Orphan in Distress

While talking to Landon today, I noticed another young man sitting with a decidedly aimless look on his face. After Landon left, I motioned to the young man to come sit with me.

"How are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm stressed, ya know what I mean?" "Tristan" went on to tell me how the system was unfair, life wasn't going his way, and he didn't know how to deal with it. "My aunt's in ICU and I have no way of seeing her. She's all I got--except for my cousin, her son, who's locked up in here with me."

"I'm trying to stay out of trouble," he continued, "I've got a bullet an inch away from my spine, and I can't afford to get into a fight." Wow, I think to myself. "It's been a hard life for me. When I was six, I was hit by a car going 90 mph on a residential road." He showed me the foot-long scar starting at his ankle and going up his leg.

"You're blessed to be alive, Tristan. God has protected you for a reason. He has a plan for your life." He explained to me that he used to go to church with his family. "My mother died when I was 10. I lost my father at age 12. After that, I stayed with my aunt. I got baptized when I was 13, but I went down the wrong path after that."

"Did you repent of your sins and make Jesus Lord of your life before you got baptized?" I asked him. He said he had not.

I had to leave the jail, but before I left I explained the way of salvation to him. "God wants to be your Father. That's why He had me talk to you." I also told him I would pray for him and his hospitalized aunt.

Scripture says that Christians are to "look after orphans...in their distress" (James 1:27). Twelve-year-old orphans eventually become 20-year-old orphans who still need to be cared for. Pray that Tristan finds the heavenly Father through a personal relationship with His Son Jesus. Pray for healing for his aunt.