After only a two day stay in Phoenix, we hit the road to drive to Palm Springs, CA. Palm Springs was a stopping point for us. A place to take a day off (a much needed day off after 6 weeks on the road, driving and ministering to the homeless!) We planned to stay in Palm Springs for two days, and had budgeted to stay in a hotel for those two days (the only real way for us to completely unplug.)
We arrived at our hotel, and were so excited to see how beautiful it was. Were we in the right place? We had booked our $49 a night hotel off of hotels.com, so we weren't really expecting much. As it turns out, our $49 a night cheap hotel was a $300 a night resort! (That's what happens when you're the daughters of the King; you get treated like princesses. :)
I just gotta tell you though, that you never know where the Lord will place you to touch someone's life, and that's just what happened to us there. We were so tired that we decided to get help taking our luggage to the room. I drove my car up to the porte cochere and Will, the bell captain, greeted us with a beautiful smile and said “How can I help
you?” Sheepishly, we asked him to take our luggage
to our room.
I was almost embarrassed to
open the doors to my car. Two women on
the road for a year – we had to bring ALL our stuff…..ha ha. He just smiled and loaded it all up. The cart was full! Kathy followed him to the room while I parked the
car. When I got to the room, Kathy was
talking to Will and said to me, “He was homeless until today.”
She said as they were walking to the room and talking, he asked what we were doing on the road and she told him our story. He looked down and started telling her about
how he’d been through a heart breaking divorce, and had lost his company and
his home. (Man did that sound familiar!)
Will told me more of his story. He said that after 27 years of marriage, his
wife had moved off to Arkansas and left him.
She took over $5000.00 out of his checking account and left him with
$80.00 and nowhere to live. He ended up in a transitional home. He was working 3 jobs trying to pay off the bills his wife had left behind, and one night he thought he was having a heart attack and ended up at the hospital. The doc told him that if he
didn’t let go of some of the work and stress, he would have a heart
attack.
I shared with him that I understood because I'd had someone leave
me after over 15 years, and that I also thought I was having a heart attack, but it was just the
stress and anxiety of what I was living through. I told him he just had to turn it
over to God, and he said “I did!” I asked if I could pray for him.
We all held hands, and I began to
pray. I prayed for his health, stress
relief, clarity and wisdom on what to do next and for him to let God take care
of him. I told him how much God loved
him and not to worry. When I was through
praying for him, he was wiping tears from his face. He hugged me and was so thankful for that
prayer. He left and went back to work.
The next
night, we were in the lobby of the hotel about to go eat. Will saw me and ran over and gave me a big
hug and said “Thanks so much for that prayer.”
His face was shining and smiling, different from the day before. I knew God was with him, and I was so
happy. It showed me what a prayer can
do. (It's why I pray with everybody I can.)
I
wish I had a picture of him to show you, but I don't. But I have a picture of his face and his big beautiful
smile in my heart because he blessed me.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you . . . when we got to the hotel, they
were sold out of the $49 rooms so they put us in a suite for the same
price! And an awesome hot breakfast was
included for free. It’s a hotel where Desi
Arnez and Lucille Ball hung out when they were living. It was beautiful. God has a sense of humor…he treated us just
like what we are….his princesses. To the
King of ALL. Hope you enjoy this story,
we felt like we were in heaven on earth. Now we are rested and ready to battle against Satan
for more people for the Kingdom.
Sammie
(just for fun, I thought I'd show you guys why we appreciate those gas cards so much! Keep 'em coming!)
No comments:
Post a Comment