The Cold Night

 

It was the fall of 1980. My family and I, two young sons and my husband had been downtown  at  Williams Park in St. Petersburg . We had been there all day for a concert I was singing in. It was a  Christian celebration to celebrate, worship and entertain with other local bands and do a little advertising for all the different Christian groups in the city that were available to the down trodden and  homeless in our city. We were passing out business cards for a study that met in our home on Tuesday nights. 

The day went as planned and was simply wonderful.

 

The weather was beautiful, the food was scrumptious and everyone had such a great time. We had invited a lot of people to our study and had some really interesting conversations with around 100 people that day.

 

As the sun set we all packed our stuff up from the band shell and headed home.

The night was uneventful. We enjoyed a nice simple dinner and headed to bed around 10.00 p.m.

 

I tucked the children in and prayed for protection through the night, a prayer similar to every nights prayers. After being downtown however I also prayed for the many people on the streets to be safe as well. All those people who didn't have clean, soft beds to sleep in. The children also prayed their fervent prayers for those less fortunate than us.

The prayer brought me to tears. The boys were so precious as they prayed for others to be protected from harm.

After kisses and hugs I turned out the lights and headed down the hall to my room.

Before we jumped into bed both my husband and I

checked the doors to make sure they were all locked, as was the every night routine and then we shut off all the lights throughout the house.

We did that without even thinking it was so common place.

Then we both jumped into bed.

I drifted off to sleep as did my husband in less than ten minutes as the day had worn us both out.

 

I woke up first the next morning. And as always in my normal everyday routine I headed for the kitchen to start the coffee.

The house however felt oddly cool.  I didn't think much of it. I thought maybe I would turn up the heat, but it was just a passing thought.

I then headed toward the living room to go out  front and get the  newspaper that is always on the sidewalk just out the front door.

But today I stopped dead in my tracks before I got to the front door.

 

The window curtains were lying on the floor and the wind was blowing the other curtains throughout the room.. My tall indoor palm tree was lying on it's side with all the dirt spread across the tile floor. There were shoe marks on my leather couch, in dirt! The window was open and the screen was sitting up against the wall  near the window but clearly bent badly.

I was cold standing there in my bare feet in this filthy room. 

I gasped.

Then as I stood there taking all this in I thought what is happening here? Have we been robbed?

Oh my GOD I thought next, The children!

 I then turned and ran into the children's bedroom and pushed the door open. I was afraid of what I might see but that didn't stop me.

I had to know what happened last night. Were my children safe?

Please GOD I thought, let them be safe!

As I opened the door I saw my two young son's sound asleep in their beds. Everything looked in place. Nothing was out of order.

Except the house was very cold!

I watched them for a moment as I tried to understand what had taken place in the house last night. I was so grateful to know the boy's were OK, it was all that mattered to me at that moment! 

So why was this mess in the living room?

What happened?

I heard nothing last night nor did my husband. We never woke up!

I'm really a light sleeper, how could this be?

 

I now woke my husband up and told him to hurry into the living room to see what I had discovered when I woke up.

He stood there in amazement that with all this mess we never heard anything last night.  We both just stood there in amazement. This  had to have made a lot of noise!

I went to call the police to report the break in.

 

When the police arrived, they asked us to check and see where my purse and my husbands wallet were. We checked. They were in plain sight both of them. My purse with cash and credit cards was sitting on the dining room table. Nothing missing from it. My husbands wallet with over $300.00 in cash was sitting on the top of his dresser along with his wedding ring.  Many other expensive items in the room were all accounted for.

 The doors in the living room had still been locked from the inside!

Our night visitor came in and went out the living room window.

But why? Who was it that came in this manner?

 They didn't rob us! They didn't harm us!

What was going on?

 

It was then I remembered the prayer the night before with the children. Asking GOD to protect us.

I saw the faces of the boy's praying with their eyes tightly closed and hands clasped in prayer.

Someone was clearly in the house. Finger prints were taken, the police report had been made, the police thought perhaps a rape was what the perpetrator was after?  Thank GOD that didn't happen either!

 

I know some day after this life is through and I am on the other side of the Veil, the LORD will run the tapes and show me what he protected us all from that cold night.

HE kept us all safe, just as we had prayed.

What was meant to be evil against us was turned into a blessing!

 

 

A Kiss From Above

 

So, it was 1977 and I was at a weekly home church meeting in Clearwater Florida with my family and some very dear friends.

My children, two boys, were very young. Three and five year olds.

They loved getting together with all their friends and were

in one of the other rooms in the large house with all the other children playing, coloring and watching videos.

 

We adults had been at the meeting for a couple of hours and had been singing and jamming on worship songs. It was a really wonderful fun filled time, as I so enjoyed singing and hanging out together with everybody.

 

As we all stood up to pray before the close of the meeting I remember that one of the pastors had said we would all give thanks for all that we had been blessed with in this life thus far.

 

I was immediately overwhelmed with a feeling of thanksgiving.

My life was beyond blessed I thought to myself. I had so much to be thankful for how does one begin to express this to such a great God I wondered?

I closed my eyes and prayed along with the rest of the gang and entered into a wonderful peaceful place spiritually.

There was an abundance of serenity. It was like floating. It really felt warm and wonderful. Safe and loving.

We all started singing very softly as it was evident that I was not the only person in the room feeling very connected with the Holy Spirit.

I felt as if I could just cry it was so peaceful. I whispered inwardly to the LORD how very grateful I was for HIS love and great care of me and my family.

Then something really bizarre and odd happened. I felt a touch on my face on my left cheek, almost like a kiss.

Yes, it was exactly like a kiss. Like a Daddy would give his little girl. It was amazing. It was so powerfully felt I started to cry and spoke right out loud in the meeting and said, "I felt a kiss on my face".

Everyone smiled, we all opened our eyes slowly. Others said they had felt a very similar experience at times when the spirit was overwhelming as it was tonight.

I was deeply moved. That had never happened before that nor since that time again.

How wonderful it is to experience  love like that from the Father.

I will always be grateful for the memory of that day.

My Cujo Moment

 

It was 1990, I was babysitting my 8 year old niece. She wanted to go to the store to get some bubble gum. I just couldn't resist taking her she was so sweet. So we decided to walk the 6 blocks instead of taking the car. We thought we could turn this into a great opportunity to enjoy the wonderful night air.

We set out towards the neighborhood store. We were walking and talking and laughing and just simply enjoying each others company.  My niece was the kindest, happiest little kid. She was always smiling. She loved to spend time with me and I so enjoyed every moment I had to get together with her.

 

We had just gone under the big bridge on 30th Avenue and were nearing our destination.

Out of what seemed to be nowhere a huge German Shepard dog came barreling around the corner. He ran right up to us and jumped up in my face barking and snarling his teeth at me. I was scared beyond belief. This angry huge dog was right at my feet and showing every tooth in his mouth to me. His growl was frightening. I tried to give him a command to sit and be quite and he lunged at my face. He went to bite my arm but I stood as still as a statue. My little niece started to cry and he lunged at her. I spoke without moving my mouth to her and I spoke very slowly. I told her "don't move a muscle, don't speak"! She immediately obeyed me. The Dog than turned back to me growling the whole time. I looked away from the dog as not to make eye contact.

He stayed right at my feet but would not allow either of us to move a muscle.

 

I started praying. I asked GOD to send someone to help us. I felt we needed a miracle. I kept praying! We'd been in the sites of this dog for over 25 minutes and not one person driving by us could tell we were in danger. I started to move my hand up to try to flag a passerby. The dog lunged again at me with every slight movement. My niece was crying and whimpering softly. The dog was growling at her with every whimpering. Showing his large teeth each time. The mosquitoes were now out and we were both being bitten everywhere. My niece was in pain from the bites. I tried to calm her. I had my hand half way up to flag cars now. I tried to wave at a passerby in a truck. He saw me. He pulled his pick up over and backed up. What are the chances he was a dog trainer with the police department? He gave the dog one command and the dog backed up and sat down! He then ran off in the direction he came from. The man in the truck asked us what happened. We both were so grateful. We told him everything. He said he was so sorry this happened. He thought the dog may have belonged to another officer who lived in the vicinity and he must have gotten loose from him.

 

GOD had once again answered prayer! We got our Miracle! We were elated. The police officer asked us if he could give us a ride to the store. He insisted actually because this had happened to us. I asked him first to show us his credentials. He did and verified he was in fact a police officer. So we took the ride to get my niece her bubble gum, and then he drove us back home again.

 

I will never forget this experience. It could have gone so much worse. I cringe when I think of what that dog could have done to us. I'm grateful somehow that dog never hurt either one of us. It was like he wanted to, but just didn't.

Perhaps there was a barrier between us and him.

The spiritual barrier....PRAYER!