W8: A Tale of Two Miracles

Best of Disasters

It was the best of disasters; it was the worst of disasters. It was the miracle that wouldn’t quit; the evolving miracle that kept presenting new solutions.

 

Maybe I’m using the wrong metaphors. Let’s try this one: I’m about to tell you about the ripple miracle.

Phone of Misfortune or The Tale of the First Disaster

Do you remember my delay in Hardeeville that sent out a distress signal from one of my two phones? Maybe I didn’t mention it or breezed over it too glibly. So, the S.O.S. message that scared my niece and daughters and my sister actually originated from one of the two phones I carry. Which phone, you say? The one with the Area Code of (802), a Vermont Area Code. I bought it specifically for this journey as a backup phone to my regular one that I always use. As a result, I hadn’t spent a lot of time setting it up. Apparently, it had a setting for sending out emergency distress signals that I vaguely aware of but not concerned about, so I neglected to verify if it was working, HOW it worked, or whether I wanted it to be active or disabled.

Goodbye and Good Riddance?

The day I left Hardeeville, I wound up retracing a lot of steps instead of making steady, forward progress. This resulted in the sun setting before I had reached my intended destination for the day. I found myself sleeping on the covered front entryway of a Baptist Church during a rainstorm on the first night from Hardeeville and walking well into the second night from Hardeeville to reach a motel in Okatie, SC.

 

The final half-mile was in a ritzy residential area with maze-like winding streets and a crooked “straight path” between the Greenway and the motel. At 11:00 PM or so, I was getting confused and wound up keeping my primary phone on too long trying to stay oriented. With the battery running low (4%), I switched to the secondary phone. My primary phone has a holster that I keep on my waist, but the secondary phone must be held constantly or kept in a pocket or fanny pack. At some point that night I finally checked it for what turned out to be the last time necessary. When I packed everything up to leave the motel the next morning, the backup phone was nowhere to be found. It may have fallen out of my shirt pocket somewhere between the last map check and arriving at the motel.

Lose a Phone, Start a Miracle

God has been directing my path, my movements, my times to stop, my times to wait, and my times to go. Losing the secondary phone was going to become the start of an evolving miracle involving God and I communicating with each other. It took a couple more days of finding safe, secluded, open and public places to sleep under the stars before I reached the next population center, Beaufort, SC.

 

I arrived on Wednesday, June 22. The first thing I did was search for a public library, a Walmart, a Seventh-day Adventist Church and building supplies store.I found a place that had a Walmart, Church, and building supplies all relatively close together. Within that circle, there was also a Starbucks. Since I wanted a library to access the internet, the Starbucks was a comfortable substitute.

McGyvering the Umbrella
or The Tale of the Second Disaster

Umbrella Hoop

Somewhere between Hardeeville, where Mercy had given me the deck umbrella, and Beaufort, I had fought with the winds of nature and the gusts of big trucks trying to turn the umbrella inside out, then stripping the cloth off the bowed rib wires. Before Okatie, I had bought two tiedown straps and punched holes in them to fit them over the umbrella cloth and ribs. My idea was that if I created an outer boundary around the circumference of the open umbrella that could act like a barrel hoop or wagon wheel hoop that it could make the umbrella more stable in the wind.

 

The heavy material of the tiedown straps helped considerably, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the wind from causing further problems, so after Okatie but before Beaufort, I bought some super glue. First, I glued the plastic rib caps to the ribs to keep the umbrella cloth secured to the ribs. Next, I glued the tiedown straps to the outside of the plastic rib caps to keep the tiedown straps attached to the circumference of the umbrella.

Umbrella Pole Top, Middle, Bottom

The wind’s next trick was to inflate the umbrella like a parachute and lift it up until the top half of the pole slid out of the bottom half of the pole, then blowing it away like a lost balloon.

Beaufort Tasks

In Beaufort, my first task was to figure out how to hold the two halves of the pole together. Using another tiedown strap, I anchored one end to the front of my stroller, up the inside of the umbrella, out through the canopy hole and over the top of the pole, back down through the hole in the canopy and down the inside of the umbrella to anchor the other end of the strap to the back of the stroller.

 

Next, I headed to the Starbucks to write the W7 blog post.

 

Third on my task list was to visit the Adventist Church for Prayer Meeting. I was really scroungy, drenched in sweat, coated with Deet to ward off the mosquito population, dirty from sleeping on the ground, and toil soiled from working on the umbrella. I really needed a shower. I was hoping I could ask the church to see if anyone would share their hospitality with me. 

Beaufort SDA Church

The church is located in what used to be a strip mall store front. There is an abandoned Goodwill on one end of the strip mall and a BBQ Ribs place on the other end, with the church occupying the center portion. I got there about an hour before the Prayer Meeting was to start. Only the A-V man was there, vacuuming, cleaning up, and getting the A-V equipment ready for the meeting. I asked him if the pastor was about, and he said the pastor was at a North American Division “thing”.

 

“Oh,” I said, disappointed. “I was hoping to ask him if any members would be willing to let me get a shower.”

 

“Oh, that’s easy! We have a shower here in the church.” He led the way and showed me the shower. I was blown away! I’ve seen showers in some strange places… gas stations, factories, SCUBA shops, a Sheetmetal place …but never before in a church. Since it was too close to the beginning of the Prayer Meeting to get clean clothes out of my packed stroller, shower, dress, put the dirty clothes into their own bag and packed back into the stroller, I decided to shower after the meeting.

Testimony

After a song service, and before the prayer session, the Elder leading the meeting asked if anyone had a testimony to share. I stood and shared as compressed a version of my Sparrow story as I could manage. (It was still way longer than the poor Elder had anticipated, and I could see that the longer I spoke, the more anxious he became.) I really did try to keep it short! (But, as even with this story right now, which is about a lost phone and the widening ripples of a miracle the phone instigated, there are too many details that all tie together somehow to tell the story in a short version.)

Shower?

After the service, I prepared to occupy the shower… until the head elder stopped me. It turned out that the shower hasn’t worked properly for quite a while. While he tried to figure out a work-around, one of the other church leaders took it upon himself to have the church provide me with a hotel room for the night.

Motel

Once it was decided that this was the best course of action, the Elder drove his truck over to pick up my stroller. As he and I lifted the fully loaded and very heavy stroller into the truck bed, the other church leader joked, “What a coincidence that you happened to drive your truck to prayer meeting tonight instead of your Mercedes!”

 

It wasn’t a coincidence to me. It was the first evidence of a miracle happening, although I didn’t yet know that it was tied to the lost phone or the umbrella.

Umbrella Miracle

After all the “repairs” or upgrades or McGyverings of the Umbrella, on Thursday a gust of wind caught it and the tiedown straps held firm. The wind couldn’t turn it inside out. It couldn’t strip the umbrella material off the ribs. Although it tried, it couldn’t parachute the umbrella pole halves apart. So, it did what wind does best. It approached the umbrella from another direction. About a foot from the top of the pole was a joint that allowed the umbrella to be tilted at an offset angle from the pole. The wind broke that joint. Snapped the hinge completely in half. One half of the hinge fell on the ground and the other half wouldn’t stay put in the channel built for it. The miracle was, it kept me in Beaufort an extra day.

 

I spent the day at Lowes. I had to buy a 5′ length of PVC pipe with an inside diameter larger than the outside diameter of the umbrella pole. I cut it to a length that would extend from a brace flange on the bottom half of the pole to the brace flange where the ribs joined the top half of the pole, creating a splint above and below the broken hinge. To get everything to work properly, I now had to release the tension on the tiedown strap that kept top and bottom sections of the pole from moving apart. When the strap was loose enough, I could then lift the broken hinge upward and out of, or into, the splint PVC tube. Once inserted, I could tension the strap to hold the now-three pieces of pole together.

Upside

The nice thing was, If I needed to bring the umbrella down, I could release the tension, remove the broken hinge from the splint, and lower the umbrella without separating the upper half and lower half sections of the pole. This in turn allowed me to fold up the umbrella material into a smaller package and stow it easier. It also enables me to wrap my gear with the umbrella material as a rain fly to keep the bags and gear dry when the weather turns bad!

Downside

The only downside was that I had intended to buy a replacement backup phone, and now the day was totally shot. I would have to wait yet another night in Beaufort and get the phone on Friday before I could start walking again.

Phone Miracle

During Wednesday and Thursday walking hither and yon in Beaufort, I had seen a BoostMobile store so on Friday I headed over there. My primary phone is a BoostMobile phone and I have an unlimited talk, text, and data plan that auto-renews every month. I wanted my backup phone to be added to this plan. I also wanted all of the apps on my primary phone, especially the ones related to this walking missionary adventure I’m on, to be on the backup phone as well, so I wanted to have as much memory available as possible. 

Moto G Stylus 5G…

I selected a top-of-the-line phone made by Motorola, the Moto G Stylus, 5G, with its memory, top-notch cameras, 5G mobile network capacity, and a battery that lasts two days with all-day full power usage.

 

The store clerk agreed that this would be a great choice. (Of course he would, because it is an expensive phone, but that is beside the point. Probably.) The only problem was, the store did not carry that phone in stock. The only way to get it would be to order it. “Unless…” the store clerk hesitantly said, “you might be able to get it at Walmart and then bring it back here and I’ll get it activated and set up on your current account as you want.”

…uh, I Mean, Galaxy A32 5G…

2.9 miles later, Walmart didn’t have the Moto G Stylus 5G in stock, either. But I was assured they could order it! I explained why I couldn’t order it, which turned into a conversation about why I’m walking the Greenway which in turn became a conversation about Jesus, what he did for me, how much I love Him, and what He did for me He can do for anyone.

 

I asked the salesperson what the best phone, locked to BoostMobile, they actually did have in stock. She did a quick inventory analysis and told me it was the Galaxy A32 5G. So, I bought it along with a hard case and a 400GB SD card to go with it.

 

Another 2.9 miles later I was back at the BoostMobile store. The tech took the phone and the SIM chip and the SD card and pulled up my account on my primary phone. But when he powered the A32 on and tried to activate, obtain a phone number, and add it to my plan, he discovered he couldn’t. Apparently, the A32 was already activated.

Impossible Activation

For the uninitiated, “activation” means electronically linking the phone, identified to the computers with a unique IMEI number, to a SIM card, identified to the computers with a SIMSN or SIM serial number, and then to an unused phone number. When you buy a phone to replace a phone, you can take the transfer the phone number of the phone you have onto the new phone because you know both the phone number and the PIN you yourself created and can get the IMEI number of the old phone directly from the old phone settings. Now, knowing the IMEI of both the old and new phones you can authorized transfer of your phone number from one IMEA to the other IMEI.

 

Technical gobblety-gook, I know. The point is, you know everything you need to know to assign the new phone a phone number and assign it to you.

 

The technician’s problem was, he didn’t have an unactivated IMEI number to work with because the phone was somehow ALREADY ACTIVATED. But it was activated to an unknown phone number and unknown PIN number. He called his internal support desk. They tried to find out this information… but it wasn’t in the computers that control activation! In simple terms, this new phone I had just bought from Walmart was activated without having a phone number. Let me be completely clear about this: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ACTIVATE A PHONE WITHOUT HAVING A PHONE NUMBER ASSIGNED TO THE IMEI.

With God All Things are Possible

The obvious (to me) conclusion was that God had activated that phone because it was not part of His Plan for me or for that Friday. The technician had the store clerk drive me back to Walmart to exchange the phone. When we got there, Walmart did not have another Galaxy A32 5G in their inventory. 

…er, (ahem!) Galaxy A13

The closest thing Walmart could exchange was a Galaxy A13 phone. Instead of 64GB of internal memory, it has 32 GB of internal memory. Oh, and it is $70 cheaper.

 

On the drive to Walmart and through the exchange process at Walmart, including dealing with three different people because no one knew how the A32 was activated, and no one would have believed me if I hadn’t had the BoostMobile employee with me to corroborate my story,…

 

…through all that, I had been talking to the BoostMobile employee about how God has been working miracle after miracle in my life on this trip. Instead of scoffing at me, the young man was totally in awe because he was seeing something unbelievable happening before his eyes. 

 

As we walked out of Walmart, I said that while I was grateful to have the $70 difference back, I was a little disappointed that I had ended up with an A13 instead of the A32. “That’s not a problem,” the BoostMobile clerk said. I’m not supposed to tell customers this, but the two phones are absolutely identical except for the 32 gigs versus 64 gigs memory. And with your 400GB SD card, that’s not even a remote issue.”

Can I Give You a Hug?

The Galaxy A13 activation proceeded smooth as silk. The number of steps involved in combining the new phone into my existing plan, upgrading the Android OS to the latest version, the Samsung Knox OS to the latest version, linking both phones together in my Google, Samsung, and Microsoft accounts, duplicating the apps on my primary phone onto the new phone, etc. took about two hours. While I waited, the three of us, (the clerk who drove me to Walmart, the technician setting up my new phone, and I) had a long and meaningful discussion about God and miracles and sin and salvation, about Christ and redemption, about how we all matter to God, and about how God had brought us all together long enough to have this conversation. When at last the phones were synchronized and all payments due were paid, as I was about to leave the store, the technician came around the desk and asked, “Can I give you a hug before you go?”

Stay Just a Little While Longer

I got something to eat for dinner and located another safe and secluded spot to sleep under the stars.

 

The following morning, Sabbath, I thought about going back to the SDA Church for Sabbath Worship versus finally starting walking north again. I was just about to decide to walk when I realized that I was missing the credit card I used at BoostMobile to pay for setting up the new phone and paying the difference on my plan between 1 line and 2 lines on the plan. Clearly, I couldn’t go without clearing up this issue! And, since this was yet another ripple of the “Stay put in Beaufort” double-the-trouble miracle, I wasn’t about to go back to BoostMobile on the Sabbath! God didn’t want me to stay to retrieve the card. He wanted the card to remind me to stay and spend the day with HIM.

The Pastor

The pastor had returned from the “thing” he had attended. His sermon was about listening to the voice of God and submitting to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. At the conclusion of the sermon, he made an altar call. I had been anticipating an altar call. I didn’t KNOW there would be one, like having a vision of the future or anything like that. I was just subconsciously expecting there would be an altar call so when it happened, I was not surprised. Without hesitation, I stood and went forward. After I did that, several other people came forward as well.

 

After the prayer, the pastor put his hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear, “See me afterwards. I need to talk to you.”

Conversion Stories

After greeting the departing parishioners, the paster sat down with me and asked about my walk, my plans, and my church membership status. I told him that I was born into an Adventist family and raised as an Adventist, but that I had never had a personal, one-on-one relationship with Jesus until the events of the Sparrow story in 2013/2014. I said that I had been baptized at age 12 but felt like I needed to be baptized for real, now that I had a relationship with Jesus for real. I then proceeded to tell him about the gas that never ran out, the talk with Jesus on the mountainside, having my name changed, being forgiven, redeemed, called, and about mattering to God.

 

The pastor then said, “I’m writing a book about real-life conversion stories and real-life miracles. Can I include your story?”

 

“Yes,” I said. He took my phone number and said he would like to call me and interview me for his book.

Invited to Stay

Then he said something I was not expecting at all. He said, “Do you have a home church?”

 

“Not really, no. You see, I was a backslidden Adventist for so long, and this relationship I have with Jesus is so different than before, that I feel like I will continue to be a backslidden Adventist until I get baptized with both water and the Spirit. So far, I’ve been baptized only by the Spirit.”

 

“You should have a home church, where the people can support you, and where you can become friends with those who know your history. What would you think about staying here, in Beaufort?”

Two Disasters, One Grand Miracle That Doesn’t Stop

Is this what God sent me walking to encounter? 

 

Is this God’s Plan for me? 

 

Am I supposed to settle down in Beaufort, South Carolina?

 

I have no idea. This is all I can tell you. I still don’t know where my credit card is.

 

Tomorrow is Monday, the 27th. My grandson, Niall, has been driving across American and is currently in Tennessee. He plans to meet me “somewhere” in South Carolina along the Greenway on July 1st. At the moment, I’m thinking I should stay here in Beaufort, sleeping under the stars, until Friday, July 1st and have him meet me here.

 

He wants to be home with my daughter, his mother, in Vermont by the Fourth of July. Maybe if he will stay Friday, July 1st and Saturday, July 2nd, we can have another talk with the pastor and I will decide if I should stay, go with Niall to Vermont, or continue walking. 

Am I the One God Wanted Me to Meet?

Pray for me, blog readers. In fact, I hope you write your prayers in the comments field, below. Pray for God’s Will to be clear to me. Pray for my ability to hear Him. Pray for my willingness to obey. Pray for my story to continue BUT ONLY IF IT A STORY ABOUT GOD’S GLORY AND PLAN FOR ALL OF OUR LIVES.

 

Let’s see what happens next!