God’s ATM

Yesterday morning I pulled off the highway to get some gas, coffee and cash. I went into the gas station after gassing up and filled up my cameo travel mug with java and paid at the counter. I walked over to ATM and the machine wanted $3 to spit out cash. If you know me, I’m thrifty and that wasn’t going to fly. 

I got into my Jeep and jumped on my phone to find a Walgreens to get some cash. I followed Waze’s directions to downtown Ava, Missouri to find the Walgreens. I got to downtown Ava and drove around in circles for 10 minutes trying to find this mysterious missing Walgreens. Waze never ever fails me. I was perplex to say the least.  I gave up and pulled over to jump on my phone to see if there was a Walmart around. I was in luck, there was only four minutes away. I was there in the 4 minutes and pulled into the parking lot. As I drove into the Walmart parking lot I spotted a army green bus. The bus looked pretty interesting so I parked about ten spaces to check it out.  After all it was pretty much the same shade of green like my Jeep, so it looked pretty cool. On the the side of the bus “Exobus 2” was written in script. (The photo is not the bus but I should have taken one. )

As I got out my Jeep I waved and yelled over to a man loading his children and groceries into the bus, “Cool bus!” A tall slender man waved back and said, “Thanks!”. 

I walked over to the bus and struck up a conversation with the man. I noticed the bus had a Maine license plate and I asked him if he was from Maine. He told me he was and moved here a recently to buy a farm. I said I liked the name of his bus. He said that most people don’t get that it’s a play on words for the second book in the Bible called Exodus which tells of how the Israelites left slavery in Egypt under Mose’s lead. 

His wife came out of the bus and introduced herself. After speaking with Mike and Jillian for a while and sharing our faith I asked if I could take a look at the inside the bus. Inside where six of the most  beautiful, happy children from 15 years old to five years old. The older children were their own and the other four children were children they adopted. A brother and sister from China with Down syndrome and two African American children, one with Down Syndrome and one with Autism. Such beautiful children. I hung out with them on the bus for about 15 minutes sharing testimonies and stories. Of course I told them about the mission trip I was on and my testimony. As we were saying our good byes outside their bus, Jillian said to Mike, “I think we have some in our seed account.” He said, “Oh, yes we do”. It wasn’t clicking what she meant but Mike opened his wallet and hands me a very generous bill. Mike said use it for gas or food or whatever you need on your trip. I was to say the least shocked! Two total strangers blessing me!!

Before I left on my way, they invited me to visit them anytime. I gave them my card and two Mission for Hope bracelets. As they put them

on I asked them to keep me in prayer and I said I would do the same. Before I left of course we prayed together in front of their Exobus.

I went into Walmart and found myself weeping in a Walmart again for the second time during this trip. It was no accident I could not find the Walgreens in Ava. If I arrived at the Walmart two minutes later I never would have met Mike and Jillian. God, our Father, arranges it all. 

God is amazing and all the people who have blessed me on this trip and covered me in prayer are amazing! Thank you! Love you all! 

Photo Credit: Hemmings Daily