A Promising Start

 I got up at nine this morning, packed, and said goodbye to my family.  My car looked like this:


As I climbed in, I whispered to myself, "I have no idea where I'm going."

You see, every other night this week, I have a confirmed place to sleep.  I've picked a place, I've talked to people, in most cases I've even given an arrival time.  Monday night was the one hold-out.

Georgia had seemed like it would be easy.  I've always had relatives in Georgia.  But unfortunately, those relatives moved into a retirement community.  I knew this, yet in my mind, Georgia was still easy.

At around 8 o'clock, I pulled off and started looking through the directory of a conference I go to every year.  I found someone who lived in Georgia.  I called her.  She didn't answer.  I texted her.

I decided I would rather have too many options than too few, and found some nearby churches from my denomination.  I called the churches, which went to voicemail.  I emailed the pastors, telling them my name, the church I'm a member of, and what I needed.

I had gotten it in my head sometime around the SC border today that I would go to Grooverville, GA.  As it turns out, that's almost in FL.  I wouldn't make it tonight, but I figured I'd get a little closer while I was waiting to hear from the pastors.  I'd head toward LeGrange, where one of the churches was.

At 9:30, the pastor of the church I was heading away from emailed back asking me to call him.  He was incredibly nice, but also a little overwhelmed.  It turned out he wasn't even home and had an urgent illness in the family, but definitely did not want me sleeping on the side of the road, which I found touching.  He told me that there was another pastor in LeGrange, and I said that I had already emailed him.  He texted him right then, and then left to call his wife to make sure that it was okay for me to come.  At that point, I was about an hour and a half from his house, so it would have been after eleven when I got there.

While I was waiting for him to call me back, I stopped for gas.  Messages started coming in from a group chat that has my closest work friends in it, and I mentioned that I was in GA trying to find a place to sleep for the night.  They were concerned.

At the same time, the girl from the conference texted back saying she was at a baseball game and wouldn't be back until 1 a.m., but I was welcome to stay with her.

And at the same time, I got a text from MY pastor saying that he had just talked to the LeGrange pastor, and he didn't have anywhere for me to stay.  My pastor asked if he needed to contact pastors for the next three nights, and if I had hotel cash for tonight.

Then one of the girls in the chat said, "My parents live there!"

And thus everything was settled.  

So here I am, unexpectedly comfortable in the home of people who are generous enough to offer their home, food, and time to a complete stranger on the notice of one hour.

So many strangers have been kind to me tonight.  I was at a conference with that girl, but I have absolutely no idea what she looks like.  I don't think I ever talked to her.  Three different pastors took the time to try to figure something out for me (a fact which will be very cool once I've gotten over the embarrassment).

It's a beautiful thing to have brothers and sisters in Christ, who love with an unselfish, Christ-like love.  





That blue sign is the SC sign




Honestly, the biggest takeaway from these pictures is probably that my windshield is filthy.




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