Lone Ranger to the Rescue

During the summer after my junior year of college I had the privilege of serving among the poor in Appalachia.  Their broken-down, leaking homes were small (about the size of one room of our house), but their hearts were large.  The families we served were quick to invite us to join them for a meal of green beans and cornbread, even if it meant we had to share plates and forks.  I loved being with them.  That summer I was on staff, which meant spending my days supporting and equipping volunteers to care for these families and help them with home repair.  I'd spend long days driving a truck full of building supplies on narrow roads on winding mountains to visit family after family as well as the volunteers helping them.  One day I drove up to the home of one of the families, and I didn't hit the brake soon enough.  I quickly found myself driving over a short cliff and getting stuck at the bottom.  I was okay, and the truck was okay, but I didn't know how I was going to get out of that deep pit.  Friends and neighbors peered over the cliff to see me.  Before I knew it, a stranger pulled up in his truck, attached a rope to the front of my truck, and towed me out of that pit.  Before I could thank him, he was gone (like the Lone Ranger)!    

Then there was the time we raced to help the Evans family during the middle of the night.  They were a dear family with a teenage boy and girl, whom we had enjoyed getting to know all summer as teams of volunteers worked on their home.  One night around 11pm, as it started to thunderstorm, our team leader Otis suddenly remembered their roof hadn't been covered.  We were in the middle of a roof repair project and hadn't expected it to rain that night.  But as the thunderstorm began, we all raced to the truck and drove the winding mountains out to their home and headed to their roof to put a tarp on and to cover the tarp with beams of wood.  I remember Otis kept shouting to me, "Get down!", afraid the wood beam would be a lightning rod for me.  When the roof was securely covered, the Evans welcomed us inside for hot chocolate, and we talked and laughed past midnight.

Those were crazy, wonderful days.  God protected us again and again and again.  Thank you, Lord!