Building Zion – Part 2

If you remember from the first chapter in this story, we left off with me and my brother living at my friend’s house for a few weeks while my parents went to Mexico as medical tourists.

On the day that this chapter of the story begins, we had been living at “Julie’s” house long enough now that we burned through the warm welcome, and we were basically family.  So, on this particular morning, Julie was a bit overwhelmed.  If we were going to all continue to eat, she was going to have to get some stuff from the grocery store.  On the budget she had available to her, just planning out the shopping list that would feed everyone was a chore in and of itself.  And, she knew there was not a window of time that day where she would be able to get to the store and buy it all.  But she knew that she had to plan out the list, or if by some miracle an opportunity presented itself, she would be ready to take that opportunity.  So, she got up and made her list, and posted it on the fridge and prayed that it would all work out.

When I say she prayed, I dont mean she “hoped”.  I mean she knew she was in a rough spot, and she poured out her overwhelmed soul to God, and pleaded for a miracle.  Like you do, when your need is great, and you simply can’t do it all yourself.

Over the course of the day, it became more and more obvious that it was not going to happen, so her thoughts shifted to what we could pull together in the house to at least eat something for dinner, and perhaps find a chance to go shopping tomorrow.  But, as she looked around for anything that would feed five boys and her husband, there was really just nothing.  At this point, she changed the prayer that was in her heart, she began praying that she might come up with a way for her family to have ANYTHING for dinner, and maybe we could sort out the bigger problem tomorrow.

And, the doorbell rang.  It was “Ann”.

Ann had a bag of groceries that she said she felt impressed to drop off, and she (very uncomfortably) asked if it was ok for her to give them to Julie.  She explained that, she was just at the store, doing her grocery shopping, and felt like maybe she should grab a few things for Julie and all of those extra boys living at her house.  Certainly, they were eating her out of house an home.  So she grabbed a couple of things, and hoped that Julie wouldn’t feel imposed upon when she brought them over.

When Julie admitted she did need some things, and appreciated the bag of stuff Ann offered her, and admitted she needed to go shopping today but didn’t have a chance to, Ann said … That’s good because there’s more bags in the car and I wasn’t sure how I’d get you to take them.

So while we were out unloading the back of a station wagon full of grocery bags, Ann explained to Julie where it all came from.

She said that she was there getting a few things, and saw a box of cereal that she knew was one of the things Julie usually bought because everyone in the house liked to eat that particular cereal.  And she thought … I bet they are already out of that cereal because of all of those boys, and that Julie would probably appreciate it if she got her a few boxes of it so she could also have some.  And you cant eat cereal without milk, so when she got milk, she got a few extra gallons, since certainly we could drink through a few gallons in just a few days.

From that point on, since she knew she was going by Julie’s house on the way home anyway, if she noticed something she thought might help, she just put it in her basket, and kept going. Having no kids of her own, she was really not sure how much was the right amount for a family with seven people to feed.

At the end, when she loaded it up in the car, she had no idea what she would do with all of that stuff, she didn’t think there was any way that she could expect Julie to pay her for all of it (she knew the budget was tight, and that she was getting things we might not be ready to just pay her back for) she had no idea how to convince Julie that it was Ok for her to accept all of it, and let her bring in an entire station wagon’s trunk worth of stuff. Over the course of about 5 minutes, we went from having nothing to having more than we knew what to do with.

As we were unpacking, Julie noticed many of the things she had written down that morning were in the bags.  And so she went over to the fridge, and got the list, and decided to check off the stuff she no longer needed.  And, when we were done unpacking, every item on the list was checked off.

Julie had a crushing burden, but with some help from a friend, she was able to get through this otherwise impossible situation.

And that ends the second chapter in this story.  So, stay tuned for Part 3.