A Typical Day With An Old Man From Istanbul

I’ve been telling everyone how much I love my life. It really is great -- and just when I think it can get any better, it does. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?

. . . Just a few days ago, myself and a group of interns from my church went “prayer walking” in which we pray for neighborhoods and leave a church flyer on each door. When we arrived back at the church, a woman called and asked (in her thick accent) who had come to her door. She sounded rather angry when I answered the phone so I tried to calm her down and ask her a few questions. She insisted that I connect her to “the person in charge” but I could not do that until I knew who she was and why she was calling. She then told me to speak slower because I sounded "like a sportscaster." By this time, I was a little frustrated, so I finally told my youth pastor to take the call.

It turns out that the woman was not angry at all but was looking for help. She just had some sort of knee/leg surgery and her husband just had cataract surgery. The two were lying in bed when someone knocked on their door -- we think it may have been a group of Mormons that were also in the same neighborhood as us that day (we do not knock on doors). The husband finally made it to the door and all that he found was our flyer. So, they called us.

The woman wanted fruit . . . she called to ask if someone from our church could “show the brotherhood” by taking her husband to the grocery store to buy fruit. I volunteered myself because I couldn’t pass up an adventure like this, and Scott went along for the ride.

We stopped at their house to pick up her husband, Ray (who spelled out his name for us making sure to roll his R’s --- “R – A – Y – Rrrrray”). He was wearing a cute old man shirt, the coolest old man loafers and really thick glasses. He had to be around eighty years old. He and his wife are originally from Istanbul so we thoroughly enjoyed listening to him tell stories with his thick accent. We drove him to the store and picked out a basketful of fruit. He even bought a Mexican papaya for Scott to show his gratitude. Then he shared more stories with us on the way home. He told us that he is a Christian but had not been to church since the surgery. He talked about San Diego and how it has changed in the twenty-thirty years that he has lived here. He made it clear that he currently “collects retirement” and he shared stories of his old job as a manager. He told us about his family (his three boys who, to his disappointment, are not yet married) and asked us about our futures. It was so much fun. I gave them my number and told them to call me whenever they are in need of a ride. I'm looking forward to another adventure with Sue & Rrrray!