What if.....

He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’” Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath...

The thought occurred to me after we had read and discussed this passage, what if I'm only here for one person? What if after two or three years, all I am here for is to be sent to one person? Would that be worth it? Would I be ok with that? Those guys listening to Jesus sure weren't.


In other news, I saw my first fight yesterday. A few other teammates and myself had returned from a "march" for life put on by the Catholic churches in the area (the goal was to raise awareness of victims of violence both here and in Colombia). We were sitting in a bakery/cafe talking when two people entered. One was a smaller man that looked worn by hardship, wearing a dark red shirt. I had seen him before outside selling umbrellas. The other was tall, clean cut and dressed in a green checkered shirt with Khaki pants. The guy in green was shouting something (couldn't understand anything being said between the two) and strode menacingly at the guy in red. The guy in red was soon corned/trapped near our table as all the patrons in the restaurant stood up and got of the way. The guy in green sent a right hook directly into the other man's left cheek with a solid thud. The man in red backed up unphased and kept trying to explain something. The guy in green came at him again with two more directed straight into the face. The man in red tried to duck under the counter to escape. A girl behind the counter started saying firmly "Para en el nombre de Cristo! Para en el nombre de Cristo" (Stop in the name of Christ!). The man in red came back out from under the counter and stood up to the man in green again. Blood was escaping from his mouth and lips. It looked like he wanted to fight the man in green but just didn't have the ability to. He took two more strong punches straight in the nose. The man in green seemed to back off a bit, said something to the girl behind the counter (still telling them to stop in the name of Christ) about what she was saying and started walking out. The man in red followed, still talking. The two yo-yo-ed back and forth from leaving and fighting again for another minute until the man in green left, came back, and left for good, still exchanging words.

I learned later that apparently the guy in green thought the man in red had stolen some money from him. If he did, he didn't give it back.

I watched everything go down. I thought about entering, doing something, but no one else was, so I didn't. I started praying when the girl behind the counter started using Christ's name, but that was it. Honestly, I'm disgusted with myself for doing nothing. In a theoretical world, if I could do that over and I knew what I know, I would have given the guy in green whatever he accused the guy of stealing. Maybe that wouldn't work. Maybe I wouldn't even do that if the same happened tomorrow.

I've heard all the non violence stuff, about throwing yourself in and taking the punches. I've read stories about people in the same situation doing nothing as well, and wishing they had done something afterwards. I KNEW what I SHOULD have done, but that still didn't make me DO a thing.

On top of that, I'm wresting with the what exactly is meant by "name". Demon's are cast out by the name of Jesus, people are healed by that name, the Lord's prayer tells us to hallow the "name" of the Father. But just saying it doesn't seem to mean much or have any authority over anything. (As a side note, the cafe we were in was right next to a Santeria/Witchcraft store. This was also in a nice part of town as well, not the barrio.)

So, that's the excitement here. I just hope neither of those two guys was the one person.