Day 145: Yankees

We didn't actually talk about his hat. But it was a New York Yankees ball cap. You don't see that every day around here. I saw him filling up his van with gas and pulled in alongside him and asked him my question. It had been a frustrating day for me, trying to find someone to pray for. The opportunities had been hard to come by, and the courage often was lacking.

But I did ask this guy. He was short and round, with a white stubble beard and that NY ball cap. And he said he would like to pray for me, too. So I prayed for him, in whatever it was he was doing that evening, asking for God's blessing on him. "Back at you," he said when I finished, "I'll remember you in my prayers tonight."

He said his name was Bob from Newton, and we shook hands and chatted. He attends NewSpring Church, where the rest of his family goes. But that was a tough decision because he was one of the founding members of another church in Wichita -- I didn't catch the name -- and had a difficult time leaving it. But you can't beat going to church with your family.

So he was a Christian. As he got in his van, he told me not to stop believing.

Day 144: Gas prices

I figured him for a tough guy. He was about 55 years old, a mustache, glasses and cap. He was driving an old white car, an Oldsmobile or something. He noted the gasoline prices. “They keep going up don’t they?” I agreed. $2.99 a gallon.

We chatted then. He said he would have to start riding his bike – motorcycle that is – even in winter if prices keep moving that direction. We chuckled about it. He’d have trouble with that on the ice. He was friendly. He was cynical. He wasn’t afraid to cuss.

I stepped over to him before he got into his car and asked him my question. His demeanor changed a little then. He quieted some and said I could pray for him. He was quite willing. He thanked me afterward and shook my hand.

Day 143: Hooks

I was at Home Depot looking for hooks – the kind you screw into a wall – for a church project. A few feet away in the hardware aisle was an employee, a guy about 40 years old with short hair speckled with gray. His name was Chris, as far as I could tell from his worn orange apron.

When he came around the corner to do some inventory of some products, we chatted for a moment. “How are you doing?” “Great!” “And you?” “Great!” That kind of stuff. Real deep.

But then I found what I needed and, taking a long look around, stepped over next to him. “I’ve got a question for you,” I said. “OK,” he replied, not looking up. He was moving some things around on the shelves.

Wanting to get his attention a little more, I added: “It’s kind of a weird question.” To this, he gave much the same response, still working with those shelves. So I just asked him: “Can I pray for you?”

He shot upright then, and turned to look at me. “Why?” He surely was surprised. So I told him about how I like to pray for at least one person every day. This satisfied him. “Well, in that case, absolutely you can,” he said.

So I prayed there for him, that God would bless him as he finished out his work for the night.

Day 142: Bored at Subway

From the street, I could see him -- standing at the front counter of the Park City Subway, his elbows on the counter, his chin cradled in his two hands, just waiting. That's what I call a boring evening. So I hoped to spice it up a little for the guy.

He was about 20 years old and had a sharp, intellectual look to him. He evidently had seen me pull up because he was putting on plastic gloves when I walked in. "Welcome to Subway!" he said. I greeted him and walked over to where he was, asking if I could ask a question. He said OK.

"Can I pray for you?"

He paused. "Excuse me? Come again?"

"I was wondering if I could say a prayer for you."

Another pause, puzzlement on his face. "Uhhhhhh. ... Why?"

I told him I like to pray for someone every day, and I hadn't prayed for anyone yet.

"Well, I guess there's no reason why not," he said, starting to come around to the idea, or at least just to play along. We talked about for just a minute longer. He said he would "honored" if I prayed for him, even right then and that he wouldn't stop me. He kept working on those plastic gloves as I prayed.

And that was it. I thanked him and asked if he'd had a good night. He didn't really answer that. But he did ask if I was going to order a sandwich.

Day 141: Deserving it

He was a tough-looking guy, wearing a ball cap and glasses. He was filling up a white Chevrolet S-10 pickup. I loosely observed him put the pump back onto the handle and twist on the gas cap. He was about to leave, so I stepped over to him, talking to him across the bed of his truck. "Can I pray for you?" I asked.

That stopped him. He just looked at me. "Now what did I do to deserve that?" There was something in his tone. It was one of those where you accentuate every word in the asking of the question. So I thought this might be problematic.

"Well, nothing," I said. "I just try to pray for someone every day, and you're it." In an instant, he seemed satisfied with that. He seemed to lighten, if just a little. "Sure you can," he said. So I did, still talking across the bed of that truck.

I told God that I didn't know this man, but that I prayed he would be blessed in whatever it was he was doing that night. The guy thanked me then. "I'm headin' home," he said. And he got in his truck. Good enough.

Day 140: Leeker's

I'm not sure whether I laughed audibly or whether it was internal. But after I looked up from my prayer for the clerk at Leeker's Family Foods in Park City, I was looking into the face of a young woman truly puzzled by what had just happened.

Her name was Millie, or Minnie -- I couldn't quite tell by the worn name badge -- and she said with some hesitation that I could pray for her. And so I did, asking God to bless her in her work that evening. There wasn't much time left in the day, so she was probably looking forward to being done with it all.

But she didn't quite know what to make of me, which was most most clear after the prayer itself. She didn't actually say anything. But her expression did -- a look of surprise and an unknowing of how to respond. Normally, I would have just thanked her and left. But I had to stop.

"You've probably never had anyone do that for you before," I remarked. "No, I haven't," she said. So I told her that I hoped it would happen for her again sometime in the future. She only kind of smiled. And that's when I thanked her and left.

Day 139: Witnessing

The clerk at Walmart caught my attention after I had prayed for her. She was about 45 years old and not very talkative at first. I had asked about her New Year, and she said it was good. At the time I was buying a few pieces of hardware for a little project I was working on.

There wasn't much material to strike up a deeper conversation with so I just waited until she handed me my receipt. No one else was coming in line behind me, so I asked her my question, and she agreed -- maybe just a little bit hesitantly.

After the "amen," she smiled. "I'll have to tell my son about you. He likes to do that, too." She told me that her son -- who I'm guessing is a high school student -- likes to witness to people but has found that a lot of others don't like to do that. They don't want to go share their faith. But of course, it's as simple as just asking to pray for someone. That's you reaching out to others with the message of God's love. Just get Jesus into the conversation.

Obviously, I'm still learning about this. But it was nice to hear of others out there with the same mission.