Road Kill

I was in bed Saturday night and I was thinking about how I would like to do some sort of street ministry tomorrow instead of going to a church.  I mean just going up to people, making conversation and praying for them at random instead of in an organized setting.  John and I had planned on going to a particular church and as I was talking to God about my idea, He asked, “Why can’t you do both?” And I smiled and thought, You are so right!  It doesn’t have to be one or the other.  

We started out innocently enough with a plan to go to the church across town.  As I was getting ready to leave, I noticed that our cat had brought a chipmunk into the breezeway and was doing what cats do: playing with it, basically torturing it. I witnessed the scene and felt sick to my stomach that nature has that cruel side to it. I told John about it.  But instead of compassion, he said I should never leave the garage door open for the cat. (I usually leave it open just a bit in case of bad weather.)  Okay, now I see a chipmunk being abused and also indirectly get blamed for it because of wanting to protect our cat from the elements.

I did my best to ignore the comment knowing it was likely an attack from Satan to distract us from going to church and being able to concentrate on the message.  I chose not to get upset and simply let it go, knowing that my husband is not my enemy, even if he gets tangled up in the process sometimes.  My responsibility was just to be quiet.  And I reminded myself that God spoke to me last night and surely I don’t want to mess up his plan because of my pride.

We drove across town, chatting about other things on the way to church. When we got there we found out the service was changed to an earlier time due to a community parade.  The service was almost over and it was too late to drive back to our regular church so we decided to go for a ride and possibly stop for lunch.  We ended up in a city about 30 miles away.  I have wanted to go there to visit the women at their county jail.  I have had it on the back burner, so to speak, because I was not sure how to go about it.  I had made a special lady in prison a promise that I would do my best to see if I could help bring Jesus to her hometown, while sharing my personal testimony.  Without planning it, as John didn’t even know, I found myself in that city and with a great opportunity to gather information and be able to street witness if the opportunity presented itself.  

Psalm 37:4  “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

That Scripture sums it up.  This was definitely a desire of my heart.

We were not sure just where we should go, I was driving, and John does not know how to work my smart phone real well, so we decided we should pull off to the side of the road.   I didn’t think too much about the dead raccoon we were near but John said, “Don’t run over it,” and once again I felt the irritation of having my intelligence insulted.  First the chipmunk, now a dead raccoon, let it go, let it go.  I was unexpectedly in the town I have been praying to be used by the Lord in.  I thought to myself there really must be a blessing coming and Satan would like me to blow it by getting mad at my husband. I would thereby miss my opportunity to make the necessary contacts I needed to make.  I had heard numerous times that there is a big drug problem in this community.

As we sat parked on the side of the country road with the stench of the decaying raccoon getting stronger, I began to question my choice of places to pull over, but John noticed something. There were frogs, three at least, eating flies that hovered around the corpse of the raccoon.  And he was very happy about that.  I will try to put this in the right words. There had been a decline of frogs due to pollution and it had been years since he’s seen them. Seeing them gave him hope of their future. What at first glance was thought to be a bad choice of places to pull over really wasn’t.   It held a special blessing.   I can’t make this stuff up.

As we discussed the frogs and the flies that were the frogs’ easy lunch, I realized that in order to “get” them (the ladies) I would have to go into places where it doesn’t smell so good. Where it isn’t so clean but it is where they gather.  We discussed how the frogs catch the flies with their tongues and it hit me yes, yes, I need to use my mouth (my tongue) filled with His Word to attract and win them for Jesus.

We proceeded to travel though the city, asking directions and gathering information on who to contact and when.  We got the name of a church that is already visiting the jail and that gives us a starting point. I prayed for people as we went from place to place. Most of the people seemed surprised but the prayers were received with smiles.  One man was fishing and this was really sweet.  I told him I would pray for his fishing to be productive.  In the prayer to God I said out loud, “Remember when Peter was told by Jesus to go fishing and the first fish that Peter caught he would find a coin in the fish’s mouth.”  I asked God to make this man know You love him by bringing him a special fish, too.  Maybe not a coin but something to have this man KNOW it was YOU! We did not hang around long enough to find out what he caught but I smile when I think of the man looking in the mouth of every fish he caught from that point on.  He may look in their mouths the rest of his life as he gives thanks to God.

What could have been a day of bickering and unkind words turned out to be a day of fond memories.  In the past I have always felt a special sadness for animals that are killed by automobiles.  If I would see a “clump” on the road in the distance I always felt heartbroken for the poor little animal.  If it turned out it was just a pile of leaves I always felt better and I would say a prayer of thanks.  The truth is, now when I see road kill on the side of the road, I think humorously to myself that looks like a good place to pull over!