A True Tale

A True Tale: This past weekend, John and I were with friends in central and southern Arkansas. We were going to be with 4 groups in 3 days so the schedule was a bit packed. I checked my list o’ things we needed for travel and gave myself a mental pat on the back for “having my act together.” Friday evening, we met with a wonderful group of people and then proceeded to Cracker Barrel where all good conversations continue.

After, we made our way to the hotel nearby. We unpacked and I reached for my iPad to read for a bit. It wasn’t there. I ransacked the room, but no iPad. I went and scrounged in the dark to look in the car. Still no iPad. GAH! I JUST HAD IT IN MY HAND WHEN WE PRESENTED! WHERE COULD IT BE?! We called our friend and he looked all around the area where we had spoken. No go. I just couldn’t believe it. WHERE COULD IT BE?! I almost broke into tears, but simply didn’t have the energy to muster the liquid. I sighed a deep sigh and muttered, “THAT’S a costly mistake!”

I still held out hope that someone somewhere would find it and give me a call. Saturday came and went. We had a great time with friends and made our way to two more cities on Sunday. Still in the back of my mind I kept punishing myself for being absent-minded, forgetful, living sloppily…

I shook myself and put it in the category of “NOT A REAL PROBLEM, PAM!” and shrugged. “It’s a THING,” I told myself, “Just a thing!” I mentally let it go and had moved on. I’d find a work around.

At our last group on Sunday, we entered the building just as a young man was pulling up with a Dell computer tower in his hands. He smiled and said, “I knew you would want to show pictures, but our computer isn’t working so I went to buy one. We had just enough in our bank account to do it!” I paused. He had just what? Bought what? I felt tears forming in my eyes. This small group gave all they had to make sure that we had everything we needed.

It’s been a story that’s been repeated across the country as we’ve been sharing about our work in Africa. He led us in and began to work feverishly. I took a moment to give thanks for such amazing people. Our time with them was rich and as they waved goodbye, we thanked them for all their kindness. We arrived home around midnight, collapsed in bed and didn’t set an alarm.

The next day (as is my tradition after a road trip), I made my way to the drive-thru car wash to get all of the “countryside” off of the car. As the car rode on the automatic rails, the brushes sloshed around and the water sprayed, I made a to-do list for the week including research for getting info from my iPad backup.

I saw light at the end of the car wash and saw an attendant at the end smiling. As I exited the tunnel, he asked me to roll down my window. He said, “I believe you forgot this.” In his hand was my iPad. My perfectly dry and operating iPad. I was so shocked I just nodded, thanked him and drove away. How could? You mean I? This iPad had been on top of our car for FOUR DAYS. We had traveled hundreds of miles, stopped at a number of locations, gotten in and out of the car many times. John had even played the game of don’t-make-me-break-the-cruise-on-the-curves on the way home Sunday night. And yet, here it was…in my hands. The attendant saw it right before it went into the car wash.

I couldn’t wait to tell John and he too just shook his head. “Unbelievable,” he said. “The Lord has surely helped us.” Yes, He has…in so many, many ways.