yesterday jason and i were sitting on our porch swing when one of the kids in the neighborhood came over. chris is a lovely child, but can often take up a lot of time telling stories that we're sure aren't always factual.

yesterday he walked up onto our porch and asked about our dogs who had started barking when they heard him approach our house. he then proceeded to tell us a story about one of the other neighborhood boys who climbed the fence into chris' backyard and shoved his fist into the rear end of his dog. chris recounted how he threw a brick and hit this little boy in the chest which caused the little boy to run away.

i tried with everything within me not to laugh at the apparent violation of this poor dog. chris then began to impersonate the new limp that has become his dog's slow gait.

with absolutely no idea how to return to pleasant conversation following this anecdote, jason announced that we were going to go inside. we bid farewell to chris and pushed ourselves through the front door into the living room where we had a good laugh.

i think a lot about the ministry of presence. the ministry of simply being there to share in these anecdotes with the kid who seems to have no friends. the presence that our house is safe to come to, our porch is safe to enter. that can't be said about a lot of porches in our area.

living in the city certainly brings about the unexpected.

posted by Kelly @ 8:39:00 AM