sadness

Today, one of the visits that my friend and I were doing was to a brother and sister who haven't been coming to church for a bit. 

::Side edit--I'm going to be scarce on the details.::

I was in our big, white van so I was eye-level with the trailer that these folks live in.  I never look directly into house....who does that?  But as I was turning to assess how far the scary dog was coming, my eyes  caught the main window.  It was curtainless.  And I could see that the trailer was mostly empty.

Right then, the manager of the trailer park and owner of the dog came out of his office.  I rolled down my window to ask if they had moved.

"Yah, I was comin' to talk to ya'll about that." 

He proceeded with a story which basically involves abuse, a past history of crime, and an empty trailer.  They're gone. 

They're gone.

My heart is broken.  Did we do enough to help?  Did we show Jesus to them enough?  Did we show them how much we love them enough?

Did we, really?

I do believe that the teen girl was saved a while back.  She really struggled with the assurance of her salvation.  I had a great talk with her a few months ago and was able to use some of my personal struggle to encourage her. 

Only in eternity will we know how much we impacted them.  Our prayer is that they will find a church in Illinois or Ohio, wherever they ran.  That they will remember HIM -- our motivation to love THEM.

Another bus-route related post here