While we were living in Tennessee, Brad had a part time job with Campus Safety as a security officer for Lee University. In 1996, when Atlanta, Georgia was hosting the summer olympics part of the university campus was used as an olympic village for the white water rafting, canoeing and kayaking athletes. While Brad's boss, Mr. Virgil Clark, headed up security along with the FBI, within the village, Brad was on the outside and overseeing the rest of the campus.
It was during this summer that I became extremely homesick. I had never been homesick before and it hit me full force. I just had to get home. Brad couldn't leave during the olympics and take me home. So we started planning for me and the children to go home for 6 weeks. Brad felt it was too long of a trip for me to make alone, with three small children, so it was decided that we would travel by Greyhound bus. The trip would take 32 hours and there would be many stops and changing of buses along the way.
Before we left the entire church prayed for our safety and we prayed specifically that the Lord would protect us and send angels to watch over us. We boarded the bus in Cleveland and an hour and a half later we had our first stop in Knoxville, TN. We were to stay there for an hour before boarding the next bus. While we were there I noticed a group of seven Mennonite men and one little boy sitting on the seats in front of me. They were looking at a map of New Brunswick, Canada. I couldn't believe it! Here I was in Knoxville, TN and here were people right next to me planning a trip to New Brunswick!
I sat there wondering if I should approach them and ask them to travel with us for protection but something or Someone held me back. So I sat and waited. The men kept looking at me and then they all got up and went over to the side to talk together. While they were talking they kept looking at me. I was getting very uncomfortable but then one of the men came up to me and asked me where I was traveling to. I told him Bangor, Maine where my sister would be picking me up to take me to her home in Waasis, NB. He asked me if I was a pastor's wife. (I don't know why he would have asked that other than the prompting of the Holy Spirit because there was nothing about me that said 'pastor's wife'). I told him that I was and he said that he would be right back.
Again the group discussed me. After a couple of minutes they all came back and the same man acted as spokesman. He told me that they were on their way to Grand Falls, NB for a conference and they would like me to allow them to 'watch over' us while we traveled. I couldn't believe it. We had asked in our prayers for protection and here the Lord was sending not only one person but 8 to be our traveling companions.
These wonderful men, who I believe were sent from the Lord, never engaged me in any other conversation but they did watch over me at every bus stop. They made sure we got on every bus first so we had seats together and at the stops they stood in a circle with their backs to us and their arms crossed. They stood guard over us. In Washington, DC and in New York City, the two places I had thought I would be so scared to have a layover, these men never left our sides. To get something to eat or go to the bathroom, they would take turns leaving the circle and would quickly return so that one of their brothers could take their turn.
We traveled in this manner until we left the bus in Bangor Maine and went with my sister, Melanie, the rest of the way to her home. The Mennonite men continued on their way and I never saw them again but I have never forgotten them. The Lord sent them my way when I needed them the most. They guarded me and our children and kept us safe. They were doing the Lord's work and they were faithful to the task He had asked them to do.
Dad came from Lockeport the next day to take us the rest of the way so we could spend 6 weeks in Lockeport. We had a wonderful time of mackeral fishing and swimming and eating fish almost every day. All the good things of home. All too soon we had to face the long bus trip back. We were anxious to see Brad again and to resume our lives in TN but we were not looking forward to the 32 hr bus trip.
Again we prayed that the Lord would send someone to be a traveling companion for me. And again the Lord came through. At the bus stop in Bangor Maine, while we were waiting to board the bus, I noticed a woman with two small children on the other side of the room. The children were working in homeschooling workbooks, just like the ones my kids were working in! This time I was the first one to approach a stranger. I found out that she was from Texas but was home visiting her mother and was traveling alone with her two children. I explained our situation and she suggested that we travel together, which we did all the way to Cleveland, TN.
When we rely on God, He will always comes through. He always provides and shelters us. We just have to rely on Him. Luke 4:10 "For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully"
Post a Comment