Ragamuffin: poverty - part 5

There ain’t no church like that

T

ony Campolo was flying to Hawaii to speak at a conference. He describes checking into his hotel and trying to get some sleep. Unfortunately his internal clock wakes him at 3:00 AM. The streets are silent, the world is asleep but Tony is wide awake and his stomach is growling.

So he gets up and walks the streets looking for a place to get something to eat. Everything is closed except for a grungy joint near an alley. He goes in and he sits down at the counter. The big guy behind the counter comes over and asks, “What d’ya want?”  Well, Tony is checking out some donuts under a plastic cover and he says, “I’ll have a donut and black coffee.”

As he sits there eating at 3:30 in the morning, in walk eight or nine loud prostitutes who just finished with their night’s work. They plop down at the counter and Tony finds himself awkwardly surrounded by this group of smoking and swearing hookers. He gulps his coffee, and plans to make a quick getaway. Then the woman next to him says to her friend, “You know what? Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m gonna be 39.”

To which her friend replies, “So what d’ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get ya a cake, and sing happy birthday?”

The first woman says, “Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I’m just sayin’ it’s my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?”

Well, when Tony Campolo heard that, he said he made a decision. He sat and waited until all the women left, and then he asked the guy at the counter, “Do they come in here every night?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

”The one right next to me,” he asked, “she comes in every night?”

“Yeah,” he said, “that’s Agnes. Yeah, she’s here every night. She’s been comin’ here for years. Why do you want to know?”

“Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?”

A cute kind of smile crept over the man’s chubby cheeks. “That’s great,” he says, “yeah, that’s great. I like it.” He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, “Hey, come on out here. This guy’s got a great idea.

Tomorrow is Agnes’ birthday and he wants to throw a party for her right here.”

His wife comes out. “That’s terrific,” she says. “You know, Agnes is really nice. She’s always trying to help other people and nobody does anything nice for her.”

So they make their plans. Tony tells the cook he’ll be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name turns out to be Harry, says he’ll make a cake.

At 2:30 the next morning, Tony is back. He has decorations and a sign that says, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” They decorate the place from one end to the other and get it looking great. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 a.m. it seemed that every prostitute in the area was in the place. There were hookers wall-to-wall.

At 3:30 on the dot, the door swings open and in walks Agnes and her friends. Tony has everybody ready. They all shout and scream “Happy Birthday, Agnes!”

Agnes is absolutely flabbergasted. She’s stunned, her mouth falls open, her knees started to buckle and she almost falls over.

And when the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, that’s when she totally loses it. Now she’s sobbing and crying. Harry, who’s not used to seeing a prostitute cry, mumbles, “Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake.”

So she pulls herself together and blows them out. Everyone cheers and yells, “Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!”

But Agnes looks down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly and softly says, “Look, Harry, is it all right with you if … I mean, if I don’t … I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don’t eat it right away?”

Harry doesn’t know what to say so he shrugs and says, “Sure, if that’s what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want.”

”Oh, could I?” she asks. Looking at Tony she says, “I live just down the street a couple of doors; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I’ll be right back, honest.”

She gets off her stool, picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was a trophy. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do. They look at each other. Then they look at Tony.

So Tony gets up on a chair and says, “What do you say that we pray together?” And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 AM listening to Tony Campolo as he prays for Agnes. Tony recalls, “I prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her.”

When he’s finished, Harry leans over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he says, “Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?”

In one of those moments when just the right words came, Tony answers him quietly, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.” Harry thinks for a moment, and says, “No you don’t. There ain’t no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. Yep, I’d join a church like that.”

Tony is a person of love, joy and peace. He is a guy that follows where the Spirit leads. He loves the unloved. He cares for those of the fringe.

What kind of person would I be if I lived like that?

What kind of church would we be if we did that?

Ragamuffin appears every Monday on theRubicon. Find past Ragamuffin posts and a bio of Capt. Jay Davis here.

Read part 1 of this series on poverty

Read part 2

Read part 3

Read part 4

7 Comments to Ragamuffin: poverty - part 5

1. Has anyone heard where Agnes is now?
   What happened to the cake? Did Harry join Tony’s church?
Matt on October 6th, 2008

2. Anges changed her name and profession,
   The cake is still in the freezer,
   Harry didn’t join Tony’s church but the impact of the Lord through Tony made and eternal impact…

   (I really don’t know what happened but if I could write the end of the story it would go like the above)
Jay Davis on October 6th, 2008

3. Thanks for writing this Jay, it’s stirring a lot in me. I know God has a plan for Tony Campolo, I don’t know if it is to journey with those people, but I don’t think it is; However, none of their lives end there. So my hope/prayer I guess is that whoever is to be there next, listens to that call. Whoever needs to be there when the Cake is eaten will be present to Anges, that there is a welcoming church body to welcome Harry when he chooses to join. That they are living out the church who is there for a 3:30 birthday party, and the 4:15 clean-up/tear down, and the walk to the bus, and sitting at the table for the next meal.
   the Agnes’ and Harry’s need covenant relationships, as do the Tony Campolo’s.
   I just desire that.
Matt on October 6th, 2008

4. Matt

   Some good thoughts you shared.
   I quote you “a welcoming church”. Too many times that is an oxymoron. True community is rare. To take the risk to share. To take the gamble to love and be loved is rare. God, forgive us for what we have done and for what we have left undone!
Jay Davis on October 7th, 2008

5. amen.
matt on October 7th, 2008

6. Thanks Jay. I was there when Tony told that story some years back. Good to read it again. For some 10 years we held park services in a rough part of Winnipeg some people said it was to dangerous for the ladies so we stopped going.A great big God bless to all Officers and comrades who work in the hostels. Henry Armstrong. ps prayer time at Southlands CC. of TSA some 30 people come to pray
Henry Armstrong on October 8th, 2008

7. Anybody know any Ragamuffins in Mass.?
Skip Newby on December 22nd, 2008

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