, "If God asks, you passed, too." She seemed to like that.

Sometimes, you just have to do the right thing. This was one of those times. I was careful of my safety. I avoided the traffic, I kept well enough away from the man that I wasn't in danger from him. I phoned the police. I had a walk in the rain.

But it was a good walk, and for the right reasons.

Labels: ministry