Ellis Island

Part of my evening was spent picking up more items for our annual hygiene kit project. I visited friend and former neighbor, Sebastão at the 99¢ store he staffs. Later, I parked near two drugstores to do some comparison shopping and stopped in between at *bucks for a pit stop. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, Ellis sitting at a table alone. Life's been hard for Ellis and he recently lost a family member. We shared coffee and a Cranberry Bliss Bar. He preached to me - the Cotton Patch Version. I was happy to listen and get lost in his world for a moment forgetting about mine.

Ellis is a good egg. He rarely stays for the entire church service. You'll find him arriving late, crisscrossing the sanctuary obliviously right in front of the main speaker as he finds a seat. He is a survivor and is always restless. Philippians 4:11-12 is not a picture of Ellis. He has a hard time making his ends meet. That, and the love of Christ he finds at the church, keeps him coming back for more. He plays some kind of game hustling cell phones and pagers. He goes through them like dirty diapers. Though he tried to explain more of that to me tonight, I still don't get it. It keeps him busy and out of real trouble. It just makes it hard to get ahold of him as his phone number(s) change about once a week. That's our Ellis!

Random Thought of the Day: IMHO, the bassline in "It's My Life" (Talk Talk or No Doubt) is one of the best around.

In the Street Smarts Dept. - I was approached again tonight in a parking lot. My tendency in these cases is not to engage a stranger in conversation at night when alone. Call me new-fashioned. I get it often late at night near the church or in a parking lot when shopping. If someone does this and begins their petition or even before they begin it I'll utter a preemptive "Don't approach me!" If that's not enough, they won't be satisfied and I feel like it, when they say "why?" I'll just say something like, "It's too late at night." Yeah, I know "what would Jesus do?" I'm still asking myself that but also I am still here to tell you about it. All this keeps them guessing as to what surprise I might have for them if they do approach me. I guess I may be cold in this regard but for all I know they may be out to do me harm or in the case of a female approaching me, far-fetched as it may be, it could be an undercover police officer out for a night of entrapment.