As you might expect, it is very humbling to arrive in Nashville, TN and learn from our PDA (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance) hosts of the devastation caused by the “greater than a hundred year flood”. There was the excitement which comes with the arrival at the home of Broderick and Kia whom our team had the privilege of helping for the next several days.
With PDA mission work we have come to expect and appreciate the inconveniences that come with the task, like working in a home that currently has no heat and no running water. Conditions that make home repair challenging at best!
Unlike my first two PDA trips, this week I was part of an all woman team. Since our site had no working bathrooms we needed to finish facilities nearby from time to time. After rejecting a nearby Shell gas station which failed to meet our standards, we discovered a burger King about a mile away.
While chatting outside the “ladies room” door on our first trip, we met Jenny, a wide smiling woman who exuded warmth and southern charm. Observations about our speckled work clothing led to sharing our PDA mission with her. After thanking us profusely for our efforts, the conversation shifted to her concerns about the upcoming storm with the few inches of snow predicted, which would shut down Nashville. She cheerfully shared her “winter dressing” techniques and explained that with a drop of ten degrees she simply added one more layer of clothing. By the time she had walked us out to our van, we loved Jenny and think of her as our sunshine angel. Relieved and refreshed we returned to our job site.
Being assigned to the same job site on Tuesday, Nature’s call led us back to the same Burger King. This time we met Gwendolyn, who immediately upon learning we were working with PDA blurted… “Where were you last May when I needed help?”. Shortly, she launched into “her flood story” and we made our second memorable Nashville friend.
By Wednesday, we were looking forward to our “necessary” trip to the Burger King. Our experience turned out to be more sobering. The lady’s room door displayed the red occupied sign causing us to stand outside and wait. I was not prepared for the haunting face of the woman who appeared through the opening door. She wore a scarf on her head, a silky sports jacket, three quarter length pants and clutched a soda bottle and a plastic bag. But her most unusual feature was her eyes; one clouded probably by a virus and the other which stared straight through me.
Later standing waiting for my team, I noticed the same woman headed for the lady’s room again clutching her bag tightly to her chest. When the lady’s room door displayed the occupied sign, she immediately took a right hand turn into the men’s room. Now I was really intrigued to follow her actions. Shortly, she immerged from the men’s room and went outside. I wrongly assumed she had gone on her way, but just as my team was about to leave, the woman reentered with her bag and soda can in tow. She seemed to float past us again headed to the rest rooms. It began to dawn on me that she might be doing her laundry in small batches probably returning to a cart or car parked outside. It was her “invisibility” that left me feeling troubled. We had been in very close proximity to each other but had passed without a real encounter. One of our group had not even noticed her!
On Thursday, within minutes of arriving at the Burger King, the men’s team joined us for lunch. With so many friends chatting and eating together, we didn’t “meet” anyone new.
So what could we learn from these encounters? Is it possible that God sent us each of these people to teach us or remind us of something important? Could Jenny represent God’s desire for us to warmly greet and encourage even strangers? Could Gwendolyn call us to task for not noticing the needs of others? Could our “ghost woman” accuse us of not wanting to acknowledge the pain others suffer when we are too absorbed in ourselves to reach out to those in need? Could we be blinded or too comfortable surrounded by our friends to be open to extend ourselves to others?
Our “Burger King visits” gave us much to ponder. Hopefully, the days ahead will be improved by these lessons.
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