Have you ever had a God-appointment?  An unplanned meeting with someone who seemed to be placed in your path by the Lord for His purposes?   I had a God-appointment last night.

A stranger knocked on my kitchen door at about 11:15 last night as I was sweeping and the rest of the family was getting ready for bed.  She was sobbing and said she needed to use my phone to call the police. As I quickly questioned her ~ was she hurt? had she had an accident? ~ she said that she lived nearby and was having problems at home and needed to talk to someone. She was obviously distraut, so I quickly informed my husband that I would be out on the porch talking to this lady for a few minutes.  I could smell alcohol on her breath, and she told me that she and her husband had gone out to a bar to watch the Hurricanes-Oilers hockey game, and had an argument on the way home and he just stopped and told her to get out of the car in front of my house. She lived in a neighborhood about a mile down the road. She asked me if I was a Christian, and when I said Yes, she thanked God for sending her to my house, and told me that she was saved at age 14 and she and her sons went to a local evangelical church, but her husband was not a believer, was an alcoholic, and was verbally abusive. She said that she normally didn't drink, but had had "several beers" on this night to show her husband that she could go out and have fun too.  But that he got angry and jealous because she was talking with other people at the bar.....  I invited her in. She insisted that she didn't want to go home, ever, that she was tired, that she couldn't believe that she was sitting in a stranger's kitchen like this...  I prayed with her, comforted her as best I could.  I kept asking if there was someone I could call ~ a friend, her pastor, family.  At first she kept avoiding the question. I think she was embarrassed that someone she knew would see her like this. I was wondering what I was going to do, with it getting on toward midnight.  Finally, she mentioned the name of a friend from church, so I looked up the number in the phone book and called her, and she came to the house and picked up this lady. The friend actually recognized my name and was a friend of a friend; knew I was a homeschooler. 

So please pray for Tammy and her husband, as they obviously need help and healing in their relationship, and for her 13 & 14 year old sons. I'm grateful that I was available to offer comfort to someone who was hurting. I had a flash of apprehension, wondering if I should invite a hurting stranger into my home late at night.  Probably not on the list of "advisable things to do in today's world".  But how could I turn her away?  I had to trust the Lord to guide me in that situation. 

May you be available for God-appointments in your life.

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