“The LORD keeps you from all evil and preserves your life. The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.”

Never a dull moment I tell you. That’s my life. As a staff pastor at Hope Chapel we have something we call “pastor of the day”. It’s not some special honor as you may be thinking rather the pastor of the day is responsible to taking phone calls or helping someone if they just need to talk to a pastor and they don’t necessarily have an appointment with any specific pastor. Our shifts are broken up by the morning and afternoon and by days of the week. My particular day is Thursday afternoons.

So today I was sitting in my office trying to do some work when a couple of guys came in looking for a pastor. Naturally I offered my help. It turns out that one of them is either on drugs or has had a very recent history with drugs. The other is his friend who saw him walking on the road and really wanted to help too. I suspect, but I am not sure, that the other one has a few issues of his own.

So we’re sitting down and talking and the one with a history of drugs is very paranoid and by his own admission delusional. He further went on to say how he thinks that someone has planted a bug in his newspaper and is convinced that someone is out to kill him. So frankly, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I was way out of my league.

So I listened but all I could really do is offer him prayer and some support. We are not licensed psychologists or counselors so our hands are really tied. All I could really do was to encourage him to check into Castle Hospital or go to Hina Mauka. I talked to another pastor and he said that if this guy cannot tell a dealer no then there may not be too much anyone can do for him.

I know he is not a Christian (although his friend that brought him is) but the verse above really speaks volumes to me. I need to trust that God keep me from evil and preserve my life. As the two guys were leaving that was my prayer for them. My prayer is that God would watch over them and keep them from evil (in whatever form it may take) and also preserve their lives. Whew, I’m pooped!

Okay I also have a Liloa update. Keao and I went to visit him on Monday. Now this is only the second time I’ve ever seen him and I heard he improved but I wasn’t too sure what that meant. When we walked in we were in for a very pleasant surprise. He could open his eyes more and get this, he even waved at us. That gesture alone was worth all the prayers we said for him. Mind you the last time we were there he couldn’t open his eyes, squeeze a hand or anything. Monday he was waving, opening his eyes more and even nodding his head.

It was great having a conversation with him and him being able to respond. Keao asked him all kinds of questions and gave him updates on some classmates. It was great. I believe that he is well on his way to being healed. Praise God!!!