Information Day

The Lord has allowed me to remember this day vividly just like it was yesterday.

April 11, 2011 started out for me as a typical Monday. Rushing to get the kids to daycare and rushing to get to work. I was up early that day and getting Nora’s bottles ready. The daycare required us to write the date on them so I looked at the calendar and said, “Huh its 411.” Sam and I laughed about it being “411 or information day.” Most of us know “411” as information. I think now it’s become more politically correct to say directory assistance. I dropped the kids at daycare, stopped to get gas, chatted with a friend and then off to Greensboro, NC to deliver polices to some attorneys for work.

I arrived in Greensboro and met my first client. I had some time afterwards to kill so I decided to go to Target to pick up a few things. I got what I needed and headed to the check out to pay. Then the Lord prompted me to get cash back. I really believe it was the Lord because I hardly ever get cash back since I have my debit card. I got $10 cash back. I thought to myself, “Why did I do that? I don’t NEED cash.” I got in the car plugged the next appointment address into my GPS and headed out the main entrance of the Target which was not the way I had come in the shopping complex. 

When I pulled to the light I saw a homeless lady standing to my right at the corner. Her cardboard sign said “have a nice day” and she was smiling. In my head I’m thinking, “just don’t look at her, look at the light, look at the light, KEEP looking at the light.” You know what I’m talking about because you’ve done the same thing. The Lord gently reminded me, “Beverly you have that $10 in your wallet.” I said, “Lord I don’t have time for this! I’m in line here I’d have to get in the other lane, the light is going to turn green. Besides I might NEED that $10 I just didn’t need five minutes ago.” The Lord pricked my heart again, “But you have that $10 in your wallet.” Ok Lord. So I pulled over to the curb and rolled down my passenger side window and said, “Hi how are you?” The woman said, “Well it’s hard out here in the heat trying to get by, and nobody’s hiring, but at least I don’t have to stay out in the streets this man at the motel lets me have a room for $26 a night so I can have a safe place to stay.” I said, “What’s your name?” She said, “My name is Tina.” I handed Tina the $10 and she smiled and said thank you.  The next thing that came out of my mouth was so foreign it sent me into a shock that I even said it, “Tina do you know Jesus?” She said “Ma’mam I’ve fallen away from God and church. I used to go to church but I haven’t been in a long time.” Then I did something even more out of the ordinary for me I said, “Tina can I pray with you right now?” I reached my hands through my passenger side window and held her hands and prayed. For her strength, safety and for her to know Jesus loved her. One of the most amazing things about it was the fact no one blew their horn, not sure how many times the light had turned from red to green or how long it had even been. Tina and I were at that point not defined as a stranger and a homeless lady but two sisters in Christ praying together. We said our goodbyes and I went to my next appointment thinking what in the world just happened? Then Satan started beating me up with things like, “You are crazy! What are you doing that lady could have stolen your purse.” The Lord reminded me I had done what he had urged me to do.

After my last appointment I went to lunch. I sat there and was praying and thanking God for the opportunity and reflecting on what just happened. I still had an unrest in my heart that I wished I had said or done more. I could hear my pastor saying, “It’s good to meet the physical needs of people but let’s make sure we meet the spiritual needs.” I thought Lord what do you want me to do? I prayed with her I gave her the $10. I need to get back to work I don’t have time. I heard him say, “She needs my word.”

 

(Let me stop here for a second. When I say “I heard the Lord” I don’t mean I heard him audibly but I’m talking about those instances we sense in our heart the Lord prodding us to do something. Often times we just ignore Him.)

I kept thinking how am I going to give her a Bible?  I had just taken my “church bag” out of my car I didn’t have a Bible. Besides she is going to think I am LOONEY TUNES if I take her a Bible. (That was the enemy again) I got back in my car and I said ok for kicks and giggles let’s see if there is a Family Christian or Lifeway nearby. There was a Family Christian close. I drove to the address my GPS had led me and the store wasn’t there so I called them. They had moved a few miles away. The clerk gave me the new address and I plugged it in and off I go whining to God the whole time.  I kept thinking, “Beverly are you seriously going to drive across Greensboro to a Bible bookstore to get a Bible? You are crazy!” The super sour attitude kicks in. (That’s the father of lies)

 

I get to Family Christian and I had in mind a Bible I wanted to purchase but they didn’t have it.  They had LOTS of other Bibles but not the one I had in mind. I asked the clerk, “Is there a Lifeway near?” She said yes.  Begrudgingly I said, “How far?” She instructed me. I exit the store and get to my car and audibly out loud ask myself “Are you really doing this? Are you crazy? Just go back in that store and get a Bible and be done with this!” I resisted and headed on to Lifeway whining and complaining and hoping Tina wouldn’t be there when I got back because I didn’t have time.

I found Lifeway and before I went in I called back to my office and told my boss’s wife that I was headed there shortly and she said, “Oh he didn’t expect you back here today.” At that point my whole attitude changed. You see Satan had been trying to talk me out of and give me EVERY excuse in the book to not do what the Lord was clearly telling me to do. He even told me things like “that lady will think you are crazy for giving her a Bible” and “you need to get back home it’s late” or “who are you to tell this lady about your Jesus you didn’t even want to give her $10.” I was exhausted and he was out of excuses!

 

I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough and get into Lifeway. I found the Bible I had been looking for which had the New Testament/Psalms/Proverbs but decided she needed a complete copy of God’s word. Right in the middle of Lifeway were these beautiful $5 Bibles all different colors with different imprints on the cover. I picked a pink one  with flowers of course! I went to the bookmark rack and found a bookmark that had Jeremiah 29:11 on it. Got back in the car and headed back to Tina.

Before I was whining and complaining I didn’t have time to run all over Greensboro to find a Bible and hoping she wouldn’t still be at Target. Now I was crying and asking God to forgive me for my bad attitude and begging him to please let her be there. SHE WAS STILL THERE! I pulled in the parking lot and opened the Bible and wrote her name and wrote from “God’s servant and sister in Christ” and then I wrote the date April 11, 2011 “411”  . . . this Bible. . . God’s words. . .answers. . . truth. . . LIFE. . .  was all the INFORMATION Ms. Tina needed. Friends do you think the date was coincidental? Everyone shake their head no! That’s our Lord teaching me in a very powerful and practical way a series of lessons.

 

I jumped out of my car and ran and grabbed her and hugged her. She was a bit taken back and I said, “Ms. Tina God wasn’t going to let me leave Greensboro until I gave you a copy of His word. I’m not doing this to have a feel good moment today. I’m doing this because God loves you. Do you know this Tina?” She said, “Yes I do.” Then I said, “I haven’t ever been where you’ve been Tina but I’ve been lots of places in my life where the truths in this book is the only thing that got me through.”  I handed her the Bible. She got the biggest smile on her face and said, “Thank you I’ve been wanting a Bible.” She opened it and she said “you wrote my name in it!” She said, “What is your name?” I said, “I’m hesitant to give you my name because I want anything that is done on this corner today all the honor and glory to go to our Lord.” I finally told her my name and we chatted a few minutes more. This time she stuck out her hand for me to shake it. I think she was afraid I was going to hug her again. She said, “When you are back this way again come back by and see me.”

I drove away BROKEN smashed to pieces. Sobbing. Why AM I NOT doing this MORE?? Why do we just drive by or ignore homeless people. Or maybe we do give them some money just to get a Band-Aid on our conscience.  I’m not suggesting you run up and hug the next homeless person you see unless the Lord CLEARLY tells you to do that. What I am suggesting is to stop the tunnel vision. See people as Jesus sees them. Lost, hell-bound, blind in need of a Savior if they don’t know Him. And not just the homeless people we see but all the other people we see in our daily lives. The girl that hands us our Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks twice a week. That cashier that checks us out every single week we are buying groceries. Or the waiter whose service we request at our favorite restaurant.  Do they know Jesus? Have you asked them?

 

I went back to see Tina the next week. This time she ran to hug me when she saw me! We fellowshipped more and she poured out her whole life story to me. She is my sister’s age but weathered and looks much older.  An only child. Both parents deceased within months of each other. Never married. No children. No living relatives that she could remember. What a bittersweet special time we had. I asked Sam I wondered why someone would tell me their whole life story? ME a total stranger! He said, “You are probably the first person who asked.” He was probably right.

Several days later I was going through my receipts and came across the Wendy’s receipt where I had gotten lunch that day. The name of the street I had driven UP and DOWN and ACROSS to find Tina that Bible and where she stood on the corner was called, “Battleground Ave.” How appropriate the street was named. Coincidence? (You know the drill. Shake your head) What a spiritual warfare that was going on with me that day. It was a battleground!

Does the story stop there? No! One week later I was asked to share my story with the prayer team of the WPEC on a conference call. At the end a lady on the line spoke up and said, “Which Target was it?” Another long story short that lady lived in Greensboro and said she would also minister to Tina. Months later I was asked to tell my story at the women’s conference. After the session a young lady approached me and said, “I live in Greensboro and I’ve seen Tina before! I’ll be on the lookout for her as well.” Friends that’s us being the hands and feet of Jesus.  I’ve been back to see her twice more and she hasn’t been there but I still think of her often and pray for her.

4-11 "Information Day" the most valuable information you can give someone is the hope found in a living Savior. Show someone Jesus today!

Isaiah 52:7

 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”