opportunity knocked

no classes today

I was feeling useless

wasting time with nothing to do

though many were relishing free time

opportunity knocked

certainly not by circumstance

but design as we joined several others

riding via public transport

to the large city hospital

the wards were large

nothing close to privacy exists

I was almost embarrassed

to think of the richness

of our facilities at home

I gazed into eyes shining with pain

or fear, hollow above sunken cheeks

limbs stick like, lacking substance

we ministered side by side 

with the chaplains

encouraging new believers

praying for the sick

I helped one young man

who was sitting at his mother’s bedside

pray a prayer of surrender

to the Lord, releasing his old life

for new, reborn

angels were rejoicing today

we stopped for an ice cream cone

after the return trip home

the taste refreshing

but not nearly as sweet

as heaven’s salvation song

happy to be backed at Kelli's where the rhythms are all His