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Ultimate Treasure Hunt
From: Fr. William Guerard , St. Georges, Helmetta, NJ
Is it a really small world, or is ours a really big God? You decide. A few weeks ago our Sr. Warden, Steve, told us this story. Appelbys was having a special to honor veterans. He went to get his free lunch and struck up a conversation with a woman sitting beside him at the bar. She had a lot going on in her life, so he offered to pray for her. It was a great illustration of what weve been learning about being open to pray with people wherever God gives you an opportunity. End of story? No way. Yesterday Bob, our piano player told this story. He was following up on a classified ad for some exercise equipment he wanted. He went to the house where a woman and her daughter lived. He noticed the woman seemed burdened, so he offered to pray with her. She looked surprised, and said, Do you know Steve? Thats right. Same woman. How freaky is that. God is good, ALL the time!
Last Saturday we had another Ultimate Treasure Hunt based on the book by that title by Kevin Dedmon. We started in prayer listening to any words the Holy Spirit would give us. As always, it was a strange collection of seemingly unrelated words like olive, green, deer, park, smoker, drugs, Mendokers (bakery), Dunkin Donuts, mother and child, overwhelmed, etc. We started by following the more obvious location clues because Mendokers and Dunkin Donuts are near each other, just a few miles from the church. There is also a park there with deer in pens, so that seemed simple enough, but God speaks in mysterious ways. We parked in front of Mendokers, and there was an olive green truck. Next to it was a truck with a deer mural on the back window, and the blinker was on, almost as though it was pointing us down the street. Follow the clues.
We split up into two groups and had some wonderful encounters. Two stand out. One group found a woman smoking in front of the drug store, so they stopped and spoke to her, explained the Treasure Hunt, and asked if they could pray for her. She said she was a believer and prayed a lot, but didnt think God was listening. Well, hello! He sent two people on a Treasure Hunt just to say to her, Yes, Im listening.
The other group went to Dunkin Donuts and found the woman with child, actually two children, but noticeably absent was the husband. We explained to her why we were there and asked if we could pray for anything. She looked overwhelmed so we were glad we could be there for her. With a painful expression she said, Yes, my husband. She didnt give any specifics, but she was very receptive when we offered to put them on our prayer list. Then we prayed for her and her family, right there in Dunkin Donuts.
American runs on Dunkin? I dont think so. America runs on prayer!
Have a blessed Christmas.