Mike's sister Dee* is dying.  She's forty-five years old, living in an apartment in New York City, and has AIDS.  Several weeks ago he had asked me to write his sister to try to encourage her.  So I sent a letter to Dee urging her to

continue to trust in Christ, and that no matter how sick she feels, to never lose faith in the Lord.

 

     Back in the late 1990's some of Mike's family members rescued Dee from a crackhouse.  She had been missing for a few days and they were finally able to track her down.

 

     When they found her Dee was semi-conscious and sprawled on a tenement floor.  They had to carry her back home.  But the

years of being an addict and using intravenous drugs in addition to sniffing crack, all came crashing down on her life when she began to get sick.  Then came the doctor's diagnosis.

 

    

     Dee's tragic story is typical.  Succumbing to the temptations of the streets while growing up in Harlem, she's now on her way to an early grave. A life once full of hope is eternally detoured.

 

     Mike told me his sister may not have much longer.  She's gravely ill, and most of the time, to weak to attend church. 

 

But it is in reaching out to people like Dee, however, that God has been showing me the value of simple things.  There is

everlasting worth in acts of kindness.

 

     It's the small things we can do that will make a big difference in someone elses's life. 

 

     And as I travel on this spiritual journey with its many times of trials, tests, and temptations, I rejoice at the oportunities to touch needy lives in the same way that God has so often touched and helped me.

 

     I am thankful, took for the occasions when I could help another man by writing a letter for him, or by getting him an item from the prison's commisary because he's broke and he

cannot afford anything.

 

     Then there are the times  when I'm able to pray for a man who's sick or feeling stressed out.  It is a joy doing what I believe Jesus Himself would do.  I am certain that God takes

notice of these simple things, as well as of every kind deed.

 

                                  David Berkowitz

                                  June 30, 2005

 

 

*Dee is not her real name.

 

 

(c) 2005 David Berkowitz