Faith in People: Fredrick (Part Two)

The next day, we had the afternoon off due to some
“technical difficulties” and so one of the girls on my team and I decided to go
for a walk.  We were joined by one of the
guys that we were working with and he took us to the fishing beaches where a
lot of really sketchy stuff happens (to say the least).  As we were walking by some of the drunk fishermen
called us over and so we went to sit with them. 
There was a man named Fredrick who immediately after I introduced myself
to him told me that he wanted the prayer of salvation and he wanted me to
convert him.  Pause . . . that is so not
what I do and I wanted just to get up and walk away from him, but something in
me said “just hear him out”.  So I
started asking him questions about why he wanted the prayer, what he knows
about God; saying things that I wouldn’t typically have the courage to say to
someone that I don’t know (but I am convinced that they were not my own
words).  Basically this man knew the
truth and knew ho it could change him but he had not been willing to take
action on these truths.  I started again
to just tell him that God is concerned with his heart, it doesn’t matter where
he is or what he is done, the Lord wants to meet him there and walk with
him.  As we were talking I saw that same
change in him and sobriety that I had seen in Boston, that hope in his eyes; He was seeing
Jesus.  He told me something that I will
not soon forget.  He looked at me right
before I left and he said with complete sincerity “There are the people that
call themselves Christians and they always walk right past me without even
looking; they just label me as a drunkard. 
But you saw me and you came over and sat with me and shared the word of
God with me.  I see that God is good”;
and he smiled at me like his life was worth living for.  I knew at that moment that sometimes all
people need is for someone to see them and have faith in them the way Jesus had
faith in them and saw them.  

P.S. Sorry about all of the false alarms