Who Cares If It's All Made Up!

Have you ever met that individual that had so many stories that were completely unbelievable, but you wanted them to be true? You know, story after story, detail after detail, you just kept asking questions to probe a little more to see if you could really pick up on whether or not the information was factual....but the story was completely riveting, you just wanted, hoped them to be factual....

The 2 ladies we worked for this week in our High School Mission Trip to Bybee, Tennessee, were just those individuals described above....I can't make this stuff up! I have no idea if these stories are factual, my heart and head tell me "no way!" But I couldn't stop asking leading questions because I had to hear more! 

So, here goes the ones I can remember....

1. Day one, the mother, Deloris, is giving me and 2 other female students a tour of the house.....one could literally stand in the center of the living room and see the entire house....rather, you could see what was visible! Mounds upon mounds if stuff everywhere....sorted, monopoly games, Star Wars books, Star Wars collectible figures, Star Trek books and dvd's, elephant figures....sorted, yes....in massive, massive piles! 

As we hit the living room, the daughter walks in, Robin (about 50 years old) and proceeds to tell us she was born right there, I mean right where we were standing...EWWWWWW!!!!! But she didn't stop...her grand mother died in the next room and her grandfather died in the room we were starting in...."he died right there where you are standing Jay, in his rocking chair....and we kept his rocking chair and every we left the room or house, he was always rocking in it when we came back." Of coarse I had to ask, "you mean before he passed away?" And Robin replied, no silly, it was his ghost and he used to Rick in it so hard, he broke it...plum off the glider!"...my reaction, "welp, we need to get back to um.....well, ......um, cutting stuff! See ya later!" And out of the house I scurried!

2. When Robin was showing me her collection of things the next day, I noticed a painting of Elvis on the wall, so I had to ask, "you like Elvis huh?".....she didn't miss a best! " I danced for Elvis once." So I had to ask, "where!" Robin said, "right there, silly," pointing to the living room.....I had to ask, "you mean right there at the very spot...." She said, "yup, changed my life!" I was quickly doing math in my head as I googled, "when did Elvis die," on my phone. So the questions continued, "you mean Elvis was right here?" To which she said, "no silly, he was on one of dem white tapes!" I almost laughed my way out of her house because the closeness between her and Elvis was just too powerful for me to take in...,.,

Now, these next stories were told tonight, at the family picnic. ASP always does a family picnic to invite the families to do we can all meet the families we were working for. We went and picked our ladies up and they were excited! They were the only families who showed up....and they were in rare form tonight!

3. I walked in on a conversation they were having with Ashley and a few of our students....Ashley knew that I would love to hear her story, so she asked her to tell it again. Deloris told me that she once rode an elephant and giraffe! You know I couldn't help but start asking questions.....I said, "how did you do that," to which she replied, "I climbed on and held on tight!" What!!!!!! "No, I meant where?" She said, "at the Knoxville zoo." At this point, I was looking around to catch everyone's eyes to see if I should believe this story or not, but no one was tipping me off, so I continued, "how in the world did you do that?" She said some boys dared here to do it, she she just climb in their pen and started riding. "How did you get on" I asked...."I climbed and held on tight! The giraffe by the neck and the elephant by the ears!"

So of coarse I had to ask, "how fm did you get down," to which she looked at me with a "you big dummy" gaze and said, "I just slid down!"

4. Now for the greatest story! She survived a hurricane! Not in her house, rather, in her car...sounds believable, right? Haha! Here goes! Her friend was driving a car that Deloris was riding in and all of the kids were in the back seat (robin was a teenager). A tornado came and swept them in to the air and dropped them on the road an hour and a half away...so you know I couldn't leave that story alone....I asked, "what did y'all do?" Deloris replied, "we started the car and drove an hour and half back to where we were sober could get to where we were going," WHAT?

Then robin picked up the story, "yeah, I was sleeping and when I woke up I noticed we were in the tornado so I thought to myself, 'we may live, we may die, I'm going back to sleep.' and them boys were screaming in the back seat too." So I asked Deloris, "what did you do," and without missing a beat she replied, "I told them kids to shut up!"

5. This one is more of a statement....Ashley asked Deloris if she was a good dancer and said, "no," and then paused...."but I have a good 2 step...," so apparently she does dance. I then told her, "I can't dance," to which she shot back at me, with a powerful voice, "yes you can!" So it seems that I can, in fact, dance because Deloris said I could!

6. The one time I wanted to ask a question but didn't, I wish I had.....when we were taking them to their red hat society meeting, I told her that they would be riding with Ashley and that she had air conditioning, to which Deloris said, "I don't believe in air conditioning!" My mind immediately thought, "you have to believe in air conditioning because its real!" Like, you can't, not believe in it, but I think I know what she was trying to say, that she didn't like air conditioning but I was to afraid to get my mind blown about some crazy story about how air conditioning wasn't actually real.

So why was I so intrigued by these ladies and their stories? I think the answer to that is obvious....they were AWESOME stories!  But then it hit me, I bet these ladies never get a chance to talk about themselves, to anyone! No one is asking questions and no one is listening...all they needed was for someone to pay attention to them, to care, to ask, to speak, to take interest! 

It didn't matter if these stories were real or made up to me, it was just important that a conversation was taking place and someone wanted to know all about them....it was beautiful! 

I'm reminded that Jesus loved questions! Very rarely did he answer a question right out, but asked questions to lead to more questions. In this world, connecting with others is important! It brings a sense if hope alive in the heart that someone might actually care. It doesn't matter that these were probably made up stories...what matters is that we asked, we listened, we talked. 

Who, in your world might be right around you, just dying for someone to talk to, to have listen to them, to enter into a meaningful conversation with.