I recall in our past projects the times, we handed out roses to women during our pageant projects and how it was such a special moment for them. To see that was a reward then. So I approached my director about getting roses for valentine’s day for the women.

The lady from whom I ordered from was taken in interest to helping out with this project. She offered to put a partial donation towards the flowers. That act in itself was indeed a sign of favour from God.

The day we were to hand them out, we prayed for them first to bless them. Then in 4 groups with each a young child in the group, we set out to deliver them to the homes to the areas we assigned each group.

My group was an elder and a small girl. The little girl with us was so happy to take flowers to her family members. And we got to see women in their daily places.

It seemed like we had just started when we pulled into a driveway sort of elevated. The day was very nice, mild and abit warm. As we pulled out having checked on an empty house, we started to slip to the side where soft snow was. The wheels and 4×4 were no help as we dug in deep into soft snow the more we tried to pull ourselves out. The traffic kept passing us by, without so much offers for assistance. At some point, there was a truck driving by with roses sticking out of the truck bed holes on the sides. It was enough to think, “where did they get those roses?” From not being able to continue, I became discouraged and negative thoughts started to come. First on the way those roses were being displayed outside and where did they come from. To clear that up, we asked the guys to stop and have them tell us where they came from. In the end they were silk roses and not ours.

More and more traffic kept going by and no offers to help. Finally one man came by, dug our truck out, drove across the road really fast and into another snowbank and the ditch. He had this laughter on him when he explained that his boot got stuck in the brake and gas pedals when he was driving it out. He left to go find a chain which he did. He couldn’t help us as his truck kept sliding but he went to look for a bigger vehicle to help. A bigger vehicle, a water truck came along in the meantime, hooked up truck with a real thick chain. This truck kept sliding too, so unable to help, he left. Two more non-native guys came along and offered to help. I told them it was slippery but they had studded tires. So once more, they tried, only to have the hook of the thick chain break with a loud noise. These guys said, only a big vehicle can come dig us out as we were in deep snow.

I was very discouraged to think that we had something to do with still quite a bit of area to cover. Also there was really no sign of love in a helping hand in time of trouble by most of the adults that were driving by. And to think that so many people saw us and knew what we were doing. I thought for sure the act of love we wanted to show to the people was being challenged in front of those we were meant to show that to. By this time, I spend much time praying inside the truck after having uttered my discouragements and quitting thoughts out on the road.

Finally, another truck stops and asks if I want to be pulled out. I asked them, do you do that because the driver looked very young. He replied, “we did yesterday.” So they got out. The driver looked like he can’t be more than 15 years old but having checked out his birthdate, he is 17 years old. His companions were about 10 and 8 years old. The second one about 10 years old started to look into my truck and I asked him if he was going to drive it, so I passed on the keys to him. The 17 year old was in their truck and the 10 year old was in my truck hopefully to drive my truck while being pulled out. I watched them do their job to success. I was amazed that God would provide young children to do the act of love for us by pulling our truck out. The truck had been stuck out there for about three hours.

In the end, the oldest that was driving the truck of rescue was raised by his grandparents. His knowledge of vehicles and rescue was taught to him by his grandfather who drives such machinery.

Some days later, a call came to my home by one of the elder women who has been struggling with an illness to tell me that she was so touched to see a young child come into her home to hand her a rose.

And so we shall be grateful for these lights of love in a world that needs it.

THE LORD STORY
BY Jeanne D. Beardy
KITCHENUHMAYKOOSIB INNINUWUG