When Bad Things Happen To Good People By Ed Chasteen
I told my friend that compared to him, Job was blessed. My friend had a quadruple heart by-pass. The day he came home, his house burned. He had no insurance. He does not want his name made public. But here’s the story and how we can help.
He is a Muslim Imam. I am a Baptist preacher. He is black. I am white. He lives in the inner city. I live in a small town. We took an instant liking to one another that morning in the 1980s. I had taken some of my students from William Jewell to tutor some of his students at the masjid where he was both spiritual leader and head teacher. He and I sat in his office and talked while our students taught one another. From the very first word that passed between us, we both were at ease.
Before many months had passed, we had visited in one another’s homes. I fell in love with his children. Polite, soft-spoken and attractive, they would make any father proud. He and his wife spent great amounts of time with their children. Their home was a peaceful and pleasant place where friends loved to come.
He and I began to travel together. To public schools in several states. To state and federal prisons. To churches and masids. In every place we would teach people how to like people who are not like them and invite them to the human family reunion. We planned a cross-country bike ride. I would ride. He would gather support from faith communities everywhere. The birth of his eighth child kept him from the Disneyland ceremony at the ride’s end. My first and longest phone call was to him.
He says he is a better Muslim because he knows me. I am a better Christian because I know him. Neither of us has ever tried to convert the other, through we often talk about our faith with each other. Each of us is energized and given direction by our faith. We love and trust one another and are so much in tune with the other’s thoughts and feelings that we can finish the other’s sentence.
PTSD was a meaningless acronym until it laid my friend low, and he explained to me how it boiled and bubbled in his heart, mind and soul for decades. I would notice on rare occasions that his wisdom, his insights and his passion for morality did not radiate from him. I sensed he was fighting some internal battle. I knew already that he carried shrapnel in his internal organs from his tour in Vietnam.
Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome has made my friend unable to work. Nightmares and flashbacks take him against his will to a time and place where he witnessed and took part in unspeakable acts. His reoccurring dream of firing his rifle and trying to outrun the bullet before it reaches its victim is kept at bay by massive application of various powerful drugs and periodic psychiatric care.
My friend does not want to live in a drugged state. To say his required daily prayers and offer spiritual guidance to the faithful he must be clear minded. So when he is feeling good, he stops his medication. Then he worries that the night terrors will come again. But he is not bitter. He does not complain. He talks of Job and the tests he endured so that he might better serve God. He believes that his suffering serves a purpose and that if he remains faithful, that purpose will be revealed to him.
My friend moved his growing family into their home in 1982. It was well built years ago. The house and the neighborhood now need attention. That house has been made by this family into an oasis. Drugs and despair are not far away, but they have not come into this house and touched this family. Now their home has burned. They lost everything.
I asked my friend if I could ask you to help. He hesitated. He did not want his name made public. He does not want attention drawn to his wife and children.
My friend has given much to this country and to his community. By giving to him now in his hour of need, we can say thank you. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you would like to help my friend, make your check to HateBusters Fire Fund. Mail to Box 442, Liberty, MO 64069. All contributions are tax deductible. If you would like to meet my friend, let me know and I will arrange a meeting. You will be inspired.
I will write a story when my friend and his family have been restored. All who have had a part will rejoice and be glad in it.
Your Friend,
Ed Chasteen
HateBusters
Box 442
Liberty, MO 64069
Phone: 816-803-8371
e-mail: hatebuster@aol.com
No Boundaries On Our Soul!
