About 3 months ago, my Sunday School leader (Ruth) came into class and during the time that we talk about our prayer requests and praise reports, she told us that during her prayer time, the name "Angie" popped into her mind and she felt led to pray for "Angie". Ruth is a nurse and she felt certain that she'd have a patient named "Angie" or she'd run into somebody at the hospital with that name but she never did. She's been praying for "Angie" for a few months now and didn't have a clue why. Nonetheless, she was faithful in her prayers for this unknown person.
The Sunday before Father's Day, our pastor opened the door to our room and told us that a lady was visiting our church and he just knew that she'd feel right at home in the Ladies A Connection Group (that's what we call Sunday School) ... he introduced "Angie" to us. It didn't dawn on anybody that this was absolutely God's work. Before the Worship Service started another friend and I spent some time talking to Angie and learned that she'd just moved into the area from Florida and that she moved to get out of a bad situation down there. She became a Christian about a year ago. She left all of her friends and family down there and moved up here where the only person she knows is her brother. She woke up Sunday morning and decided that she and her daughter were going to go to church and they just walked over.
After the service, Ruth approached me and asked me if I remembered the "Angie Story" and after I told her that I did, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Duh ... this is ANGIE. The same Angie that Ruth had been praying about for 3 months.
Tuesday morning I sent Angie an email telling her how nice it was to meet her and I hoped that she'd come back. I told her to let me know if she needed anything. She responded a short time later and told me that she'd read in the church bulletin that there was a Food Pantry at the church and she wanted to know what she had to do to get some food. She'd taken a pay cut and used all of her money to move up here and she and her daughter had nothing.
That night I called Ruth and told her that I knew why she'd been praying for Angie. I told her about the email and God started moving again. Ruth had talked to her sister 2 hours before I called and her sister said that she felt like they needed to do something. She said that she had no reason to believe this but she felt like she needed to buy Angie some food. So, Ruth and I came up with this plan to meet at the grocery store a couple nights later and just buy what we could. Before the end of the next day, 2 other people from our class had agreed to pitch in. I emailed Angie and asked her if it would be okay for a couple of us to stop by on the chosen day and prayer with her and she said it would be.
I mentioned the whole story to my pastor and he insisted that I come by the Food Pantry before we went to the grocery store and he would load us up with the non-perishable things ... that way we could the money we'd already set aside to spend on the perishable stuff.
After I'd loaded up with food from the Food Pantry and we went to the grocery store, we went over to Angie's house and told her that we'd brought a "few" things over. We had so much food and we filled up her tiny little kitchen. As we were unloading bags, I realized just how much she needed that food. Her cabinets were empty and her refrigerator had only milk and juice. Now, her cabinets are full and her refrigerator and freezer are busting at the seams.
She didn't understand why we would do something like that. Like Ruth and I talked about while we were planning this, Jesus met people where they were. He met their physical needs first before He met their spiritual needs.
I struggled with whether or not to write about this because I feared that I would be shining the spotlight on myself. Please don't think that's what I'm doing. I'm simply pointing out that God is much bigger than the box I tend to keep Him in. He was preparing Ruth's heart 3 months before Angie even stepped foot into the church. Because we were obedient to what God had put into motion, I walked away with such a blessing.
I challenge anybody who reads my blog to take the opportunity to help somebody else. I promise you, you'll be blessed.
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