Tim

A story from one of our students about our August visit with the homeless:

I sat down with Tim just to keep him company as he ate. Once I sat down, he just started crying. He told me of his life as an alcoholic. His mother abandoned him twice as a child.

Tim’s drinking had helped him lose his 16-year-old daughter, his job, and his home. For four years, he has lived on the streets of Knoxville passing out drunk under bridges, drinking the pain away. He told me “You're sitting there smiling at me and I do not really know why.”

I said “I’m sitting here smiling because I have a hope for you!” We talked for quite awhile as I encouraged him to fight back, stop drinking, get a job and a house, and get his daughter back, but do it with God’s help. He didn’t seem to believe that God could change everything.

Yet, as I went on telling him all of the ways God has worked in my life and our church he started to want to know about our faith. Tim didn’t have any faith in himself, but my confidence in how God could change his life started to change his attitude.

One moment really hit him, he said, “I’m not going to lie, I have a bottle of beer in my backpack.” We had been giving out bags of hygiene products and Bibles, and I replied, “You received a bag from us, so you also have a Bible in your backpack now.” He did not know how to react to that moment.

Soon we had to leave, but we prayed, and I encouraged him to fight back with God on his side. He said I gave him a lot to think about.

--Brenna Barry