Ted Mellinger

11.24.12 (A little old, but I wanted to post what I wrote from before anyways. This is very special).

Ted Mellinger

Friday night, November 23^rd, something like a miracle happened. Some of us from Slaughterhouse were praying after we got done singing, rapping, playing instruments, and dancing together as our worship at the Nehemiah church in Compton, CA. I just get done praying for a bro when an old man walks in from the street. He says he was just looking for some prayer and sat right down in the pews. I restart my conversation telling Jabar, my bro I was praying for, about abiding in God when Jason signals me to go get the old man who apparently was leaving. I run and get him and ask him if he wants to pray. He said a willing yes and started telling Jason his tragedies. As soon as he started talking about his 3 sons that he lost, I immediately recognized who he was. I knew this man! Matter of fact, I wrote a poem about him this past summer.

I remember that he barged right through the same church doors in the middle of service three years ago drunk and crazed. He wouldn’t stop talking and shouting. He was telling about how gone he was and how he lost his two sons. I remember Jason attempting to pray for him while telling him to hold his peace. Pastor Robin then took him outside to pray for the man. This whole ordeal might have taken around 30 minutes. That night I remember how impressed I was with how the church showed love to this man. Instead of just kicking him out back on the streets, the pastors showed love to him by taking him in how he was and working with him. I remember after the service I told my pastor, Jason, that I would never forget that night.

That was three years ago.

Last summer, I really got into a mode of seeking compassion for others. I was compelled to write a poem about compassion. The part about the old man, Ted Mellinger, is the intro to the poem. Here it is:

Sometimes you just don’t know what that person’s going through

What’s true to me is true to you that we all suffer and

Sometimes pain is what we’re so used to

Before you point the finger

Take a glance at the Heart in

A steady Love fixture to get the proper picture

The drunk man comin’ in the middle of service

Lookin’ like he’s demeaning his own value like Life’s worthless

Than what he figured it out to be from the start

Cuz what’s really at his heart is his 2 sons gone too soon,

One in a car wreck and the other shot cold-blooded 17 times in the alleyway that oftentimes it’s just so hard to say LORD I love you I’m so cold blooded!

But the bitter man’s coming back, yea-he’s confused & angry & lost but Hurt

So can you take him how he is and show him back the love in the Gift and glory of the Cross?

9.6.12

           

Back to last night. Ted was definitely in a better state than 3 years ago but still looked like he was struggling and was definitely still deeply hurt. Now another son had passed. Yet, just like last time, he came in the church looking for someone to talk to. After hearing Ted out, we prayed for the man. I know God heard and that we were able to help him last night as believers.

Afterwards, Twan and I saw him off. He got back on his bike and was on his way.

I thank God for the opportunity to see him again. I thank God that He is a healer, working in Ted’s heart. I thank God that true faith (that is alive) brings Action and can affect people’s lives for good. We might not come even close to knowing what it feels like to be in his shoes but apathy is not acceptable by any means.

Let’s pray for Ted, that he be constantly seeking after God to be completely filled with His presence; to know his lovingkindness, his comfort, his healing, his joy through any situation.

God Bless!