<TITLE>07. Par 24-25</TITLE>L-24 When I passed by, she said, "Good morning, parson."
Well, I thought, "Wait a minute." Now, "parson," that means "preacher" in the south. See?
"Good morning, parson."
And I turned around, I said, "Good morning, Auntie." That's usually the way we regard the colored down there. "Good morning, Auntie." She was laughing, great big tears running off her big black cheeks: Looked like an Angel to me, standing there looking...
She said... I said, "Say, by the way, how'd you know I was a parson?"
She said, "I knew you was." Said, "Only thing, you supposed to have a briefcase in your hand."
I said, "I left it up there, and just put the letters under my arm." I thought, "Oh, oh." I stopped.
And she said, "I knew you was coming." Said, "You had that hat on the side of your head, and kind of gray-looking, that gray suit on."
I said, "Yes, ma'am."
She said, "Did you ever read the story in the Bible about the Shunammite woman?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am, I have." I got up close to the fence.
She said, "I's was that kind of a woman. I didn't have no children, but I was a wash woman. But me and my husband are Christians." And she said, "I--I prayed for two years for the Lord to give me a child." And said, "I promised the Lord if He'd give me a child, I'd raise him to honor Him." And she said, "One day a lovely little boy was born in our home."
She said, "Parson, I raised him the best of my knowledge to serve the Lord, but he got out amongst bad company, and he took a social disease, syphilis." And said, "And we didn't know it. Being a Christian family, we didn't know it." And said, "We just never... He never thought nothing about it," and said, "it went to his heart." And said, "The doctor man says that he can't live," and said, "certain parts of his heart is gone." And said, "We've give him all kinds of shots. And he's been unconscious now this is the third day." And she said, "Parson, he's laying in there dying." And said, "He hasn't knowed nothing now this is the third day."
And said, "Last night I prayed all night." She said, "I prayed, 'Lord, You give me this baby just as You did the Shunammite woman. But where's Elisha?" And she said, "I fell asleep, and I dreamed a dream that I saw a man coming, and he had a little gray hat on, and a gray suit." And she said, "I've been standing at this gate since before daylight this morning, waiting for you to come down the street."

L-25 God answers on both ends of the line. I looked at her. I patted her on her back. She was damp from standing there. I looked at her a little bit, and she said, "Won't you come in?" And I come in, old gate with a plow point hanging on it for a weight to pull it back together.
When she opened the--the door a plain little old hut, just a common little hut with an old iron poster bed (How many knows what they are?), a little old iron bed, and no rug on the floor, typical southern, but she had a sign hanging on the door, "God bless our home."
I've been in kings' palaces. I prayed for King George of England, you know, when he was healed from multiple sclerosis. I prayed for other kings, potentates, monarchs. I've been in some of the finest homes in America, but I never felt any more welcome than I did right there, that little colored haunt that morning.


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