Yea Though I Walk.....

During the first few months that we were living in Tennessee we had something happen that reminded us that God is always watching over us. One evening we were just getting ready to sit down at the table for supper when there was a knock at the door of our apartment. Brad answered it and there was a man asking for a drive to the highway. We knew that the highway was only a five minute drive away from where we lived and with the adventure of going to Bible college still fresh in our minds my husband said that he would take him and told me that he would be right back.

I decided to wait for supper since the highway was so close by and Brad would be right back. We waited and waited. After fifteen minutes I began to get annoyed. Brad was probably talking to the man while our supper was getting cold. After a half an hour my annoyance cooled and I thought that maybe the man just needed a friend to talk to and since Brad was studying to be a pastor that maybe the Lord had sent this man to Brad for help. So I fed the kids and after an hour or so put them to bed. When it began to get dark I started to get worried. Two hours passed and my worry turned into panic and I alternated between praying and crying, sometimes doing both at the same time.

After what seemed to be an eternity, but was in reality only a few hours, my husband returned and told me the story. When they first approached the highway, the man asked Brad if he would just take him a little further. Brad agreed so the man wouldn't have to walk so far. A little further down the highway, he said that since they were so close to Chattanooga would Brad just take him there. Brad reluctantly agreed, not realizing that Chattanooga was approximately thirty minutes away. When they got there the man directed Brad to drive down one street to another and eventually down an alley in a neighbourhood that he never imagined he would ever have to be in.

Many of the buildings had no glass in the windows, many had boards covering the openings and some had blankets nailed in place. They stopped in front of one of these buildings and went inside. There were no lights on, just a candle on a table in the corner. In the darkness Brad could just make out the outlines of five or six men lounging on couches and chairs. There were liquor bottles everywhere and smoke filled the air. Brad's passenger introduced him as a pastor to the men who were present. Some greeted him, others just nodded in his direction. The passenger disappeared into a back room and soon returned carrying a paper bag and said it was time to go.

Brad brought the man back to Cleveland and finally returned home to his home and family. I was worried sick. I thought he was probably dead somewhere and I would have to call Dad to come with a U-Haul to take me and the kids back home to Canada. Your mind can do awful things to you when you panic. We thanked God that He had protected Brad and that the strange encounter with that man was over.

A couple of weeks after that incident, while Brad was working for Campus Safety, one evening that same man came to our door again. This time he was obviously drunk or high on something. I didn't open the door but talked to him through the door. He wanted to come in and I told him no. He insisted that I let him in and he began pounding on the door. I thought he would just go away but when he started running and slamming his body against the door and plaster was breaking around the frame, I went to the phone and called Campus Safety. Within minutes the cars could be heard pealing around the corners with their lights flashing.

The man disappeared, so a manhunt was started by the Campus Safety officers. Brad and the other men went door to door looking for this man in the Married Student Housing apartment complex where we lived. In the third building they found him trying to hide and apprehended him. They held him until the Cleveland police came. After the man was remanded into custody the police officer asked the Campus Safety officers if anyone had ever seen the man before. Brad said he had and told the officer the whole story of his trip to Chattanooga.

The officer asked Brad where he was from and how long he had been in the country. Brad told him he was from Canada and that we had only been here a couple of months. He said that he could have Brad deported for doing what he did. He had unwittingly gone on a drug run! Brad didn't know, he was only trying to help a man who needed a ride. The officer shook his head and questioned Brad's intelligence and went on his way.

We have continued to help people after that incident as much as we can knowing that God will protect us. That whole situation could have gone terribly wrong. I could have lost my husband that night. But God protected him. God knew that Brad was innocently helping someone, but God knew the intent of the passenger's heart too. So He watched over my husband and protected me and the children the night that same man tried to break down our door. It was an adventure I never want to repeat but I value the lessons we learned that night. When you walk with God, you have nothing to fear because He walks beside you.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me;" Psalm 23:4