Onward Christian Old Ladies

I was out working in my garden this morning, around 10, when Alexis came outside to tell me someone was at the door.  Hands muddy, sweat-stained clothes and all I went around the house to the front.

"Surely Jill could have gotten the door?" you ask.  Normally yes, but this morning she was out drinking.  Or getting her hair cut.  I really should listen more closely.

So I come around the house and see two women - a middle aged black woman, and a little old white woman.  Dressed very nicely.  Church clothes even, you might say. 

The young(er) woman said they were visiting neighbors.  I noted the white minivan in front of my house and the other nicely dressed people at the Joh's house across the street and thought they might be from the other side of the neighborhood, seeing as they had to bus the people in.  The little old white woman stuck a magazine toward me and said she wanted to ask me a question about Jesus.

Having muddy hands, I did not want to disrespect her Jesus Monthly copy, so I declined to take the magazine.  And then tried to anticipate her question.

"Do I think he's hot?"  That wasn't it.
"Do I think that he'd be upset that people invoke his name to perpetuate all kinds of discrimination and evil deeds?"  Nope, not it.
"Does his middle name really start with an H?"  Still apparently not the question.
"Is he my Lord and savior?" Yep, that's the one!

"No.  But thanks for visiting."  And I went back to gardening.

It was only a minute or two later that I started to get angry.  Not that these nicely dressed people rang my bell to ask me about Jesus.  I get confronted with people wanting to know about my relationship to their Lord on average once every 23 days.  What made me mad, though, is that these ladies clearly were not respecting the assigned territories.

You see, our neighbors (not the Joh's - we'll call them the Johnsons), are very nice, very Christian people.  They have three sweet, respectful kids, and both parents work for Campus Crusade for Christ.  They are the neighbors you hope for - they bring over homemade bread, we help each other move things, they came caroling last Christmas.  They HAVE to have this territory.  If anyone is going to ask us about accepting Jesus, the Johnsons have certainly earned that right.  That they haven't makes them even better neighbors. 

I'm really thinking of filing some sort of complaint with the Christians at Your Door department.  But I'm not sure how to get in touch with them.  I really should have taken her copy of Jesus Monthly - I bet the contact info was in the back.