Saturday, April 12, 2008

NEEDLES, HAYSTACKS, AND GOD

God is the ultimate dot connector. I received a note from Linda last week. She and her husband live in Germany. Her letter revealed such an amazing time line of our connection. Linda was a nursing student in Lubbock when she went to the public library to get study materials. She inadvertently came across one of my little books on the shelf, Since He Walked on Water, We Can Wade Through Life.

Later she went back to check out my book only to be informed they had no record of such. However, they did borrow a copy for her from a Tennessee library. She read it and we began such a neat and strange connection:

  • She read my book in ’93 and was baptized a month later.
  • She met Tim, our son who was an AIM Student, that month.
  • Mary and I dropped by to see her when we were in Lubbock checking on Tim.
  • Linda spent the night with Mary and me a few months later….’94.
  • One of her honor attendants in her ’99 wedding was Memorial Drive's own Amy Hicks.
  • She moved to St. Louis and her husband’s boss has my Cardinal bubble gum card on his desk. He and I are good friends.
  • Linda and Kent move to Germany and meet a soldier who is getting married in Tulsa (2007) but has no church; no preacher. They do now. I did their wedding.

The story continues; neither of us knows how. This is simply an unfolding of one needle meeting another needle in God gigantic kingdom haystack. I’m saying so goes it with you in the great adventures of Haystack Living.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did YOU happen to put your little book on the shelf? I remember you saying one time you were in an airport store/magazines, books and such, and you "scooted" the other books over, made room for a few of yours (can't remember which one you had out at the time) and you were just waiting to see how God was going to work in that. When the person walked up to pay for it, and they had no record of the book!! I probably heard you at White's Ferry Rd in the early 90s sometime.

Just curious if you might have done the same thing in Lubbock!

And, my sister, Pam Stephenson, passed along the great article about you in the Christian Chronicle. It was a joy to read.

I love time lines like Linda's. That's awesome.

Terry Rush said...

Sarah,

I wasn't the one that did that placement at the Library...but someone did...and that's really exciting to me!

Sir Straw said...

The longer I am a christian the more and more I see how God was providing oportunity after opportunity for me to come to Him. People and situations that could only be explained if you can understand what a Great God we have and doing only what He can do. It is simple for God to do.

I always say that if I tryied to orcestrate what happened I would have messed it up. I just look at the Bible and those that were looking for the coming of the Lord but didn't recognize Jesus as the One they were waiting for to save them. So I just let God do what he does best and see the aftermath of such a great work.

Unknown said...

Terry,
here is a connect the dots for you,
My Father went to a soul winning workshop in 1976 " I know because of a pocket new testament he gave me has that written on the inside. He went to the workshop with our family friend Steve Tandy, 21 years latter I wondered into a COC and liked the "kid preacher" enough to come back for more. Dusty has help me find a church home for the first time in all these years. Turns out you are the workshop Guy, You know Steve and Dusty is your boy. I think it is amazing.
Thanks
Jon