It's a small world

Beth at A Mom's Life is hosting Miracle Monday. Go check out the stories there.

I am not sure you can call this a Miracle really, but it definitely shows how God works in awesome ways!

This is an incredible story of what a small world this can be and how it changed a woman's life and touched my heart deeply:

I met a woman at the summer Vacation Bible School our church hosted this year. This woman was often my helper and we had several minutes after each group to sort of get to know each other throughout the week.

She told me she had a rough childhood, parents died when she was 4. She never really told me who raised her, but I suspected (based on other things said) that she was in foster care. She told me she had been on her own since she was 16 yo. She said she was into drugs and alcohol and got pregnant young. Her daughter is now in college. She said a few years ago her apartment building caught fire and she lost everything she had, even the few items she had from her childhood.

She also told me some positive things, she had at one time owned her own business, she had been a loan officer at a bank and had recently gone back to school.

Near the end of the week, we had really gotten to know each other. She is such a likable woman. She is so strong. I remember the tears in her eyes when we talked about the baby I lost. This woman didn't know me, she didn't need to cry for me. But she did.

She told me what brought her to our church and her story was so amazing and so touching:

She had been really depressed, started drinking and decided to kill herself. She grabbed a 9mm handgun and started driving to a remote place. She failed to use a turn signal and was pulled over by the cops. She was arrested and taken to jail. She spent almost a month in jail, where she started reading the Bible. One day during her time in jail, a woman from prison ministries came in and they talked a lot about God and the Bible. She said just before the woman left the woman told her "I don't care what you did to get yourself in here, I just want you to know you will be in my thoughts and prayers for when you get out."

After she got out of jail she did two months in drug/alcohol rehab. One day, while at a gas station, she bought a few food items and came up short. The man behind her in line gave her the money to pay for her items. She was thanking him and they got to talking and he ended up inviting her to church. After coming to our church a few times, that man's wife invited her to a ladies Bible study class. She connected with several women there and was attending regularly. After one of the studies, one of the women invited her to go to lunch with her and her mom. They met at the restaurant and she was seated next to the woman's mother. As she sat listening to the mother talk, she thought "I've heard that voice before." Before lunch was up she realized that this voice belonged to the woman from prison ministries! At first neither one could believe it. The mother leaned over, hugged her and said "I never thought I'd see you again but I have been thinking about you and praying for you ever since I met you!"

Can you believe that? What a small, small world.