Posted: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 | Author: Marti Williams | Filed under: 2k7, Louis and Me! | Tags: divine appointment, Holy Spirit, missionary, prayer, Richmond, Southern Barton Heights, Urban |
As some of you know, today I am in DC for the O’Hara St Patrick’s Day Clan Dinner and Party. This marks about 25 years that I have been coming up here….only missing 2 in 25 years. I forgot to download pics for the blog…so stop by later and there may be some here.
Also…thanks for reading!!!! And hope you have an awesome St Patrick’s Day. This post is in honor of my dear wonderful and loving friend Judy O’Hara. After fighting a long good fight with cancer, she went to heaven a month before I met Louis. I like to think of Judy whispering in God’s ear….Now, let’s talk about Marti. It’s about time that she met the other 1/2 of her pair. RIP Judy O’Hara! We love and miss you!!!!
More about me and Louis!!! YAY!!! I knew I couldn’t keep the romantics in my life happy if I didn’t keep telling the story….
OK…so now…we have my buddy Marc who was praying with me. Don who was giving me life changing scripture. Becky and Lowell who were praying with Louis and Jennifer who was just being the messenger, right? Oh yeah…and about 20 women in my Bible Study and my 2 girlfriends who wrote lists with me. Could there BE any more people involved?!?!?!?
So….Jennifer calls Becky that night, the 22nd…leaves a message. Becky calls back on Sunday the 23rd with the number. Jennifer calls Louis. Louis says after Christmas he will call…as he was busy prepping for the Christmas Eve Service. And I hear…after the holidays…which I think after New Years.
So, the 26th rolls around and I get a couple of calls from a number I don’t recognize and I am afraid it’s work…so yes…I screen the call, because I am on vacation! No message is left. Then it dawns on me DUH! maybe it is Louis. So, I call JP and plug Louis’ number into my phone, so I will know that it is him. Because it WAS him calling. We still disagree about him not leaving a message to this day! :o) But the story is so much better this way!
So, the 27th of December (piece of trivia….yes, we got married a year from the date we first talked on the phone!!) rolls around…this is where it gets interesting…..and I am meeting with a neighbor and his friend looking at their business plan. They had some business idea that they wanted to pass by me. My friend had to cut out and left me with the other guy. I started to get a little nervous. Something just didn’t feel right. I felt like I was in a dangerous predicament. I tried gently to get him to leave…and he wouldn’t take my hints. We had begun to have some theological discussions….not quite debates….but we definitely had some differences in opinion. For one…this guy thought he WAS Jesus. So, I started to pray…Lord, get me out of this. This doesn’t feel right at all, while still remaining calm. So after a minute or 2 (which felt like and hour or 2) my phone rang. Yes…you know what is coming….I look at the phone and it was Louis calling.
I look at my visitor and said..I am so sorry, but I have to get this call. I had been waiting for this call….like all my life! So, I did. and the rest is history. The guy finally left my home. Only for me to find out later, that he was in fact a bit dangerous. He had allegedly stabbed someone previously for have a religious disagreement. The Lord had answered my prayer for help and brought me the other 1/2 all at the same time! I thank Him for his protective hand!
Louis and I talked for a while on the phone, and we decided to actually meet face to face. Louis DID NOT know about Mr December at all. He was just calling because Becky and Jennifer made the connection. I let Louis pick our first date (not EVEN thinking about God’s assurance that I would meet him IN December). And Louis suggested Sunday, which I thought was a great idea..especially after I checked out the date…..December 30th!
God had in fact brought me a DATE (not necessarily the other 1/2) in the month of December. So, we went to dinner at Edo’s Squid on our first date. In fact, Louis came back on New Years Eve to attend my party. I held a NYE party for some of the neighborhood kids to give them a safe place to hang out. Ordered pizza, played video games, and a few other friends came over as well. We call this our 1/2 a date….where he first started serving in the community with me.
Sunday night continued to be date night for us. Louis would come over about 3 or 4pm. We’d hang out with the kids…watching football, etc. Then, we would drop them off at youth group before going on our date. So…he’s serving SBH with me from the get-go.
The kids were asking all kinds of questions. Were we dating? Were we having sex? (although they were WAY more crass than that…but this is a G-rated blog!) Have we kissed? etc. This will have to be a whole another post one day.
You see…there was one problem….I really didn’t like him all that much when we first met. Nothing really in particular…just didn’t like him. My co-workers were cheering me on….Just give him another chance!!! Don’t be so hard on him! etc. I wasn’t quite sure that I really knew him.
By the end of January..I had to have a LOOOONG talk with God about this. Rarely do I know what God is up to when He is doing His thing. And…this was one of those times. I had a LOOOONG talk with God. Saying….basically….God….I don’t want to waste any time with anyone who is not THE one. But, I really don’t like this guy so much….he’s a nice guy….just not for me. So, I KNOW you introduced us in the crazy way for a reason. I KNOW You know what I need…and I want what YOU want. So…IF this is the guy…you need to change my heart and change it fast, because I’m about to kick ’em to the curb…..and kick him soon. So…change my heart, Lord…if this is the one.
As you know…I had prayed for the other 1/2 of my pair…to serve SBH. If that happened to be my husband…that’s just icing on the cake.
Posted: Saturday, March 13, 2010 | Author: Marti Williams | Filed under: 2k7 | Tags: Commonwealth Chapel, divine appointment, generosity, missionary, obedience, Richmond, Southern Barton Heights, Urban, youth retreat |
Richmond - Downtown
After a few days of posting on other stuff…let’s get back to the story….
Back at work downtown and on the road, divine appointments were occurring on a regular basis. At this point, I was beginning to expect them…to actually look for moments that God was orchestrating. I was beginning to wonder were these opportunities there all the time? I had been just missing them? Some…I didn’t even know they were occurring until much later.
There was this one time…when I received a call from a work colleague from several states away. This was not unusual because I worked with people all across the nation and talked to them daily. But, this call was different. I really didn’t know the person, but he acted like he knew me. I haven’t talked to him about this post…so I will just call him “George”.
So…George calls me to tell ME a story. It was not unusual for people to ask ME to tell them a story…something that had happened in my community. But, he was going to tell me HIS story. George was calling to see how he could help my “kids”. He had gotten a significant bonus and wanted to share it. After giving George the name and address of Commonwealth Chapel, he promptly wrote a check to my church, designating it to m2h (Miss Marti’s House). He had remembered hearing my story about the kids at one of our company gatherings and wanted to give back. I was really shocked, surprised yet grateful, because I, for the life of me, could NOT remember who he was.
Months go by and it was time for me to attend a regular dinner meeting for work, where lots of people come from all over. Work was demanding my attention that evening and I ran a little late, so I stood at the door waiting for the opening remarks to conclude and checking out the full room for empty seats. After quietly slipping in and dinner started, I met the people around me. Go figure…who did I sit next to, but GEORGE! It was crazy…in a good kind of way. We continued our conversation from the previous phone call.
I confessed that I was embarrassed to admit that I had NO remembrance of meeting him or telling him about my kids, as I attended many corporate functions. George then said, Marti…you shouldn’t feel embarrassed. I am the embarrassed one. After we figured out where we had been and who we had been with, he stated…that he had WAY too much to drink that night and could remember very little from the evening. Very little except meeting me and hearing about what I was doing in SBH. At work, I couldn’t actually say…How God was moving in SBH, but that is what I alluded to when I talked about my calling.
George went home, touched by what he had heard and decided to give back to the community. He started to volunteer and give of his time, but soon realized that this wasn’t what he thought he should be doing. He then felt called to go back to church and went to Mass for the first time in years…or decades. George picked up the Word and it leapt off the page. At one point it felt like he was being literally pushed in the middle of his back…to go and do something. Being pressed so hard in the back that he turned around to see who was pushing him, and no one was there.
kids chillin' at Willow Run Retreat
George felt this overwhelming urge to give of his finances and that is when he called me. The timing could NOT have been more right. The youth group was planning their first youth retreat and my kids couldn’t afford to go. But, the money that George provided was the PERFECT amount to cover every kid! Only GOD can provide like that. I’m so thankful for George and his timely provisions that came several more times after that. May God richly bless him for his generosity and obedience.
This wasn’t the only time that God was at work on my job. There have been so many times when I ran into people “for such a time as this”…where I could encourage and bring hope. I can think of distinct times on flights, in the lunchroom, on the phone, and outside a courtroom. Work isn’t the easiest place to openly share your faith, for fear of being accused of religious discrimination. I was faced with that at least once and again, it was unfounded.
I don’t push my faith on others, but it IS a part of my life. So, when people ask why I wasn’t moving to StL or why I lived where I did, I can tell them. It was great to have like-minded colleagues to talk to at a time when the market was crashing, financial companies were folding, and times were scary for many people. But we knew…Who sat on THE throne.
I am reminded that we ALL need Jesus! Regardless of what our status is in life. I realized that I had (or have) 2 mission fields…at home in SBH and at work (until further notice, anyway!). Both…the spiritual “least of these”.
In addition, I learned that if God can use a snake, a donkey, a burning bush….He can certainly use ME! I just have to be open…and willing…to be used. There really seems to be a theme in the posts, doesn’t it?
Listening…
Obedience…
Risk…
Willingness…
Change…
Inconvenience…
Do you recognize any other themes I might be missing? And…what themes do you track in your OWN life? Is God trying to tell you anything?
Miss Marti's House 