Day 48: At the Liquor Store

I left after dark, at the end of a long day, looking for someone to pray for. I wanted to be fast. One of the first businesses I passed was the liquor store. I drove by at first and then thought better of it and turned around.

There were no cars in the parking lot other than the owner’s. Not one customer. I was more comfortable with that anyway. So I walked in. The owner was in a back room on the phone when I came through the doors, and he started walking toward me, asking if I needed help. When I told him what I was up to, he put down the phone. I’m not even sure he said goodbye.

He was Hispanic but spoke very good English. His name was Willy. He was about 45 years old. His first response was to shrug. Then he told me he was Catholic. I said that was great. And then he asked where I was from. I told him I just liked to pray for people and wanted to pray for him. Finally, he relented. It didn’t take much convincing. We both bowed our heads, and I prayed.

Afterward, we had an interesting conversation. Perhaps he was lonely. Not a single customer came in during this time. He told me at some length how business was going. There was new competition just down the street. And another liquor store to the north. And another even farther north. At the same time, the economy still isn’t in great shape. He also talked about the changing seasons. It’s fall now, a time when beer sales tend to drop off, and liquor and wine tend to pick up a little bit.

I asked how he was doing financially. He said OK -- “By the grace of God.” His whole family is Catholic, he explained. Willy’s parents were from Mexico, but he’d been born in El Paso, Texas, and eventually moved to Wichita. His father was in the Air Force but had died 11 years ago. His mother passed away last year.

Willy asked about me, about whether I was married and whether I had children. He also was curious about my prayers for people. He said it caught his attention – certainly not something that happens every day. But he said people will remember things like that long into the future, even if they didn’t like it at first. That’s like your “fingerprint” in their lives – so long as you treat people the right way.

It was encouraging there in the liquor store, listening to this thoughtful man talk about his faith and about Jesus. It wasn’t really what I expected. Anymore, of course, I never really know what to expect. But I pray that he’s right and that God’s fingerprint is left on every person I talk to during this project.