A DIVINE APPOINTMENT IN TEXAS

On 10/28/2006 I was informed by my company that I needed to take a trip to our corporate office to train for a new account. This was very peculiar to me, because there was someone in our office that could have trained me. It is also rare that my company was willing to pay the expense of sending me out of town. My flight left on a Tuesday, Oct 31, returning Nov 4 Saturday. You will understand the significance of this later. I had brought a new book that I had received from my pastor onto the plane with me. The book is called The Barbarian Way. It is about not being afraid to show that you are passionate about Christ in public. It is about taking the hard Christian road, rather than the passive one. As I am reading my book, I notice that the gentleman sitting next to me is conversation starterer. Yes, you read that right. I could feel by this man's energy that any minute, he was going to strike up a conversation with me. I was hoping that he would notice how engrossed that I was in my book, that he would just leave me be. While I am breaking free from this bondage now, I used to be an extremely shy person. It would give me anxiety to think about speaking to someone that I did not know. Sure enough, he spoke up and very loudly asked me, what are you reading? I said, The Barbarian Way, and of course went back to reading. Ok, that is over with, whhheewwww. What's it about? At that moment I realized that you cannot read a book about speaking up for Christ, and try to get out of telling someone that is what the book is about. There it was, my moment to show if anything in the book was sinking in! It was the first time in my life that I voiced the name of Jesus in a rather loud and proud voice. It was scary at the time. You would not believe how many heads on the plane turned and looked at me. It is amazing the power of His Name. That is when he told me that he was an elder at a church that is in Seven Hills. He told me about a movie that was showing called One Night With the King. I told him I had not heard of it and had no idea what it was about. He was so excited to explain to me that the movie is about the Book of Esther in the Bible. As soon as he told me the story of Esther, I could not wait to get back to the hotel room to read the Bible, to find more out about this incredible woman that he spoke of. We talked the rest of the way there, and I was actually a little sad to see him go. Before he left, he told me where his church was, and that I should come try it out. I said I will when I get back. He then said, I am coming back on Saturday, how about you? WOW, I am too! I could not believe that he was on that strange flight of Tues-Sat too. Once the flight landed, I began to get a little nervous. I had no idea where I was going or what to do. I prayed to God please help me. I followed the man that I spoke with on the plane to the baggage claim. From there he showed me the shuttle I needed to get on for the car rentals. It turned out that mine was the first stop. Wow, that was easy! So, I got my car rental and off I went. Now this is a big deal for me, because I get anxious driving places in Cincinnati, let alone a place like Texas. As I am driving down the highway, I see the Hilton but I am unsure which exit I am supposed to take to get there. The exits are not set up like they are here. I missed the exit that I thought I was supposed to take, so I took the next one. I stopped at the light, and bowed my head down and said, Father please help me, I don't know where I am going. I took a right off the exit drove down a random street, and decided to take a right on a side street. I figured I would at least get off the main streets of downtown, and try to find out where I was. I will just pull over here into this lot and call my friend at corporate to help me. As I turned into the lot, I noticed a huge sign THE HILTON. I was awestruck! God placed me right into the back parking lot of my hotel. I had no idea where I was going and I had not been following that wretched map for at least 45 minutes! Once I parked my car, my friend at corporate told me not to worry about driving while I was there, he was going to take me anywhere I needed to go, and would pick me up to work and bring me back everyday. You have no idea the weight that lifted from my shoulders! I read the story of Esther once I was back in my room, and that was when I fell in love with her story. It was so amazing the amount of favor that God had shown to her. A real underdog story and I love those! I could not wait to see One Night With the King. I spent my days training with a lady that was not very nice to me. I kept thinking of how I was going to hate being on that account when I got back. I was able to get closer with my friend while I was there, and share my story of how I was trying to learn more about Christ, going to church, and reading my Bible. I also discovered how much of an awesome friend he really is to me. He stuck by my side, and watched over me while I was there. God used him to be my angel, and I was sure to tell him that. Well, here it was time for my trip home. I prayed again, Lord please help me like you did on the way here. Boy did he answer my prayer! The first place I stopped was a toll booth. At that time I was thinking in my head, I need to fill up on gas and I don't know where the gas stations are. As I gave the guy my money, he proceed to answer all of the questions I had in my head without my having to ask him. It was as if he already knew what I needed. How many times have you even had that much time to talk to a person in a toll booth without them moving you along? It turned out the gas station was right before you turned into the airport. It was not at the airport so, I did not have to pay the high prices of gas. I have never seen that before. Usually, you get one chance about 10 or more miles before, and then you are stuck paying high costs. I turned into the airport and I started getting confused, with which way I was supposed to turn. So, I started to follow this pathway of twists and turns, and before I knew it I was corralled with other cars, right in line with my rental car service. It was as if God was playing matchbox cars with me, and just pulled me right in to the correct place. I literally got out of my car from where it was, and walked up to check out my car. After you dropped off your car, you had to take a shuttle to the airport. As I was waiting there, I remember thinking, you know I would love to just have one cranberry and vodka, just to settle my nerves a little but I am not paying 8-10 dollars for something like that. Once I was on the shuttle bus, a man started talking to me. It turned out, he was going to Cincinnati for a connecting flight to TN. He had apparently done this a lot and he knew exactly where we needed to get off on this bus and how to get to the right part of the airport. Wheewww, I could relax again, because he was going to make sure I got there ok. Once we arrived, I thanked him for his help and headed towards the check in for my bags. There was a strange electronic thing there, and I had no idea what I was doing with it. Before I had a chance to think twice about it, I heard a voice behind me, do you need help? It was a guy from the airport who came out of nowhere, he looked at my stub and did everything for me in order to print my tickets out. When was the last time you have seen anyone like that in the airport available to answer questions, let alone do everything for you? I said thank you and started to walk towards the baggage line that was pretty long. Without missing a beat, he said follow me and I will check you out over here. I could not believe that he just opened up a line for me! He closed it after we were done. After that, I took the escalators upstairs, ready to sit and wait for my flight to leave. Once I got to the top, the guy from the shuttle was standing there. He said, I figured I would ask you if you wanted to get some coffee. I said sure! I usually would have said no thanks, but I have to admit, I liked having the company. As we began to walk to what I thought would be a coffee shop, he mentions to me that he is a member of the crown room of Delta, and that once we were in there, everything breakfast, drinks, would be totally free. I mean you should have seen the place! Plush comfortable chairs, big screen TVs, your own private bathrooms. Well, I got my Vodka and Cranberry, and also breakfast and snacks for the plane. I remember seeing the crown on the door (because it was the royal crown room), and the first thing I thought, was that I felt like Esther that day. I had unexplainable favor everywhere I went, and people were treating me like royalty. After we stayed awhile, he said he had to go because he had a pretty important thing he had to do on the plane, and that he would be boarding before anyone else. As we said goodbye, I hear a voice calling to me, hey Angela!! It was the gentleman that I had met on the plane to Dallas. It turned out his seat was right next to mine again! As we boarded the plane, I realized the man I shared breakfast with was not on the plane. Where did he go? I watched him walk through the doors to get on that plane, but he was not there. Hmmm, maybe he was an angel I thought??? I did not ponder it too long, I just said thank you God! Once we boarded I was able to talk to my new friend all about what I read in Esther, and all of the stuff that happened with supernatural help from God. He stayed with me till we were back at the airport, and even waited with me until my boyfriend came to pick me up to make sure I was OK. I ended up going to his church for a while after that. Well that is it! I could not tell everything, because it would take days to tell of all of the ways that God sent help for me, simply because I asked Him for it. In all of my life I never had so much favor in the eyes of others. The path was paved with a red carpet for me. Thank you so much Father for showing me your love time and time again!

Incidentally, I got back to my office and they told me that something had happened while I was gone, and they needed me on a different account than the one I had trained for. WOW, no more mean lady!! Unbelievable!! I realized at that point the trip had nothing to do with training on that account. It had to do with God building my Faith in Him, and showing me the book of Esther when I needed to see it the most. Since then, the book of Esther has played a major role in my life!

ISNT HE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!