A week ago, I was driving home down Rainier Avenue.
Now, I've seen a lot of strange things while driving
this stretch of road, but what occurred last Monday
was one for the books.
I was stopped at the corner of Rainier and MLK, and I
noticed a lady in a Honda next to me getting really
excited. She shouted something at me, that I couldn't
quite hear, so I waved and took off when the light
turned green. Nothing odd, I thought, people are
always shouting in traffic on this street. And what
they shout is not always so polite. But I chose to
believe in the positive nature of her shout, and so
the polite wave.
Two blocks down, she pulled up next to me again, and
rolled down her window. I thought "OK, it must be
really important to her." I looked over and saw an
African American woman, about my same age (early 40s),
who was very animated. "I just love your car," she
said. "If I had a car like that, I'd die happy!" I
stated that my husband had bought me the car. She
said, "You take good care of him. A man like that is
hard to find. If I had a man like that, I'd be sure to
take real good care of him." The light turned green,
as I said "I bless God for him every day. AND he does
the vacuuming." As I pulled away I thought I heard a
cry on the wind "Dear JESUS!" I said to myself, I hope
that woman has a good day! She must have been very
impressed with that last comment. Maybe it wasn't fair
to throw out the parting shot about vacuuming... Hmmm,
was I gloating and bragging too much about Kevin?
Going home, I had intended to stop at Walgreen's and
pick up a prescription. I pulled into the drive up
window and asked for my order... As I was waiting I
heard a voice through the passenger window. "I just
had to let you know, you really blessed me! I was
giving up hope..." I looked over, it was the Honda
lady. She must be really excited. So we talked.
She said, "I'm on my way to church right now. What's
your husband's name?" I told her Kevin's name. She
then said, "I'm gonna go to church and I'm gonna pray
to get me a Kevin. I had given up hope in Jesus, that
he really cared about me. Hearing about your husband
made me repent and believe again that there is a God."
At that point I was having a good time of it, so I
said "And he cleans the bathrooms." She threw up her
hands and cried out "JESUS!" in a very loud voice and
began dancing around.
Well, the lady in the car behind me couldn't handle
it. So she leaned out her window and asked us to take
our revival elsewhere. All she wanted was to pick up
her husband's heart medication. I explained that I
still hadn't received my prescription and that the
pharmacist should have it any moment now.
Back to the Honda lady: She then told me that she was
so blessed by my testimony about my husband. She was
determined to renew her faith and go back to church.
She had given up all hope and was so lonely. I
encouraged her that even if she didn't find a "Kevin"
of her own that Jesus could and would give her
everything she needed to carry on. She walked away
talking to her self. I'm not sure what the gist of it
was, but every once in awhile I heard "JESUS" being
exclaimed.
The pharmacist then came to the window and gave me my
prescription. As I drove off, I heard the lady behind
me asking the Walgreen's guy if he had revivals
happening in his drive up line on a regular basis... I
think he must have been real confused. He had missed
the entire scene.
Which leads me to my new plan for evangelistic
outreach in the valley. I just drive around a bit and
...