ONE LAST SMOKE

His name was Danny...an Irishman; a successful businessman from Boston.  His wife died a slow death having cancer and he started drinking a lot.  He went through all his money from his business drinking around where he had his business and where his Irish friends hung out.  He was almost out of money and with his last few dollars he took a train the NYC.  He wound up on the Bowery.

He was just one on 2,500 men and a few women who had no other aim in life but to buy some cheap wine and drink until they were ready to fall down....only one policeman walked that beat, and at the beginning of every month, many of those bowery bums received their Social Security checks and other men from the lower east side and as far up as Harlem would catch a subway and hide and when the drunks came out at night to cash their checks in cheap pubs just off the Bowery, they would be mugged and robbed of any cash they had in their wallets of pockets.

It was in the late 60s that Elim opened a little place on the lower east side and called it "The Cave".  In the evenings the director drove students over from Dean Street in Brooklyn and they would open the door, having to step down three cement stairs and lighting candles and brewing coffee and hot water for coco, along with lots of goodies from Thomas company that made their English Muffins, they would wait to see if anyone would come down through the door and want to have something to drink with a piece of cake or an English muffin.  If someone did come in, they were greeted by students from all over the United States.  Many of them from stated like Ohio, or Iowa, even some from as far north as Wisconsin or New Hampshire.

One night Danny came in and he reeked so badly of cheap wine and soiled clothes it was almost impossible to away one to invite him for something to drink and to eat.  One young lady from Iowa did gather her courage and sat down and introduced herself and brought him some coffee and a sugar donut.  She asked him one simple question:  "Danny, have you ever considered asking Jesus Christ to become your own personal Savior?" 

Later Danny told me, "Brother John, I don't know what came over me, but immediately I felt all the pain and anger from losing my wife and landing on the Bowery, that I just could NOT hold back my tears.  That's right, that night Danny became a new man.  All that bitterness and anger was washed away in a short time.

Well, we decided to take him home with us and the young men made sure he had a hot bath, some decent clothes and put him to bed.  We soon found out that Danny was a great cook; and he had connections with business people up in the Bronx where once every week we would drive that old Ford van up to a place where most of the produce came into the city.  There were heaps of good vegies that were thrown into crates and we would fill our van with all kinds of fruits and vegetables.  A female student named Connie Stillmen worked with Danny in the kitchen...and they feel in love and asked me to marry them.  On the lower east side in a church once owed by the Greek Orthodox Church I married them.

They were wonderfully married and often walked to Teen Challenge where they would listen to messages from good preachers there...one night it was pouring rain and they ran all the way back to Dean Street, just praising the Lord for His goodness to them

One early morning Danny took me by my arm and said that he wanted to buy me a cup of coffee down at the corner....I followed him as he pulled out the one cigarette that he would always smoke at the coffee shop and after we started to drink out coffee and Danny had snuffed out his cigarette, he said to me, "I really don't want to tell you this Brother John, but I just have to; I've started drinking again and I know I can't stay here doing this..."  I asked him, "So what are you planning to do Danny?"  He said that Connie and he had talked it over and she wanted them to move back to Florida where she was from.

So they did, they had enough money to take a train, and together, early one morning they hugged my neck and we bowed in prayer. 

I kept in touch with Connie for several years; she told me that Danny had died within three months, and that she was dating an evangelist and planning to remarry.  I heard from her one more time, and believe it or not, that husband had also passed away and she was planning to marry a pastor, a long time friend.

I can't judge Danny because I think I knew his heart, sure he became a drunk and finished as a drunk, but the Jesus I know kept company with those who were rejected by many people, yet He loved them all...even people like you and I...He loves us all, not matter how we leave this earth....He loves us all....