Update Tuesday 15/5/12

It has taken some time.  There have been weeks of ups and downs, weeks that were encouraging, weeks where I have wondered "what the heck am I doing."  There have been times that I think I am fostering community and times where I have wondered "what type of community am I fostering...have I made things worse?"  Yesterday, however, was an encouraging day.  Yesterday was a day that seems to have confirmed the investment of time each Monday morning that I spend on the street corner outside of the Beer Store serving coffee and sandwiches to the homeless recyclers.
Yesterday, I headed to the corner like I do every Monday.  I brought the coffee and sandwiches as usual, and I met with the regulars as well as a few new people.  Ray was among the regulars who was there again, just as he is almost every week.  This week, however, he let me know that he had tried to get in touch with me over the week.  He had, unfortunately, lost my card and thus my number and was unable to track me down.  I was really encouraged that he had tried!  After things died down and I packed up I spent some extra time with Ray just chatting as we headed down the street to the store to try and get a patch for his bike tire.  Ray is at the place where he wants to make some changes in his life.  He has already changed some of his unhealthy relationships and is looking to change some other things.  I asked about how it is that I might be able to help, and he talked about just hanging out some times and being a healthy relationship.  I, of course, said sure.  I specifically shared that I don't have a lot of extra money hanging around, I don't have any extra rooms in my home and I don't have a business that I could give him steady work but what I do have is Jesus and I would be more than willing to try to share that with him (I sort of adapted some words from Peter in Acts 3:6).  We made a plan to get together each Monday after we serve the coffee and sandwiches and look at the bible together.  He also specifically asked about church.  All in all, it was encouraging.  I would ask for your continued prayers as I seek to walk with Ray.  I am not naive to the challenges and issues that Ray has but I am also confident in the power of our Lord.  I am looking forward to see what God will do.
I am also happy to share that for the first time in about two months our whole family is home together and prayerfully will be out of the hospital for some time.  Our oldest son has some new diagnosis and treatments that so far seem to be working well, praise the Lord.  We are still waiting to hear about possible surgery for Kim, but they are confident that her lump is not cancer.  We are still not sure what exactly T.J's lump is, but again they are confident it is not a cancerous tumour and we have an appointment next week to try to determine what her lump is.  Thanks for your continues prayers.