[ZION] Just how can we serve?

[Elmer L. Fairbank]

Just got back from lunch and there was this half-frozen coed standing in a snow squall with all her luggage at a bus stop, sobbing her eyes out. I asked her if she was OK (duh, you have to have some kind of opener), and through a series of very pointed questions (she was too upset to offer info) found that she probably had missed her ride to Baltimore ( a ride, not a bus, just a convenient location, plus she didn't have any way to get hold of the people giving her the ride to find out if they were late or had already left). I gave her my name and number and told her if she got stuck here to call and she could join us for dinner tomorrow rather than sit alone and miserable*. I then got her to call her parents and tell them her plight. Then my bus came and I was gone. Should I have done more? Is there more we can do for complete strangers. If it were my daughter I would hope someone would have compassion on her.** Did I overstep my bounds as a stranger in "pushing" the conversation? Should I have offered her a ride to Baltimore, a 10-12 hour round trip? The poor thing made my heart melt watching her anguish. Her tears were freezing to her cheeks, for heavens sakes.


Till the getting too complicated for his feeble little brain

* I also made sure she had a place to go home to tonight, that is, wasn't locked/shut out from her usual quarters and sleeping in the street)

** My daughter called me from the Atlanta airport this summer in a similar state. She was tired, sick and hungry, coming back from Brazil, had lost her passport and boarding pass and had no one to pick her up in Salt Lake if/when she did get there. I gave her a strategy, which she followed and it all worked out. I was almost ready to call my good friend Scott McGee, though. Had I heard from her again while still in Atlanta (with bad news, that is) I would have.

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