unexpected death

i got the news today that zara died friday night. he suffocated.

zara was a musician and vagabond who i knew from the town square. although he had a wife and daughter, he chose to live on the streets- being one of the few "homeless" people i work with who really does sleep outside all year round. i often talked with him about faith.. he was very influenced by eastern religion. he wasn't on drugs and drank only seldomly. the past few weeks, though he had really been drinking alot- up to three bottles of korn a day!! (thats a really nasty tasting very hard liquer thats cheap). the theory is he was passed out, threw up, and lay in such a manner as to not be able to breathe because of it.

this was the kinda guy you could (and did) easily loose half a day in conversation to. since the town square is one of my main stops along my daily route, i saw and talked to zara almost daily. its a whole different atmosphere since he is gone, he is missed. it is especially hard, knowing that the last time we talked he was very anti-Jesus. i thought he would outlast all the others, and that we would have many more conversations about God.

we werent even able to find out when or where his funeral is.