“Can I show you something?”

His name is Japeth.

It took us weeks to get even that bit of information.

In fact, we still question whether it’s his real name.

He wears several layers of clothing and coats.  He looks like he hasn’t bathed in weeks, maybe months.  He wears a colorful serape around his neck—along with an old transistor radio.  Imagine a homeless person, and Japeth is the epitome of it.

“Can I show you something?”

This is the question he’s asking.

We’ve been trying to get to know him.  We want to love him, care for him, introduce him to God’s love.

He’s been on the streets for a long time.  He’s been isolated because of woundness and mental illness.

We know he is a lover of music…especially bands from the ‘70s.  He knows his Bible too.  His name—Japeth—is the name of one of Noah’s sons in Genesis…the name of a judge in Judges.  It’s clear he’s concerned with the “end times” as described in Revelation.

We know he gathers trash from around Sunnyslope and puts it in large, black trash bags, and keeps it in his cart.  He values everything he gathers…stuff that you or I would walk to the curb for weekly pickup.

“Can I show you something?”

So he rummages through his cart, lifts out a backpack, and pulls a plastic grocery bag out of a shirt.

He carefully unwraps the bag.

It’s full of broken pieces of glass he got from the site of a car accident he recently witnessed on Hatcher Rd.

He wanted to make sure no one would get hurt from the left-behind debris.

He told me how he goes around the ‘Slope and picks up items that might otherwise be used to harm people.

Listening to him, I began to imagine what this man has gone through during his lifetime.  Foster homes since he was a small child…several of them, starting in Sacramento and ending up in Phoenix.

His concern to protect others is clearly articulated.  This man has been used, abused, injured, and put into harm’s way…that is my guess…and he doesn’t want others to be harmed.

He is on a mission.  Maybe Prodigal’s Home will help him.  How?   For starters, we’ll supply him with some of the items he needs.

Starting with trash bags.

Slowly but surely, we’re earning this man’s trust.

My prayer is that eventually we will guide him toward health and wholeness…the depths of God’s life-changing love.

But for now, we bide our time, and we sit, and we listen, and we show interest, and we exercise that troublesome muscle called patience.

“Can I show you something?”

Thank you for trusting Prodigal’s Home.  Thank you for investing yourself through us in lives like his.

Grace and peace,

Kim