We were not only greeted by a scraggy old flytipped sofa in our drive on our return home last week. As we unloaded the kids, the camping gear and wet swimming towels from the car, we also spotted a couple of items which made us think that we might soon again be seeing Gone, our on/off doorstep lodger.
The traditional bottle of Frosty Jack in our flowerbed
We were proved right the next morning, when he sat on our doorstep until lunchtime and tried to persuade the Vicar to ‘do just one small thing’ for him (take him out to McDonalds). After our previous experiences with Gone, we now say that we will take him to Betel to start rehabilition, but that is all we will do for him. Anything else seems only to sustain his destructive lifestyle and terrible cycle of living rough followed by living at Her Majesty’s pleasure. In the meantime, he’s back in our drive, sometimes singing loudly at 6am, sometimes aggressive, sometimes sad and wanting to talk. Pray that we are able to treat him with grace as his behaviour seems so intractable, and pray that his self-destruction stops.
Some information that Gone is too far gone to really make use of...
The Vicar's Wife 
I thought it was only “Greeks bearing gifts” we were warned to beware of.
When did “Fly-tippers dumping sofas” become the norm?
To be thoroughly uncharitable, perhaps if you call the local council to remove the sofa, they might be persuaded to take your unwanted lodger too.
Hiya, praying for a solution now. God bless
Can’t speak too highly of Betel. Spent a week there as part of a mission project and came away really impressed with the place. Wonderful to see the power of God at work in that place.
Gone has been a regular visitor at ours this last two weeks. But he had a phone interview with Betel and he has a place starting tomorrow (Fri 23 Sept). Pray that he comes back to our Vicarage tomorrow so I can take him.
Tim, that’s wonderful news. We’ll be praying for you and him.
Well, he managed to stay last night!
Tim – that’s even more fantastic!!! Praying he’ll do another night tonight 🙂