We were on our way out of town for the evening when I had asked my husband for a caffeine connection. He stopped at a café we knew while I stayed in the car to read for a few minutes. He came back to tell me it was closed and I was so immersed in trying to read the pamphlet in front of me I barely heard him, or the voice that was crying out.
“Can you please help?” As we were stopped for cars passing, I heard the voice again. She came to our truck waving to us through our windows. When my husband let down the window, her story was quick and seemingly desperate.
She needed enough funds to catch the Amtrak train home to see her mother. I don’t typically ask this question up front, but before I thought about it, I asked her, “Do you believe in God?”
“Yes, I just prayed a minute ago” she answered.
My husband handed me a bill to give her and I asked him to pull over so we could talk to her for a moment. He gave me enough to meet her ticket needs so getting out of the truck he went to an ATM to replenish our own immediate needs for the evening. While he was gone I prayed with her, but there was a sense she was merely being polite so I didn’t say too much and stopped to just talk to her.
Her clothes were nice, even her makeup perfect. She had on sunglasses and I longed for her to take them off. I wanted to see her eyes. She was hiding behind them in some manner. I asked her name and that of the mother she wanted to go see. She shared them and some other personal information. It was obvious this young girl did not understand the moment she was living.
She was chattering still when my husband came back and it was time for us to leave. She thanked us and again told me how she had just been praying. My reply was, “and He answered your prayer”. It was only then that she stopped talking and fell short for what to do or say. I watched her as the realization dawned upon her. I hugged her and got into the truck with my husband.
Driving away I looked to him and asked, “Well what are you thinking?” Without even looking at me he said, “scam!”
I agreed with my husband’s discernment but I was curious why he would still give away money? He didn’t have an answer, but we prayed for Kim, the young girl who was so lost in this life. My encouragement came from her realization. Although she didn’t deserve it, in His great mercy, God answered her prayer. I got to see that seed planted. I also understood with greater clarity how I myself had been given this kind of grace and favor while I was yet far away.
Kim is going to share with the world she lives in….God answers prayers. Those prayers are going to change her.