Side Quest - Northern California

I was driving along wondering what I would do when I hit Brookings. I had no direction from the Lord and I was going to be there in a couple of hours. Then I noticed a hitch hiker. It was some kid with a huge trash bag with his thumb out. I noticed his face and he seemed harmless enough, but I drove past him and kept driving. I started praying, Lord? Did you want me to pick up hitch-hikers? I mean I would really like to know your will on that. Should I pick up the next one? I prayed about it and then my mind went on to other things.

I have been making it a habit of pulling over and letting the faster cars pass me. Everybody always seems to be in a hurry and NO ONE drives the speed limit. I am being especially careful to drive the speed limit because I know that Satan would love to have some cop write me a really expensive ticket. I was driving through some little town when I noticed quite a few cars behind me. I pulled over and watched through the side mirror to make sure all the cars had passed. When I looked up again, who was standing in front of my van but this same kid/hitch-hiker.

I said to him, "Weren't you behind me?" He said, "Yeah. I thought I saw you pass me at one point" I said, "How did you get in front of me?" "I got a ride from a guy who was driving 120 mph."

So I told him I was going to Brookings and he asked me if I would give him a ride. Once again I had a strong feeling that this was God's will so I rearraged the luggage so that he could sit in the passenger side. He asked me if I had anything to eat because he hadn't had anything to eat for a couple of days. I gave him some oatmeal cookies to hold him over until we saw a fast food restaurant. The only one we saw was a Subway sandwich (his name ironically was Jared - NO! I DON'T MAKE THIS UP!)and bought him a foot long. He is 19 and got separated from his friends who are all travelling to New Mexico in a big blue bus.

So we went merrily along and I had an opportunity to share God's Word with him and everything was ok. So a little later he asked me what I was doing after I got to Brookings. I said that I honestly did not know. He said that his friends were waiting for him in Northern California and if I could take him there. He didnt think that it was past Arcata maybe only around 50 miles (Which is longer than you might think on wind-y roads through redwood country.)

We had stopped at a Fred Meyer store in Brookings - and I was praying about whether I should go into California to take this kid to meet with his friends. Although I was not altogether peaceful about the idea of taking this kid to California the words of Jesus Christ came to my mind.

Matt 5:41 - 42 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

So I took him down. As soon as we entered California it RAINED HARD. It had not really rained here since I had started just a few sprinkles. It was dark and stormy and there was even horrible storm warnings on the radio "with 3/4" sized hailstones" etc. Here is a little idea of how far down into California we went:



But miraculously we were able to find this kids friends and I was able to start back up to Oregon.

Yesterday, while I was experiencing this I thought maybe things were so dark driving down with all the storms because I had somehow mistaken the Lord's will and was not supposed to be in California. But looking back, not only do I believe I was 100% in God's will, but that the dark storms and possibly worse that this kid would have experienced if he had had to hitch-hike convinced me that I was sent there to make sure that kid was protected and found his friends again in safety. I made it back to Oregon and was able to find a motel for only $35 for the night. But I was so so so tired! that I pretty much fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Thank the Lord