God works in crazy ways...

You know when you get those chances to try and share the gospel with a lost person you'll probably never see again?
That happened to Ben and I last night, except, it was crazy after the whole thing, to ponder how God worked in it....I don't believe in just "coincidence" ..God has planned every second of our lives for a reason.

[Insert funny thing that just happened-- my cockatiel just climbed down my arm and onto the keyboard and is right next to my fingers demanding my attention...she likes to be scratched behind her ears....lol! Okay...on to what I was saying....]

Let me start with this (planned out) meeting of the girl walking down the street in front of our apartment building.
Ben and I had just gotten home from my cousin's senior recital, and it was about 10pm. We were both kind of tired and had some stuff to unload out of the car. As we were pulling into our parking space, I noticed a girl walking down the street in flip flops, a long blue dress, and a coat she was pulling close to try to keep warm. She was a very petite girl, and was clutching a whole box of cigarettes. I had never seen her before, and by the way she was dressed, I thought she had just run down a few apartments to visit someone in the other complex and was just walking back.

However, as we got out of our car, she turned back and started walking towards us, and she looked at me and said "Hey..."

I wasn't sure if she was talking to me at first, but she was, so I asked what was up?
She began explaining she needed to get home, but didnt have a car, and her phone was dead so she couldn't call anyone to come and get her. She told us she had been wandering around in the cold for about a mile looking for someone to take her.
I wasn't sure what Ben was thinking, and I really wanted to help, but I didn't want to make the call and usurp his authority.
We kinda looked at each other for a minute though, and then accepted, but she lived way across town, so Ben had to pull out a map to find the route.
She sat kinda of hunched over in the back of our car, probably half frozen and who knows what else.

As we pulled away, I knew exactly the reason God had us in that situation, and that she was another opportunity to share the love of God with her, and to ask her what her eternal future held.
Ben struck up that conversation a few minutes into the drive after some vague conversation, and to my surprise, she didn't shoot down the topic or refuse to answer any of our questions-- but I always think it so sad all the excuses that people make up these days.
She kept saying she would never die, and that she didn't have to worry about heaven or hell.

We obviously explained the opposite the entire car ride to her duplex, and I'm hoping she was receptive enough last night to remember everything we told her.

We left her with a promise to pray for her, though she told us she didn't want a bible upon our offer.
I don't know why, but my heart always goes out to people I meet like this.
I always wonder how someone's life like Renay's would change if only they accepted Jesus and lived with a different purpose.

We did pray for her, and I prayed some for her on my own at home too.

Ben and I talked about the whole situation on the way home and have wondered whether God sent us that girl for the benefit of her, or for ours. We were sobered in remembrance of our most important task on this earth, and reminded of what it was that God saved us from!

After we left too, we realized what had happened in order for us to be at the apartment the exact time that girl showed up.

That night we had been at my cousin's senior recital, and for some reason, we milled around and were the last ones with her and her family.
We ended up taking her back to her apartment on campus, and I decided to run in and get some stuff I had left there.
After we left her apartment, I had a bit of a queasy stomach, so I asked Ben if we could stop and grab some 7up or something from the gas station. We did stop, and it wasn't until we were done there that we pulled into our apartment complex.

Think of all the things God allowed to happen so we could meet that girl and share the gospel with her!!
God works in such amazing, mysterious ways, and I am continually astounded at how He works in our lives. Though we may not understand His purposes, we can still praise Him for how He works in our hearts and lives to make us and sanctify us to be more like His Son!!
Praise God!
Eph. 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen!