johnny and sally

I want to tell you about johnny and Sally (names changed) and our time at London Bride bus garage.

At just gone midnight I found myself sitting on the kerb at the bus garage longing to get to bed after a long, in some ways difficult, but good evening at a private view in Shoreditch. And I waited for the 343...and waited. As I waited a man in his earlier 30s approached me, with a woman. Johnny and Sally. Johnny sat down on the kerb next to me and asked if I was okay and if he could sit with me. Sally continued wandering around, ranting and raving. Clearly disturbed in her mind.

Johnny and I got chatting. He showed me his thumb which had gone ganreonus. Sally had hit him with a hammer. He told me her sad story of rape and mental illness. Sally, with unkempt hair, skinny as a rake and a demeanour as far from peace as is possible was shouting all the while about late buses and cursing. I urged Johnny to get some antibiotics and we contined to talk of his distress of having to care for sally and their home situation; life on the streets of Holloway.

As we talked I was deeply moved by this couple and their bondage to the powsers of darkness which is doing it's best to destroy their lives. Johnny told me all he really wanted to do was lie down in the road and wait for the next bus to run over him. He ahd nothing left to live for.

And so I told him about the love Of God and what Jesus had done for him. Johnny put his head in his hands and wept like a baby. His body shaking with grief and I pray, hearing the message of beauty and true freedom, true life. 'Becci, I know that right now I need God. I need everything.' we talked further, praying that God would break in and wishing that somehow I could do more.

We got on the bus when it finally arrived. Sally's ticket was dated 25th June and there was no way the bus driver was letting her off. he yelled at her, swore at her and once again over me swept such a feeling of desperation for this couple and for the bus driver who was so clearly consumed by anger and bitterness. I paid for Sally's ticket, after the bus driver and yelled at me too. When johnny and sally got off i felt uselss. one of those moments when you now there's more that needs to be done but you just don't have the resources available right thne or the prescence of mind to know who to refer them to. Other than God. Our wonderful counsellor and precious father. And pray. And cry. And so I did.

When I eventually got to my stop at gone 1am I walked up to the bus driver and said i didn't know why he was so angry but that JEsus loved him and thinks he's great and that he needs Jesus. He yelled at me and told me to get off his bus. I told him Jesus loved him and wanted a friendship with him. He yelled at me some more. So I got off the bus.

And I cried as I walked home and got down on my knees when i got there for Johnny, sally, the bus driver and the terrible state of people's lives. and just how much they need Jesus.