The Kindness of a Friend

In the month of June, 1999, I began to fervently pray for God to provide for me to be able to fly home and see my Mom, who lived in Florida, before she passed away.

My husband was in Bible College in Indiana at the time and we had already spent all the extra money we had in sending me to see her a few times before this.

This was such a stressful time. I wanted to be with my Mom as much as I could, my husband and teenage daughters needed me to be at home with them, so I was always limited in how long I could stay. My five sisters wanted me to be there more than I could afford to be . . . it was such a stressful time. Such a very stressful time.

I remember on the night of June 17th, after exhausting every initiative I could think of to get the money I needed in order to fly down to see my Mom, who was now in a coma, one last time, I locked myself in the bathroom and ran some hot water in the tub and stepped in to soak and pray.

"Dear God," I prayed, "I don't know what to do. My Mom is dying and I want to be there with her. My sisters are there. They want me to be there. But I have no way to get there. We have spent all the extra money we have. My husband is in Bible College. He can't get away. My Mom is dying. I don't know what to do. I just don't know what to do."

At this point I was sobbing and the telephone was ringing.

"Julie," my husband said as he knocked on the bathroom door, "It's your friend Mishel from California is on the phone. She wants to speak to you."

"Tell her I will call her back in a minute. I will get out of the tub and call her back in a minute."

"Okay," he said.

So I got out of the tub, dried myself off, got dressed and called my friend Mishel.

"Hi Mishel," I said.

"Hi Julie, listen, my husband and I have been talking about what you are going through and we want to send you the money to fly out and see your Mom."

Tears just began to flow and flow. My friend Mishel is such a sweet lady. I met her and her family when my husband was stationed in 29 Palms, California. She is such a good and giving friend. Everyone that knows her loves her. And I love her too.

"What?" I said, "You want to do what?"

"We want to give you the money to fly to see your Mom. We will send it immediately."

And that is exactly what they did. These dear friends of mine sent me $300.00 so that I could purchase a plane ticket to go visit my Mom.

Mishel Ferguson is an amazing Christian woman and a very kind and generous friend.

She and her family have been going through some very tough times lately. Her husband has become ensnared of the devil and taken captive by him at his will. It is a heartbreaking situation. I think about them and weep for them every day. I wish I could do something to fix her broken heart. I wish there was some amount of money that I could spend to turn her husband's heart around.

But there isn't. Money can buy plane tickets to visit dying loved ones, but money can't purchase what is needed to bring back a sinful heart.

Only prayer and love can do something like that. And so, in an effort to show kindness to my good friend, I am offering up to God three hundred dollars worth of prayer. Prayer for Mishel as she grieves over the loss of that man who WAS a good, loving husband to her and a good Christian friend to others . . . and prayer as she moves forward and tries her best to set up some sort of a new life in Omaha, Nebraska.

"Dear Lord, I pray that you will bless my friend Mishel in a special way as she moves forward into the unknown. As she gets a new job, makes new friends, and settles into a new place. This would be a scary thing for her to do if she didn't have You . . . but she does. She has You and she loves You and I know that You have gone before her with thoughts of peace, and not evil, to give her an expected end.

And Lord, I pray for Rande too. Please do whatever you must to remind him of the good man he was. The good man that you made him to be. The good man that he should be."

You know, even though I bought that plane ticket that my friend Mishel and her husband sent me money for and I was able to fly to Florida just a few days after I spoke with my friend Mishel . . . I never was able to see my Mom alive again. She ended up passing away the night before I came.

I don't pretend to understand why this happened. But it happened. And what I learned from it is that life doesn't always work out the way we think it should. But it does always works out the way it goes. And as it goes, is how we must learn to deal with it.

I made the decision way back when to just trust the Lord and let Him lead. I don't look back, think around, or try and change what is coming . . . I just accept what God has allowed and depend on Him for the wisdom and strength to do the next things.

And this is exactly what my friend Mishel is doing. Accepting what she can not change and moving forward.

I'm praying for her as she does, and I would like to ask for you to pray for her too.