1000 posts!!! What a glorious thing!! My heart is full and singing.
Here we go...
September 8, 1994 11:56pm (continued..)
Joe lead me to an old apartment building. I had offered to buy at a deli nearby. “It is like drinking tar, those people have no idea how coffee should be made. I have a coffee pot, and coffee, we will go to my place.” Then he paused his stride, turned and faced me. He stared for a brief time, sizing me up and down again, then sighed. “It is way too meager for one such as you, perhaps a deli would be better.”
To this I said, “No, you have me wanting your coffee now, nothing else will do.”
He smiled with a knowing grin that told me he knew that would be my response. “Well then, just a couple of blocks.”
His apartment was a one room studio on the top level. The stairs creaked and groaned as we mounted them and I felt the presence of ancient souls watching. I looked around me, their sorrow and longing filled the air, as dense as the fog outside. I stopped my ascent and said aloud. “Why do you all linger here?”
Joe looked at me, then looked around, then back at me, his face grim. “They linger because they feel themselves unworthy of the Light. It has been so long, I doubt they can be convinced otherwise.”
Understanding flooded through me. “They are why you wanted me to come.”
“Yes.” He smiled. “They are also why I stay.” He started his climb again. “Coffee first though.”
I smiled, and found myself more than intrigued by Joe, I found myself beginning to enjoy his company. He opened his door and the strong aroma of sauerkraut and polish sausage assailed my nose, making my eyes water. I fought back the urge to sneeze. Joe winked at me, and put the percolator on a hot plate. “Coffee the old fashioned way.” He motioned to a chair at the kitchen table. I sat and glanced around his room. “It’s enough for me.” He said, as he sat opposite of me.
“Who are they?”
“Sinners.” He replied. “But, we are all sinners, even you. Though I doubt you sin on a daily basis like me, or them. They fear themselves, they fear God, they fear the Light. So they don’t go.”
“They fear His Wrath, they fear His Judgement, they fear Hell.” I responded in complete comprehension.
He nodded. “They find themselves unworthy of forgiveness. And why should they not? Some have murdered, some have stolen, some have raped children. They are afraid to repent.”
“You brought me here to convince them?”
“No.” He sighed, I could tell he was disappointed that I had missed the point. “I brought you here so they could see the Light and not be afraid of it. They will not listen to you if you try to tell them to go. But they will listen to you if you just offer them peace and vision.”
I nodded. “I am not here in the world to convince anyone to go to the Father, I am only here to help them find Him on their own, offer them my belief and hope and joy. I will do that for the souls here that are lost.”
“Good.” He said with a broad grin. “I knew that if I waited long enough, somehow I would find a way to help them. I doubt that it was just chance that brought us together in the fog today.”
“No. Nothing is just chance. The Father leads me where I need to go.” I said.
He got up. The coffee was done.
Congratulations! 
And everything in there before that seems to be gone.