The GIFT

So, it was 1978. The LORD had  guided me to help a young mother and her sister through some tuff times for them. The Husband of the sister worked in a chemical company that produced famous brand Shampoos and Body lotions and the like.

A few miracles had taken place while we all walked a very difficult road together for a season and The husband wanted to do something for me to repay their gratitude. How silly I thought, I hadn't done anything but pray for them and help them through a hard few years.. The husband and his wife had come to my attention through her sister and we all experienced the GRACE of GOD in miraculous ways together over a four year period. It all had nothing whatsoever to do with me. It was the LORD who blessed us all! I was just the blessed human who experienced the miracles along side these folks.

The husband would not take no for an answer from me! He kept offering me money, gifts, and the like, to repay me for my kindness.  I kept turning him down, firmly no! No favor I pleaded, PLEASE, stop!

He was so determined to do something for me, thinking I deserved it somehow. He was really very sweet, and thankful.

So being that he worked in management for a major chemical company he choose to do something for us in a practical manner. He drove by my home very early one day and left two, one gallon bottles of the company's most famous shampoo and conditioner on the door step.  I was passing the front window that morning and I saw something go by the house,  and looked quickly out the window as he dropped off "something". I then watched him get into his car, close the door, and then Drive away,  I got up from the kitchen table and went to the door wondering what had just happened here? I saw the two gallon jugs sitting there on the bricks with a note and curly colored confetti attached to them. The note read "please except SOMETHING for our gratitude", we love you! After I read the note, I laughed and said to myself, "well now this is a great gift", we can surly all use this! 

With that I closed the door and went into the house and put the shampoo and conditioner in the shower and didn't think of it again!

It just left my thoughts.

We used the "gift" every night with every shower, my husband and my two boys and myself. I marveled at how having a gallon of this stuff really made a difference as it seemed to never run out.

I thought to myself, from now on, I'm always buying in this bulk size!  It lasts forever! And again I forgot about it.

Life went on and showers happened every night!

A year later I was at the store and I was going over my grocery list. I thought to myself, gee, I'm so sick of that gallon of shampoo, perhaps I should get something new? I was sick of looking at the big jug on the shelf in the bathroom! But then I thought, "well, it's more frugal to wait until it runs out I guess, were not millionaires, I won't spend the grocery money on shampoo if I still have some left, It does smell really good and heck, we have hardly used any of the conditioner"!

So with that I again just forgot about it.

A year later, YES, a year later, I looked at that large jug of shampoo and conditioner and said, "HEY, wait a minute here, this is still half full"! "How can that be"? "What's going on here"? I asked my boys and husband if they remembered the kind husband two years ago that dropped this off to us as a gift? They all said, "yes", I said, hey guy's, that was two years ago! We still have shampoo and conditioner left! This is a miracle! There is no other way to explain it. My oldest son Jason said "Mom, I use that every night" I said as do I, and I use it on your brother, and my husband said I have also only used that stuff! We all sat there quietly for a moment and then just burst into laughter! Why? Shampoo? Really?

YES, really! It was an anointed gift. GOD showed us great favor.

We to this day still talk about the miraculous shampoo incident.

Miracles happen every day, we don't always recognize them but none the less they happen!

I'm grateful, very grateful to see how GOD cares for us in ways we would never expect!

It's hard to believe I just forgot about it over and over for two years. I wonder if the LORD allowed me to "Not recall" how long we were using the "gift" so we would experience that wonderful moment together?

Truth my friend is always stranger than fiction!

A Battle Won

So, it was the summer of 1977. I was in my first home in Florida .
I had been praying and asking the LORD to speak to me as how I could serve HIM.  I was the Mother of two young boys which was a full time job and yet I wanted to do more, If I could.

I had been helping a young mother and her 3 children rehabilitate their lives and finally there was relief after a year, so I felt I was ready for what was next to come.

While speaking that day with Hilary, (the woman I was helping with her children) she shared, she had a sister that was pregnant from a one night stand a few months earlier with a co-worker, and was heading off to an abortion clinic the next day to terminate the baby. Hilary knew I didn't believe in abortions. 

When I heard of this I asked her to please let me speak to her sister before she went for the abortion! She said her sister was the sort of girl who was very head strong and she didn't think she would welcome me or my thoughts. I said OK, but just let me try, Please!

She called her sister, Jennifer, and said she had someone who had been helping her and her kids for the last year, and wondered if she would allow her friend "Teri" to talk to her. Jennifer said,

"no way, I don't need anybody or their pressures on me now at this time"!

She told Hilary she wanted to end the pregnancy and get on with her life. She said this was just a momentary set back, embarrassing and unwanted, it was just unfortunate and she was going to ask the "one night stand guy at work, Brian", to help with the money for the abortion. 

Hilary asked her to "just come and pick me up at Teri's" the next day so she could go with her to get the abortion. Hilary was still staying in my home at that time with her 3 children, so she gave Jennifer my address and said she would see her in the morning.
I was babysitting Hilary's girls for her as they went to the clinic together.

The next day when Jennifer arrived to pick up Hilary, Hilary waited for Jennifer to come to the door. I had asked her to do this so I could meet Jennifer and possibly speak with her.
I was committed to helping her change her mind about the abortion!

The plan worked, and Jennifer made her way to the front door.

I asked her in and told her Hilary was getting ready.

As I spoke to Jennifer alone, I felt the LORD say to me audibly and very clearly, "help her change her mind". With that I knew now what I needed to do. I spoke to Jennifer and told her that I was willing to pay for all hospital and doctor bills for the birth of this baby and also allow her to move into my home so I could help her save money to begin her new life once the baby was born, no strings attached, she could move on with her life, and keep all her money! I also told her I would fully support her, food, clothes and all as well as find a home for her baby if she did not want it.

Jennifer thanked me and said she didn't think so. I could see her tears, but she was determined to abort. She said she didn't want to be a mother! She had spoken to "Brian" and he was going to give her the money for the abortion. He agreed he didn't want anyone to know about the baby at work and he was willing to help her "deal with it".  He was meeting them at the clinic later to pay for the surgery.

With that, Jennifer and Hilary walked out the door and headed to the clinic.

I fell on my face before the LORD as soon as I closed the front door, and cried out to GOD! I said "LORD, hear me now! I did all I could for that child, everything humanly possible to save it, but I ask again to change her mind, just miraculously change her mind"! It was no small prayer"! I was shocked that as I cried out I felt this was a baby boy I was fighting for! Being the Mother of two young boys I could not bear the thought of murdering a baby boy!

I knew Jennifer was desperate, I understood her pain, but still I wanted to change her thinking. I was not judging her, I only wanted to save the life of this child!
 

That night, Jennifer and Hilary ended up back at my home. Jennifer had not had the abortion! She said my offer caused her to rethink the whole thing! She said someone at the clinic showed her what abortion looked like in a pamphlet, and it scared her!  So, she moved into my back bedroom in my small home and we were on! She had some Insurance from work we found she could utilize for a pregnancy. This was a huge blessing for me! I thought I was going to have to put a second mortgage on my home!  She remained with me for three months. Brian, "the one night stand" from work, began changing his mind about Jennifer the longer she was pregnant with his child and they actually started dating! That was a shock! Jennifer and I began praying together every day. He asked her to move into his apartment with him, and she gladly accepted this!

WOW, now she was 6 months pregnant, and there was talk of marriage! I was so blessed I could only shout "Thank GOD" over and over again. This was the MIRACLE I had hoped for!

The rest of the story is so beautiful, three months later Jennifer and Brian welcomed a new baby BOY, they named Bradley, into their lives. I still cry when I think of what might have happened to him!

I am so grateful, I went out on a limb for Bradley and GOD showed me PRAYER works!

There is so many more miraculous things that happened in this story but this is all I will share here.

Truth is stranger than fiction, and believe me,

Prayer does really work!