Current mood:	thankful
Current music:	Abandoned Pools - Monster
Entry tags:	works of mercy

The Witness of our Brother
Last night, instead of Bible Study at 7:00, our group went to visit our friend Mike Patterson in the hospital. I'll be a little lazy and let my friend and roommate David tell it:

Our church, Mid City Church of the Nazarene - specifically the English speaking congregation, has recently been going through quite a rough patch of our friends and illnesses. Dave and Larry have both recently undergone surgery in the last few weeks and are under constant care. Larry is unable to leave his bed, and even though he seems to be a bit more spirited, his health is deteriorating. Dave seems to be doing better and has quite a bit more energy. Today we learned that our friend Mike Patterson was diagnosed with lung cancer. He entered the hospital over the weekend and the pathologist said it would be a rough road ahead. Unfortunately, today our Bible study went to be with Mike at UCSD and found that there is no treatment that can be done - the oncologist today has given him 3 to 6 months to live. It was an extremely moving time this evening as Mike vocalized just how appreciative he is of our community, our friendship, and our witness. Mike has spent 10 of the last 15 years in prison and is a recovering self claimed "dope fiend". We were discussing his IV drips tonight and he told me he never thought he would need his veins when he was younger. He said he never lost faith in Jesus, but lost all faith in Christians. He wanted God to teach him how he could learn to love God because he hated Christians so much - and it scared him when he used Christians like us to do it. He said our church and the community he's involved in are the only Christians he's ever truly known. His spirits are high, considering, and as Mike looks on the next few months with a lot of anticipation, he believes he will have something great and wonderful yet to learn. He's not sure what, but he's anxious to find out. Mike's faithfulness with the church through things like the cold weather shelter, and his consistent positive attitude, really are an inspiration.

Mike's faithfulness in his witness is indeed a very humbling thing. He was joyously faithful this past year in helping out with our inclement weather shelter, often volunteering to work the night shifts. I worked a few of them with him -- I don't know how he does the "graveyard shift" so well, but he actually enjoys them. He's been working the night shifts at a local Shell station for the past few months, and he was remarking to us last night that his boss was surprised because he's never had an employee want to do the graveyard shifts.

We're hoping that when the rainy season starts again that Mike will be able to do first shifts with us. That would be an honor.

I'm extremely sad-but-thankful right now. I just know that we need to be with Mike in his remaining time. For a man who has spent 10 of the last 15 years in prison, you wouldn't really know it at all because he's been such a saint to all of us at Mid-City.