Stories from the Field: Georgia — The Midnight Detour

I had already gone to bed.

I needed to be up around 3:00 the next morning for work, so when my phone rang late that night and I saw that it was my daughter, I answered immediately. She works nights, and I knew if she was calling me at that hour, she probably needed something.

“Dad, my car broke down on the side of the road. Can you come help me?”

“Of course.”

There wasn’t anything to think about. I got dressed, grabbed what I needed, and headed out to find her.

On the way, I realized I needed antifreeze. I was approaching a red light when I noticed a brand-new gas station across the street, so I pulled in.

It was sometime around 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning. I walked inside, bought the antifreeze, and asked the gentleman behind the counter for my receipt. As he slid it underneath the counter, I remembered the Bible I had with me.

I handed it to him.

“Here’s something for you.”

He picked it up and looked at it.

“What is this?”

I told him, “It’s a Bible.”

His response caught me by surprise.

“Oh, cool!”

And he immediately started reading it.

That was it. No sermon. No long conversation. I needed to get to my daughter, so I headed back to my truck. But as I drove away, I began praying for that man. I asked God to use His Word to reach him and ultimately bring him to salvation.

Then I continued praying for my daughter.

When I finally reached her, she had managed to get her car safely onto a side street. We worked through the problem, got everything squared away, and eventually got the car to where she could drive it home.

But something else happened there that I don’t want to overlook.

My daughter felt bad that she had called me. She knew I had to get up early for work, and she felt guilty that I had gotten out of bed in the middle of the night to come help her.

I told her there was nothing to feel guilty about.

I was proud of her. She had handled a difficult situation, gotten herself somewhere safe, and called when she needed help.

We got her home safely, and eventually everybody went back to bed.

As I thought about the night afterward, though, I realized how much can happen in what initially looks like an interruption.

I thought I was getting out of bed because my daughter needed her dad.

And she did.

But somewhere between my bed and that broken-down car, God placed a man behind a gas-station counter in my path who would be handed a Bible at nearly one o’clock in the morning.

I don’t know his name. I don’t know what he read after I walked out that door. And I don’t know what God will ultimately do with that Bible.

But God does.

Sometimes Stories from the Field takes me halfway around the world. Sometimes it takes me into jungles, villages, schools, churches, airports, and places where sharing Jesus has to be done quietly.

And sometimes the mission field is a gas station in Georgia at one o’clock in the morning when you’re simply trying to get to your daughter.

The interruption may have been the appointment all along.

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11 NKJV

Maybe you’ve had one of those moments too, when an inconvenience, interruption, or unexpected change of plans became an opportunity you never could have scheduled.