Last night was a blessing that I almost missed because I was afraid….

Last night I was supposed to work the Compassion table at the Josh Wilson Carry Me Tour.  When I first signed up to work at the concert it was scheduled to be held in Florissant Missouri.  If you listen to the news you have probably heard of the rioting that has been going on in Ferguson which is in Florissant. For some reason the fact that the concert was in Ferguson hadn’t really crossed my mind yet… so that was not the reason I was afraid.

The reason I was afraid was because at the last minute they switched the concert to a place that is really far away from where I live and that I had never been to before.  The concert was switched to Wentzville Missouri at the last minute because of the rioting going on in Ferguson the people in charge of the tour decided that it would be much safer in Wentzville.  Wentzville Missouri is about an hour and 15 minutes away from my house and it would be really late when the concert was over.  I was nervous about driving home so far in the dark by myself and to top matters off it was pouring down rain and I can not see well at night driving in the rain.  So there I was faced at the last minute with going to somewhere I have never been before, in the dark and in the rain.  About 4 hours before I was supposed to be there I decided I was not going to go.  It just did not seem like a very smart thing to do.

After I made my decision that I was not going to the concert it still would not leave my mind.  My common sense kept saying I should stay home where it was safe but no matter how much I tried to ignore it I I kept getting this nudge to go.  I even prayed about it and I still heard go, but I kept saying, “no your just feeling that way because you just want to go and you also feel guilty for cancelling” and I still decided to stay home.

About 2 hours before the time I was scheduled to be there another of my advocate friends sent me a text message that asked if I had signed up to work that night.  I told her yes I had signed up but that I could not go because of the rain and the dark and my not being able to see in it issues.

After her message no matter what I did I could not rest.  Finally I was like okay I know the Holy Spirit is telling me to go.  I then said, ‘OK God if you really want me to go I will go, but seriously this is crazy going out on a pouring down rainy night to a place I have never been in the dark!  I threw myself together and got in my car and took off.

When I left my house it was still light outside but it was pouring down rain so hard I could barely see to drive in the daylight but I kept going and it kept getting darker from the rain clouds and raining harder and harder.  But then about 30 miles into my drive I noticed the rain was letting up just a little bit.  The man on the radio giving the weather forecast said it was supposed to keep raining all night.  Against my own better judgement I still kept going.  My brain said this is dumb by oddly I felt more at peace going than I did staying at home where it was ‘safe’.

About another 10 miles of driving and I drove out of the rain.  Go figure… LOL! so I laughed and said to God, “Now if you can just make it not rain anymore tonight.”  I will admit I said that sarcastically never actually believing that he would.

You guessed it….It was dry the rest of my trip there…

Once I got to the concert I met up with the rest of those who were helping and we set up our table of child sponsorship packets from Compassion International and talked to people who had questions about child sponsorship.

There were 3 music artists for this concert, Dan Bremnas, Citizen Way and headlining the tour was Josh Wilson.  Not only did we work at the Compassion table but we were also able to hear and watch a lot of the concert.

This next part is kinda cool, funny and a little bit embarrassing all rolled into one.  I am a HUGE HUGE  Josh Wilson fan.  His story and his songs hit  close to home for me in so many ways.  A lot of the time we don’t get to see the entertainment when we go to these events but I was soooo hoping I would get to at least catch a glimpse of some of Josh’s part of the concert. I am sure you can imagine I was really excited I would be able to do that.  When we first got there to work we were met by Becca who was the organizer and our leader for the night.  She was such a sweet girl with a southern accent and her personality was so contagious, she seemed to just radiate joy. I knew Josh Wilson’s wife’s name was Becca and it did not take me to long before I realized yep she was THE Becca, Josh’s wife.  Oh goodness I was hanging out with Josh Wilsons wife (star struck) 😉

About halfway through the performance we do a packet pass with the audience.  One of the music artists got on stage and told his story about his Compassion child.  We had been told to stand at the top of the isles  until we were called down to the front by the stage to pass packets.  We had been told that some of the ‘guys’ would come out to help us when it was time to pass packets so I was standing in my isle and a young ‘guy” came up to the same isle as me with child packets in his hands.  I started talking to him because we were sharing the same isle. We talked about nothing big, just chit chat about how we would split the isle, etc….

Eventually we were called to come down and stand in front of the stage, I was standing now in front of the stage with my new friend standing right beside me.  The music Artist on the stage talked about what was involved in sponsoring a child and then he said “if you sponsor a child tonight you will also get a free CD from this man right here,” as he points to my new friend and  he says, “Josh Wilson.” Thankfully no one could hear what was going on in my head… OH MY GOSH!  I had hoped to maybe catch a glimpse of him singing but I had done even better! Though it was short lived I HAD JUST BEEN HANGING OUT WITH JOSH WILSON!  lol cool! I can be such a ding dong at times why did I not know that it was him in the first place??. In my defense he did have on glasses which he did not wear on stage and it was dark in the room with bright blinding lights swooping around….at least that’s my story and I’m gonna stick to it 😀

After the packet pass we went back to the table and I was thinking if someone had told me I was talking to Josh Wilson I would never have been able to speak to him.. I am so shy and I would have been star struck and tongue tied.

I got to thinking later about that…Wondering why do I act like that?  When I did not know who he was he was just a normal guy just like I am a normal girl.  Both of us were doing our job.  Why in my mind did I put him up on a pedestal?  I am so glad I did not know it was him when I talked to him because I really love that I got to meet him and see who he really was.

I think maybe there is a lesson in here somewhere… There is always a lesson, huh.

A lot happened last night; There was this one other thing that happened that I want to tell you about.  When we first got there and were setting out child packets a packet of a little girl in a pink dress from Haiti jumped out at me. I just had to pick up her packet from the table and look at it.  Her birthday just so happened to be July 2 which is my anniversary too.  I kept thinking maybe I should sponsor her but then also at the same time that I should not.  All night long every time someone would come to the table I would hope they picked her because for some reason I was really wanted her to have a sponsor but nobody took her.  Right before the packet pass that I just told you about we were each given a stack of packets that we would hand out, with hers staying behind on the table.

As we were heading into the auditorium and I walked away from the table I felt the urge to grab her packet from the table and I did.  I put her packet it on top my stack that I had in my hands knowing fully that she was the first one I would hand out, and she was.

I  didn’t think anything else about her packet after that until right at the end of the night a lady came to the table to bring her payment for the child she was sponsoring and I noticed …she had HER!  The little girl in the hot pink dress! The lady and her own little girl were so excited to sponsor her and she looked to be close in age as the little girl who was sponsoring her.  I could feel God speaking in my heart right then and I knew at that moment that all of this had been planned out way before this night had ever even started.

The rest of the evening went really well.  We had 38 children who now have new sponsors so that was pretty awesome!

After the concert I got in my car to go home and it was still NOT raining even though on the radio they kept saying that it was raining. Guess what?… I never saw so much as a sprinkle on my way home.

Do you see what happened here?? God had me covered.  He wanted me to go and as always when God asks, he will work out the details.  Something else… whenever God asks us to do something and we answer yes there is usually always a blessing somehow tied to it.  I had a wonderful pile of blessings sprinkled throughout my night.  Blessings I would have missed had I not gone. I am so glad I did 🙂

If you are interested in knowing more about child sponsorship through Compassion you can click HERE.  

Thanks so much for reading today,

If you would like to read the rest of the posts in this series you can click the picture below

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