Daley Ponderings

Jon is spending today and tonight at the Jubilee conference downtown, praying for the conference and conferees in the prayer room. Jonathan and I went to meet him for dinner. Now before I proceed, I want to make clear that I would have been taking the bus even if we had a car, because parking downtown is a pain.
As we got on the bus, Jonathan said hi to all the people. There were three African ladies with several kids (and a baby in a sling) up front. Jonathan likes to talk to kids on the bus. There was a man near the front also, who immediately said hi to Jonathan. So I sat in the seat across the aisle from him - to be near the kids and the friendly man.

Unfortunately, this friendly man turned out to be too "friendly" and he smelled of beer. He kept calling Jonathan "my baby" and asking to hold him. Thankfully, Jonathan adamantly said "no - no - no." He asked if I was single. He made me very uncomfortable.

As the African ladies got off, the man whispered to me, "That family is strange." I thought to myself, "No, they're just speaking a different language. You're the one who's strange!"

I prayed that he would not get off at the same stop as us. I thought I might just ride past my stop if need be. When we got there, he did not seem to want to get off and I hurried away. I was glad it was still light out and there were many people around. I took the T, which is right there, instead of walking. It was very nice to see Jon.

We had a nice dinner at Max & Erma's - it was crowded with Jubilee people, but it was fine, though the wait staff was rather frantic. Jonathan did great up until the very end. I'll mention here that Jonathan is now adept at using a drinking straw.

It was dark on the way home, but there were still people around. I took the T back to Wood street again. When the bus came, a bunch of us got on, including a white lady with a darker skinned baby and an African-American lady with six kids (turned out to be grandkids.)

There was also a - how do I describe him? I would have said African-American but for what he was saying. He was half-talking to all the people near him, half-talking to himself. He said to a lady who I suspect would have called herself African-American, "You are African, you are not American. This man [increasingly uncomfortable white man to his left] is American. You are African. They haven't done anything to you yet? You are not American. I ain't no terrorist."

He mumbled something about 9-11, kept talking about Americans with hate in his voice. He wasn't getting the response he wanted - the lady didn't say much but was not agreeing with him, trying to ignore him.

"Too many babies on this bus." The white lady with the baby held her closer. He kept mumbling things that made everyone nervous - about terrorists and Americans. I prayed under my breath, "Lord, have mercy." Then he put his jackets back on and left the bus before the light turned.

The African-American grandmother said, "Thank you, Jesus." And I said, "Yes, thank you, Jesus." We were all relieved to have him out of there.

If you hear on the news tomorrow about a PAT bus being hijacked, you can praise God that he got off our bus because there were too many babies. Thank God for His mercy that they guy didn't want to harm the babies. I did pray that he wouldn't harm anyone else.

After that danger was past, Jonathan and I had a fun time talking to two of the six kids and the grandmother. The one girl was quite inquisitive, I'd say she was about 8. Her Nana said she asked too many questions but I said she was fine. Jonathan said hi and played with the girl's furry hood.

On the way out of the bus, the driver said, "You be careful out there" and I prayed all the way home, and here we are safe and sound by the grace of God.