Well, today I studied Amy Carmichael, our VBS missionary story for the summer, to use in Operation Saturation next week. Then Barb, Pam, and I did Bible clubs this afternoon on Uber Street and at the Richard Allen projects then a movie tonight at 26th and Norris. We got home around 10:30 11:00.

Today, while I was teaching the Bible club on Uber Street (all the kids were sitting on the front steps of an abandoned house), this cute little thirteen year old guy named Eric was listening. He was sitting on the steps too. He had a long bamboo pole in his hands. So, right in the middle of the lesson, he stuck it in front of my face and said, "Look This stick has a knife on the end." I had heard rumors that there was going to be a gangwar tonight. Eric listened to the story and said that he had asked Jesus into his heart. Then he asked me, "What would you do to stop guys from breaking bottles on your street?"

"Well ," I was somewhat at a loss for words. "I don't think I would fight them.

“I would! We gotta clean up that mess.”

"Well, I think I'd just let them break the bottles, clean up the mess, and maybe they wouldn't bother you any more.”

He shook his head grimly. "Not them hard headed dudes."

“Why do they want to break bottles on your street?" I asked.”

"Because they wanta fight!"

"Well, then, if you fight them, you'll be doing just what they want you to do you'll be giving them satisfaction. If you don't give them satisfaction, then they'll go somewhere else to find it.”

He nodded his head, apparently satisfied.

Barb had a hairy tale to tell in the car. She was commenting on the two weeks when Frostie was put out, and all the commotion was going on with Sondra's parents.

"The drain of those two weeks," she said, “ I was just exhausted. And it was emotional, not physical.

I shook my head. "It would be hard to cope with."

She smiled, "Really, after I finally decided that Frostie should leave, I didn't well, there was only one day when I had what you'd call second thoughts, I guess. After I made up my mind, it was almost like relief I really thought he was going to kill me that one night

"When was that?" I asked, somewhat shocked.

"It was two or three nights after he'd been put out. He was sleeping in my car. I didn't really care because I knew he didn't have a place, and his dad didn't have a place. He'd gotten into the car with Audrey, and her big brother was looking for him and Ronald Skinner with a gun and he was afraid to sleep outside. So he came in here and wanted to spend the night. I said no. He wouldn't leave.

The upshot was that he ended up hitting Barb hard across face, and she told Ronnie to call the police. But when the police got there, they told her it was her word against that he didn't live there, and that she couldn't have him thrown out. The only way would have been to call Doug and have him come over and put him out! So Frostie did end up spending the night there. Barb was furious with the police. She said, "I should have sworn out a warrant for his arrest – but I didn't.”

God answered my somewhat unwilling prayer tonight. Before John showed the film at 26th and Norris, he had us go and witness, and tell people that there was going to be a film. Well, I'm not very confident about walking right up to people I don't know and especially trying to start a spiritual conversation with them. But God gave Pam and me a beautiful opportunity to talk to two mothers sitting on their front steps. One was really open, but she said she wasn't ready and she didn't want to go half way with God. You know, I've always heard that God won't hear or answer an unsaved person's prayer except if that person is praying to be saved. I think He does; it's just that their sin, self will, and rebellion often keep Him from being able to answer. That's often the case with a Christian too!