Well, today started off with a bang. Things haven't been going too well between us and the pastor, because he has expected us to do much more door to door visitation and concentrated work in his area and I don't think he's too overall impressed with the way this saturation has been handled. Anyway, as we all gathered in the church for morning devotions which we've done every morning before we go out, (we meet with the pastor and pray together), he said that someone on the team had been using a drug and had left the capsule in the waste paper basket of the girls restroom. His wife had found the tube last night, and they had called the doctor to find out what it was it was some kind of unusual, potent drug, I forget. Not anything anybody ever heard of. He said that he had tried to figure out who had left the tube, and concluded that it had to be someone on our team!

Well, we all about fell off our seats! But Doug talked it out with him, and it turned out that what was really bugging him was what I mentioned above about the visitation. We did do visitation today after that! I don't know I kind of sided with the pastor, in that Doug seems to steer away from what's "expected" of him, and steer toward just doing the things he feels at ease with. But then I also feel that we don't have any business here the church members should be doing this sort of thing at least they should be out here with us! Because, after all, we don't live and minister in this area they do. And we have no way of following up the contacts that we make. We just turn in a list of names and addresses to the pastor and you know they aren't going to follow up on those Whitehall names!

Today at WhiteHall, I had three sisters of a kid who was beaten up by the police yesterday. The girls are loud and mouthy. Jetti told me that last night she had asked Jesus to come into her heart to be the boss of her life, during John's flip chart presentation after the film. At the end of the club, when I was passing out candy, she insisted right and left that I hadn't given her any and I knew I had. Kids always try to get over on you like that and if you give in to one, twenty more pop up saying, "You didn't give me any candy either! Well, I finally gave in to her. But I said, "You know, Jetti, if you asked Jesus to be the boss of your life and you're trying to get an extra piece of candy, you're not letting Him be the boss right now." I handed it to her and said, "God knows." She sort of flinched and laughed. Then she threw it back in the bag and said, "Here! I don't like this candy!" It was good for her I think.

Whitehall projects are not as bad to live in as North Philly no gangs.

We learned a little song this week that we teach in all the clubs Jesus is a Soul Man. All the kids take to it; I think it's going to be a great hit this summer in our VBS clubs, and for a long time to come!

After the club this afternoon, Jim and I went home with Carmen Aviles. She's a really sweet little girl with a bright smile and a lovely temperament. She had accepted the Lord last night and I went to talk to her mother, Antonia. Antonia was very patient with me and heard me out in my stumbling Spanish as I read "Cuatro Leyes Espirituales (Four Spiritual Laws)" She was responsive too and said that she had opened her life to Jesus. She brought down her Spanish Bible and was reading in John Chapter three. Carmen was right there and helped me out when I got hung up on language problems. Carmen's a good artist! She drew a picture of Charlene, Pam, and I teaching and you could tell who was who! She was proud of it.

After seeing her, Jim and I went back to see Edeia, a girl we had met when we were doing street work before the afternoon club. We always work in pairs when doing street work and visitation, guy girl, if possible. One, it's safer; two, it's easier to deal with distractions; and three, that way you have a guy to deal with men and a girl to deal with women. Anyway, Edeia was sitting on her front steps as Jim and I were working our way down her block. She said that she was out temporarily from the psychiatric ward because she seemed a little better. But she said she was very depressed and had thoughts of suicide and wanted something good for her soul. Although she was my age, in many ways she acted like a little child. She said she was very lonely and wants us to keep in touch with her. She said, "I hope you won't think I'm trying to be fresh, but I feel more comfortable with white people. In school, most of my friends were white, but I never see them now. Everybody's gone their separate ways." It seemed hard for her to keep a train of thought sometimes. She was probably under heavy medication.

Well, tonight I we had a shock. Doug told us that Bone left the staff today, because he couldn't get along with Stu or Jim. I don't know; it's kind of heart sickening. I'll really miss him. It was good to have a black guy from ghetto background on our staff. Lord, bring him back or bring good out of this. He also didn't enjoy studying and teaching those lessons in VBS. I think he wants mostly to be able to rap and share with other guys. It must have been hard for him working in a white neighborhood too.

Donald just told me something bad about Greg. It gave me a jolt. I sure hope it's not true. Donald said that Tuesday night he had William Noland and a couple of girls in around 3:00 a.m. smoking joint. Wow, why would Donald tell me that out of the clear blue sky? I think he's jealous of Greg. He said, "And y'all thought Greg was such a goody goody."

Ronnie's going to Barb's family reunion this weekend.