The other day I shared the story of Lawrence getting a ride to a church in Macon, Ga. Today Lawrence shared with me his story of how he ended up on the streets. It touched me so I will share it with you.
He had a good paying job and was in the middle of breaking up with his girlfriend and the mother of his 3 children when he had a root canal. The surgery resulted in dry sockets causing him severe pain. None of the pain meds he took brought the relief he sought. Someone at work gave him cocain and told him to put it on the area the tooth had been. Being ignorant to drugs he did so. The result was freedom from pain as well as "a new friend" he describes. Dealing with the grief over his recent break up he found something to relieve his tooth ache as well as his internal pain. He says he was looking for something to "fill the void" and he found it in drugs. It didn't take long for him to loose his job and many other things dear to him. At the end of his rope and needing a fresh start he moved from Richmond, VA to Atl, Ga. He's been sleeping on the streets of Atl for 8 years. He had heard of God when he was younger but never needed him more. Through the church in Macon reaching out and taking people to church he found something to permanently fill the void. He is now clean and has been reunited with one son with which he does a Bible study every week. He says he feels called to be a preacher to the streets. When I asked him if he meant he wanted to preach on the corner like the other's I'd seen he said "No, I want to reach them individually. One chess game at a time."
