promoted.

sad news from the Downtown East side:

there's an elderly native man who lives at Pigeon Park-- the sketchy corner where 614 does its open air meetings. his name is Rusty. he's got long stick straight hair, and he's constantly hunched over. he lives on one bench on the left side of the water fountain, and i've almost never seen him anywhere else.

last year, during a Holy session open air meeting, Rusty got saved. he sat, leaned up against the djembwe drum for the whole meeting, and at the end he requested Amazing Grace. he got up and started dancing, waving his arms around and weeping.

he never made it to our cell groups, and he never got a home off the streets. but Rusty was a believer, and there is no doubting that-- his church was our open air meeting. every week he joined us, and sang along, and requested Amazing Grace. he was full of love-- he gave out hugs liberally, he listened to our gospel shots, and his face was always lit up by the light of Christ.

Rusty was murdered last week, for no fault of his own. sometimes, down here, when someone is stabbed to death, everyone assumes it's because they didn't pay their drug dealer, or they stole some dope. but as for Rusty, everyone knows that's not the case. he was beaten, and his head was smashed into the pavement, by some angry man he didn't know.

obviously, i don't know the specifics of what was going through the enraged man's head, but whatever it was, he clearly did not think that Rusty's life was valuable enough to protect. Rusty was homeless, crippled, poor, previously a drunkard. i believe that somewhere in society's subconscious, we equate those things to equal worthless.

but it's not true. Rusty was a gem. a beautiful man, radiantly in love with His Saviour. he looked like Jesus-- he was humble, gentle, caring, zealous. he was the reason Christ came into the world.

i've been mourning about this deeply. but then, the Lord has used the tragedy to reveal to me something quite valuable: we're down here for a reason. i often feel like we fight hard, and press in, and sow and sow and sow...and we see so little fruit. but Rusty is some of our fruit. some of our fruit that remained to the very end. the Body of Christ has saved a man. we should be encouraged, and exhorted-- our fight is important.

and i know that now Rusty is more radiant then ever-- experiencing a healthy body, living in a mansion, and thriving in constant face to face encounters with the King.

hallelujah. promoted from Pigeon Park to Paradise.