Weird Wednesday

Well, something very strange happened tonight at church.
Last week we started a 5 week intergenerational program - from 6:30 - 8:00 Pm on Wednesday nights. I could not go last week because I have my class in spiritual direction.
So, this was my first time.
I had heard from Jerry that someone came by last week and needed help with a motel room and Jerry had given him $25. Tonight, that person came back again.
So, I got called out of the program to meet with this person.

We frequently have people come by the church and ask for help. We do not give out money. We do have groceries and sometimes gas cards. Occasionally we might arrange to help with rent or utilities but not on the spot. That takes a couple of days. And my experience is that when we (members of the church like last week) give cash, people do come back for more.

So, I first ended up talking with another member of the church who had apparently given this person help with a motel room and gas for his vehicle in the past two weeks. And I wondered what his expectation was going to be for us to do this week.

What I learned is that this man is the same person who three years ago stole checks from me.
I suspect now that he took them out of my purse at church. At the time, his wife wrote several to check cashing places and one of them called me and I told them that she stole the checks and they called the police and arrested her.
He later called me at home that night to "apologize" and to tell me that he felt bad that his wife was in jail for something he did. But he was on heroin. That was a strange time.

So......here he was at church asking for money! I explained to the member of my church that Ihe had stolen checks from me and I did not trust him and that the church was not going to give him money. I also informed the wife that this man had stolen from me.

It seemed to make no difference to them. They still left with the idea that they were going to help him.

I did not tell him that we had a history - because I did not want a confrontation or another lie.
I just told him that our policy is that we do not give money out - which is true and offered him groceries. Which he didn't take.

Afterward, I keep thinking - does he not remember that he stole from me or was he so high at the time that he doesn't know? Or is he so brazen that he didn't think anything of it.

Very strange. All of it.