You never know who God‘s going to put into your path. Never know who you’re going to see that needs to hear what you have to say. Never know who it is you’re going to bump into that you might not have seen in a while. Barbara and I pray daily for God to show us people who need to know him. We pray for strength and wisdom for when that time comes. We pray that we recognize opportunities. We also never know who it is that we’re going to see at moments that we need help. Who might be there to assist us with our needs. It’s humbling when it happens though. This morning I’m sharing a story that one of our board members shared with me.
Aric Foster is a retired Army Chaplain. Here is his story: “As everyone knows, a tornado went through the town I live in-Shawnee, OK. Because of all the places that didn’t have electricity, it was hard for me to go and see my patients at the nursing homes. So I had to rearrange my schedule. I have a patient who lives an hour away who needed supplies, and I had some time to deliver them. During my downtime, I checked Instagram and saw where the VA was going to have an event at my tribe’s Veteran Center. It was there to help with PACT screenings, filing claims, check on status, and for veterans who were impacted by the tornado to file emergency grant paperwork. Well, I had to go right by the center at the mission to get to my patient’s house. As I check in, the person at registration tells me someone will be with me to help me. I hear my name called, and it is my recruiter who put me in the Army, and then we recruited together for three years. He was the CO, and I was the XO for an 8 state recruiting region for the National Guard Bureau. Haven’t seen him in person since 2015. So he is the person who is going to help me with some claims I filed that day. So we go through the whole filing process for my additional claims. I need my pact screening and the man who is basically herding that line was a supply Sergeant I deployed to Afghanistan with and I haven’t seen since 2012. Never thought I would have seen those men that day. And I didn’t even know about the event until 11 am and this was about 1:30 when I arrived. It’s amazing how God puts us in the places we need to be. There were some things with VA I needed to do, and with my schedule being rearranged, the door opened for that to happen.”
I really have nothing more to add other than this. We serve an amazing God. Out of a tragedy, came this story. God loves us. He always has. He always will.
