take me to the water.

another interesting weekend spent in my hometown area.

the reason we went down this weekend was because my uncle chuckie invited us to come and see him get baptized and also to attend the church service afterward. for anyone who doesn't know my uncle chuckie, physically and mentally abused as a child by his father, he is a drug user, an alcoholic, sometimes racist when under the influence, and all around not your choice type of fellow. he was the only person wasted at my wedding. a wedding where there was no open bar - simply wine. he was arrested later that night. so anyway, he lives right across the street from a black baptist church. they'd often notice my uncle outside or doing whatever it is that he does, and they would walk over to his house and ask him to help with something at the church, help him unload a truck, etcetera. as time passed, chuckie would just walk over to see if anything needed to be done, if there was anything he could help with. as time passed a friendship grew between some of the men at the church and my uncle. (many of them had already had known my uncle from back in high school - and from the fact that wellsville is a very small town). out of the friendship, they began inviting him to church. he began to have some sense of community, of worth, there were a few people who believed in him. this led to him being baptized and giving his life to Christ this past weekend. it was pretty amazing. he still has a long way to go, but he was so excited about what he did. he looks as if he has some hope in his eyes. i pray that the lord guards this planted seed and that it grows to abundance.

besides my uncle receiving baptism, there were many other interesting things that came out of going to this church. there were so many people there from my past.

there was a lady there that my parents and i used to live next door to. i used to play in her yard and steal vegetables out of her garden when i was about three years old. she came up to me and gave me a huge hug. she told me about her husband and how he is still gardening. they lost their thirty-eight year old son last month to kidney failure & diabetes. all through worship i couldn't help but notice her. her hands were so high in the air, praising god, she sang so beautifully.

i met a man named derek who was in the men's choir. my mom introduced him and told me that he was the best man in her and my biological father's wedding. it wasn't a big deal to them, but, to me it was like meeting a celebrity or something. i just wanted to make him sit down with me and answer every question i had. it was so surreal to watch someone who was doing so well. he had god, he had a beautiful wife and two little girls, he had good friends surrounding him. he had, what seemed to me, a normal life. crazy to think that he used to be close enough to my father to be his best man. their lives are so opposite now.

i met my stepfather's cousin, who i had actually met several years before. he was a very sweet guy - polar opposite from my stepfather, if i may say. my mom teased him about stealing my name for his daughter. her name is "jocelyn." we joked about how if he was going to steal my name, he could have at least spelled it right. i even got to meet jocelyn. she was beautiful.

and last but not least - there was this little girl, none of us knew her or her parents, but she was probably about four years old. she just kept following me around everywhere. holding my hand, sitting on my lap. if you didn't know it you would have thought she was my child. she was absolutely adorable. her dad had to keep coming to get her. so funny!

all in all, it was a good weekend. i really gave it all to the lord. it has been hard for me to go down there and spend a lot of time with my family. there is just this spirit of hopelessness. listen to kris vallaton's teaching "from paupers to princes." it explains it perfectly.