Here we see how great God uses his people to help others in need. Most of the time we don’t even know how anyone knew there was a need for help

Surprised By GOD

By JOAN VAIL

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2011 Joan Vail
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4269-6761-0

Contents

BOB...........................1JIM L.........................5BRIAN.........................9MARIANNE......................13JIM 72........................17SHELLY 72.....................31BECKY.........................39DON...........................43JANET.........................47MIKE..........................51JACOB.........................55JEFF..........................63DAVE..........................67JAN...........................75GREG..........................79LARS' KID.....................85

Chapter One

BOB

Bob is a musician. Some years back he was happily working seven nights a week in a very large ballroom. Being self-employed he didn't have such nice things as paid vacations, paid holidays, sick pay and most of all health insurance. He caught a very bad case of flu and strep throat, and was taking a lot of aspirin to keep going on with his work. His wife had decided to stop working at a job outside the home in order to be at home when their teenage daughter arrived home from school each day. So his was the only income at the time.

One day he began vomiting blood and passed out on the living room floor. The technicians who answered the 911 call said he had no blood pressure sitting up and very little when he was lying down. At the hospital, the doctor said he had lost half of his blood as he bled into his stomach. They said he had developed ulcers as a result of the aspirin. Many transfusions later and days in the hospital turned things around. He improved enough to leave the hospital and go home. He was told not to take any aspirin again.

Of course all those days he was sick there was no paycheck, so the small family, wife and daughter, was not doing well. Bob was a new Christian so he didn't know what to do. A few months earlier, in the summer, his daughter had attended Vacation Bible School. The pastor of that church took an interest in the daughter's parents, resulting in Bob's coming to faith.

The day before he was to check out of the hospital, their pastor called at their home. His wife greeted him and as he sat down on the couch, he handed her an envelope full of money. There were 11 denominations of money in the envelope that had been donated by the members of their church for the purpose of paying his hospital bill. The tears began to flow.

The next day when she went to the hospital cashier's office to pay Bob's bill, they looked at her with her pile of bills. She could see the questions in their eyes and she explained to the cashier where all the money had come from. The cashier's mouth dropped open as she took the money. This was another surprise.

The Thanksgiving Holiday was the next week. There was another knock at the door that brought the next surprise. A parade of people from their church came walking in with food for a Thanksgiving dinner complete with a turkey. More tears.

* * *

Each "God Surprise" brings tears of happiness and a whole lot of gratitude. His wife said, had she had time to think about it, it would not have occurred to her to ask God for these things because she was too worried about her husband's health. God not only took care of Bob's health but He also used His people to bring peace, food, healing, faith and financial assistance to this family. It was no coincidence that Bob's daughter attended Vacation Bible School that summer. Bob says it was all part of God's plan.

JIM L.

Jim is a retired math teacher who is also a carpenter. He believes his calling is to help people with their homes, be it to build them or repair them. One of his favorite projects is Habitat for Humanity. He and a volunteer crew traveled down to the Gulf Coast to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. They were there for quite a while and he brought back many pictures of the volunteers including the women, one of which was his wife, who cooked and served meals for them. When he talks about these events, it is not unusual for him to get emotional about these stories. Here's just one of them. He calls it "A Surprise We Weren't Looking For".

In November, 2007, a team of people from several area churches went to Rushford, Minnesota to help the people of that small city recover from a flash flood that damaged or destroyed approximately two-thirds of the homes. On August 19, 2007, the residents had retired for the evening during what appeared to be a normal steady rainfall. By 2:00 A.M. they were awakened by sirens and neighbors rousing neighbors to find the streets filling with water and made escape routes impassable. By the time the rain had stopped, seventeen inches had fallen in thirty hours on the Rush Creek Watershed. Because the water overflowed the levees rather than causing a break, the water was now trapped in the town with no avenue of retreat. The foundations of many of the homes were compromised and they sat at unusual angles.

Our team worked hard for five days to help people reclaim their homes and their lives. By the end of the week we had bonded into a cohesive unit and decided that we should go out somewhere on Friday evening for a dinner together before going our separate ways to our homes. We found out about Judy's Place in nearby Peterson, Minnesota and their wonderful fish dinners. That became the destination for the twelve of us. Upon entering the restaurant my eye was drawn to a plaque hanging on the wall. It said "Live in such a way that those who know you but don't know God will come to know God because they know you".

We had a delicious meal, great fellowship and conversation. In fact, the conversation continued for some time after the meal while waiting for our bill. Finally we asked the waitress staff for our check and were told there was none. We insisted on a check and told them we weren't leaving without one. They returned with our check which read, "Thank you for helping our friends and being Jesus' hands and feet," signed Judy. There were many teary eyes and voices that cracked when they tried to speak as the bill passed from one to another in near silence.

* * *

The free dinner is not the point. It is the way this crew bonded and how the people at the restaurant recognized the grace of God moving among them. There is a story in the Bible about some loaves and fishes being handed out to a bunch of people from the hand of Jesus. The people in that story were surprised by the Lord. So were the people in Jim's story. Once again, many tears were shed.

BRIAN

There was a time while I was attending high school, during which I was quite depressed. We can't always place how this type of affliction comes upon us, and such was the case for me. I didn't quite know how I got into feeling this way, and I didn't really know how to get out of the emotional pit I was in. Like the psalmist, inside I was asking, "How long, O Lord, how long?"

I knew that God had not left me, but I didn't know how to open my heart to feel His love and warmth. Even the most well-intentioned attempts by those close to me to help me talk my way out of this situation did not fully heal me. I felt I was letting everyone down since I could not pull out of this cloud of numbness and aimlessness. Outwardly, I usually kept my composure, so it made it harder for others to address my internal pain. How could they help me when they didn't know I needed help?

Although I didn't know how to get out of the depths of this pit, God was always there. He began to thaw the cold hardness of my heart. I believe God used His people who were already in my life and possibly new ones. I experienced the unwavering support of my family, the exuberance of my younger sister and the concern of my close friends. I began playing guitar with my friend and mentor, Bob. God used all of these people in many ways to help move me out of the murkiness of that depression.

Many things didn't appear as real blessings until I looked back at them with 20/20 hindsight. One of the people that I believe God really used to heal me during this time, was a friend who liked to roller blade. For many weeks, Jake called several times each week to invite me to go rollerblading with him. I often declined, saying that I was too tired or had too much homework. But he was usually persistent enough to talk me into at least a short trip on our roller blades. I didn't realize what a blessing this was until after the fact. I'm not even sure that Jake realized what a great thing he was doing as he did it. Through his persistence in inviting me to rollerblade with him, he was ensuring that I was physically active, in contact with other people and in the midst of God's creation in the outdoors every week. There wasn't much he could say to console me, but I believe that these roller blading trips were a part of God's healing on my brokenness.

* * *

Doctors tell us that going through the teenage years create a lot of upheaval in our children. Many are experiencing great hormonal changes. Many others are growing into adult people they are to become and discovering their new and different places in life. Whether one of these things was controlling Brian's life is not important right now. What is important is that he has grown from a promising teenager to a very loving, giving young man whose life shows love for the Lord. The antidote for depression includes caring people in our lives, physical activity and a change of our every day view of life. It is evident that God used Brian's family, and his friends Bob and Jake to bring healing to him and to give him the wisdom to see God at work in his life. The surprise was Brian's look back to see all the people God used to heal him.

MARIANNE

On a cold day in late fall I put on my winter coat and for the first time. I reached into my pockets for my gloves and felt the round buckeye. It had been sixteen years, but I still have the token. My buckeye is a reminder that I am blessed; a reminder to be a blessing to others.

In 1992 I was a very busy young woman in my career and active in my profession. Elected as the president of my regional professional organization, I was networking and gathering experience and contacts that I hoped would result in a raise or promotion. I was consumed by planning meetings all over the Midwest, arranging for travel, speakers and worrying about how many of my colleagues would attend.

I was far too busy for my congregation, so I quit the church council and stopped teaching Sunday school. Concerned with professional growth, I had stunted my spiritual growth by not taking those few minutes for prayer and scripture reading that had long been my habit. After all, God would not miss me, not with all the stuff going on in the world. Life was good, I had a great job, a loving family, well, I was becoming recognized by colleagues at the national level.

I just didn't recognize myself. My center was gone, empty and all the busyness couldn't fill it. I had forgotten how to pray. I did not know how to start again. What do you say? I felt that God was very far away. But he found me in Lincoln, Nebraska.

It was the day after a successful professional meeting. I had stayed over to visit the newly opened Historic District. Since it was late October, it was freezing at the Farmers Market. It turned out to be the last weekend I would be there for a year. There were preserves, quilts, baked goods and late season produce.

Passing by the cabbage, beets, and turnips, I came to a stall run by a family. A little blonde girl had two big buckets of buckeyes, selling them two for a dollar. I garden a bit, so I began talking to her parents about the produce. The buckeyes puzzled me. After all, what could you do with them? The father quietly explained that more than anything else his daughter wanted to contribute to the family's stall at the Farmers Market. Because she was blind she could not work in the garden, but she could pick up buckeyes off the ground. She could feel them with her feet as she walked under the trees. Promptly shelling out my dollar, I received my two buckeyes with a cheerful, "God bless you" and in that moment I realized that I had been called back, forgiven, and blessed.

So I keep my buckeyes as a reminder of the best deal I ever made.

* * *

Was Marianne praying? No she had forgotten how to pray. She wasn't in a church; she hadn't asked anyone to pray for her. Yet she knew something was wrong. What was the surprise? It wasn't a pastor talking to her or someone witnessing for the Lord. She is back serving her church again. God used one of his little ones; blind, not even knowing what was going on with Marianne. That is how God works. He blindsides us!

JIM 72

On December 22, 2006, my father and I were taking a television set to a needy family. The city has a place where people donate items for the poor. After we dropped it off, we were heading back to the Township when I heard my father yell "Oh my God" and with that I looked in his direction and saw a truck coming at us. He was running a red light. The force of the impact flipped our truck onto the passenger's side where I was sitting and I was scared to death that my father had been injured. He was yelling at me to get him out of the truck. There was smoke, or what I thought was smoke, and I thought the truck was on fire. I quickly realized that it was the powder from the deployment of the airbags. The man who ran the red light was not injured.

I knew I must get my father out of the truck so I climbed into the back seat and was able to get out by the way of the back door. I pulled and pulled on the driver's side door but could not open it. My father kept yelling to get him out. I didn't know what to do because I didn't know if he was hurt or not. I climbed back into the truck and tried to hold him up to ease his pain from hanging on his side. He was still suspended in the seatbelt.

The Fire Department and an ambulance finally arrived and cut the roof off of the truck and they were to safely get my father out. As he was being put in the ambulance I asked if I could ride along with him so I could get checked out at the hospital as well. The EMT was surprised to find out that I had been in the truck because it appeared that I was fine. They called for another ambulance and we were taken to the nearest hospital which was Anderson Hospital in Maryville, Illinois.

At the hospital all of my vitals were taken and everything appeared normal. They also took an x-ray to make sure nothing was broken. When they took me in for the x-ray I started feeling dizzy and lightheaded and I needed to sit down. After the x-ray I was taken back to a room while they were waiting for the test results. At this time, the doctors were very concerned about my father. They thought that he had a back injury so he was flown to St. Louis University Hospital. The nurses wheeled my bed to his room so we could day goodbye. I assured my father I was o.k. and he would be too.

While I was waiting, my blood pressure kept dropping. The test results showed my spleen was lacerated in three places and was actively bleeding into my abdomen. Surgery was the only way to stop it. The ER doctor was called in, a vascular surgeon, to perform the operation. My wife, Shelly, asked about the surgeon and the doctor told us that he was new to the hospital, and he had never spoken with him before he called him to come in for my operation. Needless to say, we were very nervous without knowing anything about this surgeon. We actually inquired about being moved to another hospital where we could have a surgeon that was recommended by our primary doctor. With my blood pressure being so low, I was considered too unstable to be transported. I was scared.

I called my mom, who was with my father, to tell her I had to have surgery, but I told her not to tell my father because I didn't want him to worry or feel guilty. I told her I loved her and to tell my father I loved him too and hung up the phone.

I stayed in the bed with my wife, Shelly while we waited for the surgeon to arrive. When he got there I asked if surgery was the only choice I had. He said if he didn't operate, I would die. Shelly and my youngest sister walked with me when I was wheeled to the operating room. I told Shelly I loved her and to take care of our kids if anything happened to me. I was so scared and so nervous, I really thought I was going to die.

The next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room and being in a lot of pain. I found out it was the next day and the surgery, at this point, was considered successful. The doctor said I would probably be able to go home in a few days. Later that day, I was moved from the ICU to a regular room.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Surprised By GODby JOAN VAIL Copyright © 2011 by Joan Vail. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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