What are the odds? (Getting to be God's hands in a miracle)

10:45pm last night. Church was over. Standing around fellowshipping. God tells me to go into the children's room.  I do. I wondered why but have learned to just do it.  I look around and see nothing out of the ordinary and go to turn off the light.  The switch is right by a glass door that looks out upon a deserted courtyard not really used very much.  I see this young girl stumbling around, clearly drunk, can barely stand.  She looks hurt. 

God tells me that Andrea (a 20 year old in our church) and I are supposed to pray for her.  I go get Andrea who is fellowshipping with everyone.  I grab her by the hand and say, "Come".  I take her to the door and I'm going to tell her, "See that girl? God says we're supposed to pray for her."  But before I can do that, Andrea says, "That's Tina*" (name changed).  It's a 23 year old ex friend of hers she hadn't seen in over a year. 

I run into the courtyard and yell "Tina, Tina. I know you don't know me but I'm here to help."  She grabs me and hugs me in that way a person does that just can't get close enough.  She keeps saying over and over, "Help, please".  The other ladies in the church and I lead her into the church for some privacy, a chair, it's cooler in there. 

The ladies and I sit around her praying quietly, asking God for a word of wisdom on what to do.  Elsa, one of the ladies realized she had this girl's mother's phone number on her cell.  (She has know Tina since she was a little girl.)  They call her. 

Meanwhile, Tina went back and forth between hugging me so tight it hurt to trying to hurt me.  I know she wasn't trying to hurt ME.  She had no clue who I was.  She was just expressing the pain she was feeling.  Over the next half hour or so until the mother could arrive, we just prayed for her and tried to keep her safe. She would try to stand and then fall and hit her head.  We prayed for a calming spirit and then she finally almost went to sleep.  (And I ended up with no bruises or scratches - I know how to protect myself and I know I had a little extra help.)

At the same time, Dan was outside of the building.  (He told me all this after we got home.)  He noticed 2 very suspicious guys with a 6 pack of beer trying to find Tina.  They had been following her.  (She had no clue.)  Dan was standing guard, making sure they didn't try anything.  (It helps that Dan is a BIG man.)  But they couldn't find her ... we'd moved her into the church.  She was hiding under the wing of the Almighty.  She was under covering. 

We then shifted our prayers to the mother - how would she handle this?  What would she do?  I know if this was MY daughter, I'd want help in knowing what to do.  Sure enough, the mother arrived and was in a panic almost about what to do. 

Turns out, this girl has had a history of drunken binges but had gotten her life together.  She was in therapy and counseling and had been doing a lot better.  Until yesterday, her boyfriend in Iraq broke up with her and it sent her into a sprial. 

The men walked her to the car. She could still barely walk.  (and she was covered with pee, making it difficult to carry her.)

Tina has a 2 year old daughter.  The grandmother had been babysitting her so she had to come to.  She was freaking out seeing her mommy like that.  Everyone was telling her nothing was wrong.  She's not stupid, she's just young.  So I say to her, "Mommy is walking crazy, isn't she?  But it is going to be OK."  and she calmed down.  I had to show her we were not out of touch with reality. 

As we put Tina in the car, the mom told us some more of the story.  She realized Tina was gone and so she called a friend.  At the same time God sent her our way, she was praying, "Lord, hedge her in."  This mother was so grateful to God knowing that He had indeed answered that prayer by sending her daughter right into our hands. 

We all shudder to think what would have happened if.  The amount of details that had to be coordinated are astronomical.  Humanly, I still cannot get my head around it.  12 hours later and I'm still reeling from it.  She happened to go to the bar right where we are now meeting (she didn't know that we had moved nor did the mother). The bartender took away her keys, put her in 2 different cabs (she jumped out of both).  She went to the back side of the building.  She happened to walk up the one hallway where we were (out of 5 choices).  She was there at the exact moment I was looking out the door.  I happened to listen to His proddings.  etc etc etc.

Why am I even amazed?  I pray that I get to be God's hands.  I pray for miracles.  Yet I sometimes get shocked when it happens.  There were so many details to this miracle that I cannot begin to tell them all (and that's just the ones *I* know about!)

When I got home last night, my sister had taken the kids home from church early and put them to bed.  The girls get a special treat of sleeping in my bed until I get there.  As I carried each of them to their beds, I hugged them a little tighter.  I cried as I kissed them on the forehead.  I asked God, "How do you get from here to there?" 

I just feel so small.  And I feel God ever more present.  If you wonder if God is truly involved in the day to day things of our lives, I beg you to consider this miracle.  Thank you Lord!