Beware of the "Jesus" Bandit

In November, Lowell, Joshua and I stayed for a couple of weeks at my father-in-law's house in Batesville. It was very relaxing for us. Joshua got to hang out with his cousin Wes a lot and we truly had a good time. Lowell's dad was gone to prepare for a sailing trip that was to start in early December. While there, Joshua played outside quite a lot with his cousins, and a favorite activity was football!

We went back up in December so that Joshua could hang out with his Aunt Ellen while Lowell and I came to Kansas for an interview. On the drive to Batesville, Ellen called and said she needed to tell me something but didn't want me to worry. She had been going out to the house to check on it regularly, and on the last visit had noticed where someone had apparently sprayed graffiti of some sort on the outside wall. She said it is not very dark, but appears to say "Jesus". She had notified her friends to be on the lookout for this and had even put in a call to the a local police officer, who happened to be a friend, just so others would be watching for these graffiti artists who are trying to spread the good news. I did not mention this to Lowell or Joshua, as Joshua is in this strange phase of life where he is constantly worried about being robbed.

The next morning I went outside to look for myself and immediately had a good notion of who the culprit might be. I went back in and casually asked Joshua if he had ever used chalk or anything like that and written on G-Dad's garage. The look on his face answered my question, yet he responded with, "Oh my gosh - is that still there??? Dad said it would go away." Turns out, on an earlier visit, Joshua and Wes were playing football and using that "invisible" spray that makes your hands sticky. My little artist decided to spray the word "Jesus" along with a cross on the side of the wood on the garage. When it didn't come off immediately, he did ask Lowell what to do and he told Joshua not to worry about it, it would wear off quickly.

Well, here we are three months later and it is probably still there. A couple of good lessons learned though. First - don't ever spray the wall of a house with ANYTHING!!!! It just might stay forever. And second - if you do decide to graffiti someone's home, don't do it in Batesville, Arkansas. They will get after ya!