An Answered Prayer

Back in 2011, when we were interim pastors at a small church in Moncks Corner, SC, I was on the receiving end of a prayer answered in such a way that I can only call it a miracle.

We had given up our house the previous August, which was the last time I had seen my younger daughter. At the time we left, I had not seen my older daughter, or grandson, in a year. By the time Christmas of 2010 came around, I was praying to see my children. Little did I know that God would take me half way across the country to answer this particular prayer.

In December, just a couple of weeks before Christmas, my younger daughter, Jaime, called to tell me she had joined the Army National Guard, and would be shipping out to Fort Leonard Wood, in Missouri, in January. I was over 300 miles away, and wanted to see her off, but it was just not to be. When she left that January, she warned me that she would not have use of her cell phone throughout boot camp, so to expect to hear from her in May. I resigned myself that she was off the grid for the next four months, and tried to talk to Rachel, my older daughter, on Facebook as much as possible during that time. She lived in Bloomington, IN, which was about 16 hours from us.

Then, on March 22, the phone rang, and it was Jaime, crying so hard I could barely understand what she was saying. Finally, through the sniffles and tears, I gathered that she had sent her dad money to come see her graduate, but that he was refusing to come, and could I get to North Carolina, pick up her car, and drive to Missouri, and be there in less than 48 hours?

I knew I had to go, but how was I going to pull this off?? I began to pray, and made a phone call to the worship leader of the church. He agreed to take me to the bus station in Charleston the next day. With that squared away, I called her dad. I told him to have Jaime’s car at the bus station in Waynesville, NC, the next night at 10:30pm, that I was going to Missouri to see Jaime graduate.

He was quite surprised to hear that, but was there when the bus arrived. I had ridden seven hours, through a torrent of rain, and was tired, but determined to drive all night to get to her graduation by 11am the morning.

When I approached the car-in the pouring rain-he remained in the driver’s seat, so I hopped in the passenger’s side. He informed me that he had decided to go, since he had someone to help him drive. I looked down at the gear shift….it was a stick shift, which I had completely forgotten about. I hadn’t driven a stick since 1997, and figured I was probably very rusty. I told him that he could drive a while if he wanted, and we would switch out later on. So, we got on I-40 west, and headed for Missouri. Now, as if me just getting to North Carolina wasn’t miracle enough, under the circumstances, the getting to Fort “Lost-in-the-Woods’, as it is aptly nicknamed, was altogether a miraculous journey.

Here I was, traveling with my ex-husband, the father of my children, which I was not expecting to do. Driving relaxes my mind, so the peace I had looked forward to was non-existent. Then, all he talked about was wrestling, fishing, and his new girlfriend. (At the time of this journey, we had been divorced for 16 years, and I really hoped he would have matured some during that time. WRONG!) So, by the time we got to Nashville, TN, around 2 am, the rain had stopped, so I got in the driver’s seat for a while. I wasn’t too confident that I would be able to change gears smoothly, but it turned out to be like riding a bicycle-it all came back to me by the time we got out of the gas station parking lot.

Then, my next test came: morning rush-hour traffic and road construction through St. Louis in 8 lanes of traffic. I come from the mountains of western North Carolina…. four-lanes are as wide as it gets. (I had driven in Atlanta traffic once, but that is a whole other story!) I gripped the steering wheel, took a deep breath, and didn’t let the surrounding traffic break my concentration. By the time we got to another gas station an hour past St. Louis, I was ready to get back into the passenger’s seat!

As we passed through the security gates, the clock said 10:38am. As we followed the broken directions, it took us only moments to get lost. Fort Leonard Wood is a little town all on its own, complete with a hospital, 2 bowling alleys, and a myriad of brick buildings.  When I was in high school, the building  was located on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. There, all the buildings are clearly marked. Fort Leonard Wood looks like WCU, with the exception of clearly marked buildings!

So, we drove around for several minutes, looking for ‘Baker Theatre’. It was nowhere to be found! As the time soared closer to 11am, I prayed to God, “Surely You’re not gonna let us get THIS close and miss it!” I suggested we go back to the beginning, and try again. We did, and had gone only one block when we came upon a truck with an out-of-state tag. Excitedly, I said to follow it, that they also may be going to the graduation. Sure enough, they were. As we sat down in the back row, the lights went off, and the time was 10:54am.

That was Thursday, March 24, 2011. We spent the next two days with Jaime, as she didn’t have to be back on base until 6am Sunday morning. After a tearful goodbye, we headed back the way we had come, except at St. Louis, we continued through Illinois, into Indiana, getting to Rachel’s house about 2pm. Even though our time was limited, I got to spend the next three hours with her and my grandson. Another tearful goodbye later, we got on the road heading to North Carolina. 

By the time I got back to the little church in Moncks Corner, SC, I had been gone five days total, and I was tired from all the driving. But, it was well worth it-God had given me an answered prayer!