This post will actually be about two women, neither of which I knew well. This goes to show how profound an impact you can have on someone whom you may not really know. As a matter of fact' as I am typing this post for the life of me I can't even remember one of the lady's name. That speaks far more to my failing memory than to her impact, however.
The time was the summer of 1991. I was a devastated, terrified, blubbering mess. John had just moved out - I was a single mom of 3 hurting kids and I had never worked outside my home. There weren't many job openings for jilted preacher's wives and I had no idea what I was going to do. The church was pretty pointed about letting me know that I didn't belong there anymore and they would do just about anything they could to help me leave that little community. I was in no shape to make those kinds of decisions and how could I take my children away from the only home they had ever known when they were already suffering so many changes? So, I was alone. No husband, no church family, no home and no job. Vanessa (little sis) had come to Spearman and taken me back to Abilene to her home. It was a Wednesday night and she was at church - I was at home crying my eyes out still. It was raining like crazy - thunder and lightening almost constant. The phone rings and a voice on the other end of the line says "Michelle, you don't know me but...." This lady in Spearman that I had never met had gone to the trouble of tracking me down to call me. She said, "I've been praying for you and I want to talk to you about what you are going to do next." She operated a day care center in her home and her husband was being transferred to Colorado. She wanted to give me her business. She asked that I come over to her house when I returned home. I was so touched that someone would go to that much trouble when they didn't know me at all but I didn't seriously consider her offer. Not because it wasn't enticing but because I was a total mental case. I couldn't decide what to eat or wear at that point. Weeks later I was back in Spearman when she called again and asked me to come to her house. I did and she opened up her books, showed me how much money she made - the works. She then pulled out a bunch of paperwork from the government and said "In order for you to be a registered care giver you need to fill these out and register w/ the state. I've taken the liberty of paying the fee for you already - you just need to sign." I left there thinking maybe we wouldn't starve to death after all but still not sure I wanted or could do this. It was that very same week that my phone rang again. "Michelle? You don't know me but my name is DB and I run Snoopy's. I'd like to talk to you about that. Could you come over?" Snoopy's was the town's only day care in a stand alone facility. It was on the same block as my house and I walked down the alley and was there in a few minutes. She opened up her books and said "I've been wanting to open a bakery for years and I think the time to do that is now. I'd like to give you my business. I've talked w/ my husband and we'd like to offer you the building for a year rent free. After 6 months you could begin paying the utilities and then next year you could pay rent too. I want to give you my clients as well."
Okay, Lord. I get it. I'm going into the day care business. It's no accident that day care was and remains, a passion. I just connect to little kids and I love them to death. So was it all one big luck of the draw that the one career I didn't need anything for except the skills I already possessed was being handed to me, not once but twice? At one time I might have actually believed that. But no more. God was so faithful. He's faithful to me always - but in those days I was privileged to witness it in dramatic, way out of the box ways. God took two women I didn't know and who shared faith in him that was expressed in vastly different ways but they united to bless me and my family. They taught me that God was still very active in the lives of his people and he was going to go with Matt, Tyler, Katie & I as we walked the lonely road that we had been dropped off on.
I opened that day care business licensed to care for 12 kids. I had 12 clients on opening day and I had 12 clients a year and a half later when I moved away. We were amply, abundantly provided for and never, ever once did I worry about money.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (Ephesians 3:19-20)
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