Brenda

So, I met “Brenda” during one Saturday last summer at a Target shopping center in Huntsville.  I was putting some Petco goods in my trunk when she approached me.  She said to please not think that she was a crazy person, but that she was in a real bad bind and needed some help.  She went on to tell me that she had several children and her husband had just up and left and abandoned them and she was out of food and needed help – the churches were closed until tomorrow (as it was a Saturday) and she didn’t know how she was going to feed her kids supper this nite, but she was going to get help from a church tomorrow.  Well, I am real skeptical and leery to talk to people who approach me like this, but her story was quite touching and I had just put about $80 worth of pet food in my trunk and this lady is begging for food to feed her hungry children.  I was still a bit skeptical (we may need to come back to this instinctive response later – ha!) and did not give her any money/food at this time.  Instead, I gave her a recruiting package for my home-based business and told her it could be a tool to support her and her family and that she could host her own part to get started and she took the info and said she’d look into it.  I asked for her name and number so that I could check back in with her to be sure she had found the help she needed and was ok and she wrote the info down on the back of my Petco receipt.    She wrote the name Brenda and a phone number down.  I didn’t figure it would be a good number.  That was it and we parted ways.  It still bothered me that I had just spent $80 on pet food and didn’t give her money to feed her kids with, but she was approaching someone else as I was walking off to my next stop…..so I figured she’d sucker someone sooner or later….

My next stop was to the LifeWay Christian bookstore.  I had been meaning to go buy some tracts to keep handy in my car and in my purse – for situations like this one I had just been in so that I could hand them out and hopefully help spread the news of salvation….to just one lost soul perhaps….

As I was making my way to the bookstore I said a prayer that said basically, if “Brenda” truly needs my help, then put her back in my path at this shopping center today and I will help her.

So after I purchased my new tracts, I placed the bag in my car along with my other bookstore purchases and headed on along to Target.  I wasn’t grocery shopping this day though, so I was just running in to get something specific and then I’d be done and ready to leave this shopping center.

As I was checking out at Target I notice “Brenda” and a lady with a small child checking out in a lane down the way.  The lady was buying “Brenda” some groceries.  So, as I walked past their check-out, I called out to Brenda and handed her a $20 since she had crossed my path again and I felt it was a sign to go ahead and help her.  Her eyes teared up and she gave me the biggest hug and said this other lady had bought her these groceries and they would be just fine tonite and she seemed so happy and relieved :)

I was aggravated that I had left the tracts in the car and didn’t have one to give to her with the money though :/

I never did try that number she wrote down nor did “Brenda” ever call me.

So, several months later on into fall/winter sometime I was at the Costco shopping center picking up a print job from Staples and as I was walking to my car with my print job I notice a lady in the dark parking lot and she starts approaching me and right away I realize it is “Brenda”!  This is across town from where I had first met her, so I was very intrigued to see what she was going to have to say this day.  She walks up and says please don’t be scared of me I’m just needing some help and went on to tell a similar story to the first one only this time she needed money for an airplane ticket to get to her dad’s house and all would be fine – she still had the several children in her new story.  I replied to her, “Brenda” is it?  She said, no, my name’s not “Brenda”!  I said well, “Brenda”, if you’ll recall we met back this summer over at the Target shopping center and a lady bought you some groceries and I gave you a $20, but you had a different story that day.  She bowed up at me and told me she was sorry I thought that I had met her before, but her name was not “Brenda”.  She went on her way and I got into my car.  I then got so upset with myself!  I STILL had not managed to get a tract in her possession :(  How terrible!  I felt horrible, so I called my dad and told him that I’ve had two opportunities to try to minister to this lady and both times I let my opportunity go away and I was so upset with myself.  I had been praying for God to use me to help Him reach out to someone and I had repeatedly not reached out with His good word to “Brenda” – how frustrated  I was with myself over that.  The best help she will ever find she still may not even know about.  Dad just told me not to worry that I’d see her again one day.  Wonder if he could be right about that???  I guess time will tell…….

I have been meaning to/supposed to blog about this and share it with you for some time now and finally getting around to it.

Hopefully, to be continued…….