A friend invited me to Wofford for a homeless coalition meeting. I was interested in attending and asked where it would be. My friend replied, "I can't give you an exact location, but it's outdoors, and if you listen carefully, you'll hear singing."

Admittedly, I have a poor sense of direction. That evening, as I made my way to Wofford, I drove along various streets, searching for any indication of the event. However, I neither spotted any signs nor heard the promised singing.


The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
— John 1:5

I turned onto another road that led me away from Wofford. The street was completely dark, with only one house illuminated by a single light on the right. As I continued driving, I reached a dead end and had to turn around to make my way back. I couldn't help but feel concerned about my safety. What if I struggled to turn around or accidentally drove into a ditch?

I finally turned around and made my way back to where I had come from. As I drove past the house, a lady jumped out, waving her arms frantically! I stopped and rolled down my window.

She says, “I’m not going to hurt you, mister, but can you help us?”

I asked, “Well, what do you need?”

She responded, “We don’t have any heat in the house, we’re out of food, and my daddy’s got TB. We are in a pickle!”

I understood her situation. This lady got a kerosene can…not the 5-gallon one, but one four feet tall! She then proceeded to put it in the car and get in herself.

I said, “Wait a minute! I don’t ride with other women in the car.”

But she was a lot smarter than I was! She had to know I was lost because you had to be lost to get to where she was! She also had to think that she didn’t have anything, and this guy could go off with my kerosene can, and I’m not going to see him again.

What she might be thinking struck me, so I said, “Okay—you can get in the back seat.”


And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,
you were doing it to me!’
— Matthew 25:40

She proceeds to provide directions to the nearest station, and sitting in the back seat, she exclaims, “Thank you, Jesus! Praise you, Jesus!”

As she praised the Lord, I said, “Tell me what’s going on.”

She said, “We’ve been out of kerosene for a couple of days; it’s freezing cold, and we don’t have any food. When you came by, we had one onion we were about to cut up and eat. It’s all we have in the house. Then, I saw the light from your car come by.”

At the station, I filled up the kerosene tank. It took both of us to lift it into the car! The station had sandwiches, so I bought every sandwich they had to give to her and her family.

Once back at the house, we both went inside. As we entered, I noticed one light hanging from the ceiling with a bulb. It was hanging right over the table where the onion was.

The lady introduced me to her dad. After speaking with him briefly, I said, “Let’s pray.” As I took his hand, I noticed it was cold as a rock, as was the house they had been in for two days!  

I went home and told my wife, Claudia, all that had happened. The next day, she went into action, buying food to take to their home. Afterward, she took our grandkids there with food for Christmas. We also told our Sunday school class, and they collected money to buy warm clothes.

I reflect on that day often and share this story each year around Christmas.

This lady had been praying all day, and when you looked up from her house, it was black. There was no light. Nobody would come down that road to her house. It just wasn’t likely to happen.

But there she was. Looking out into the darkness. No hope. All was bleak.

But she was faithful to pray.

When she stared into the darkness, there was no hope. She was down to her last onion, and she was praying.

God took a guy with no sense of direction, who got lost, and used him as a vessel. I was a bystander. God led me there to answer her. Otherwise, no one could have been there. That shows me how God connects dots to answer prayers, how He is faithful to answer prayers, and how he does abundantly more than you can ask.

The lady gave the credit to God. She was praising God.

This incident was life-changing for me. I learned that God is faithful and that there is nothing impossible with Him. I saw firsthand how he took an impossible situation and made good things happen.

After I left her house, I drove straight to the meeting.

People were outside, singing.