The Third Day Had Arrived
Welcome to the next daily installment of this true story, which you can find posted here each afternoon until it comes to an end.
Day 3: San Francisco-bound
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Chapter 98: Worship 8 - Sunrise, November 28, 2023
This morning I walked the train and invited people who were awake to come join the worship service. It started shortly after sunrise. About 7:05 a.m. Pacific we started.
After last night, I believe I should bring 12 hymnals next time on the next train trip. Sharing is nice, but I also do not need to expect people to share
Rose came and went this morning and came back. Danny, a copper miner came. He was going to his first full week of copper mining after he was trained up. We prayed over his new job.
There were about 8 of us. We gathered around and prayed over each other. The worship on this trip began as a time to prepare the space. It turned into time of mighty prayer. Including the appearance of a familiar face.
Chapter 99: A Familiar Face
A familiar face said hello that morning as I made my way through the train welcoming people to join me for worship. I did not recognize how I knew him at first. However, when he came to worship, he introduced himself as Jeremiah. During the prayer portion of the worship service that morning, he began to tell his story and the name Jeremiah echoed through my head as I was hearing a familiar story.
As I heard the familiar story, I finally realized this was Kenny’s son. Kenny was the man on the train trip toward Chicago who had come to help rescue his son out of a difficult drug situation and to bring him back to family. We prayed over that situation on the train toward Chicago as Jeremiah and Kenny were preparing to be with Jeremiah’s mother and her family for Thanksgiving.
I opened my eyes and looked at Jeremiah’s face, as he spoke his prayer request. Several of us were kneeled around a small table in the observation car. There were others standing around Jeremiah. Jeremiah was directly across from me. While his trip did not sound perfect, it sounded like he took some steps in the right direction.
I looked at Jeremiah across from me. Here I was hearing the story from the son and hearing it after the weekend that we prayed over. As I began to see God’s fingerprints all over what I was seeing and hearing, you might be able to imagine what words came out of my mouth next. Under my breath, the words “Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God,” flowed over and over. How grateful I was to be on that train, holding that worship service, praying alongside this young man.
Some started laying their hands on Jeremiah. Our prayers for him were mighty. How grateful I was to not just be on a vacation.
Chapter 100: “Buy Jeremiah Breakfast”
The day before, I had bought breakfast for Don. It was some beautiful time that felt so appointed by God. The further into breakfast we got, the more clear it was that I had heard correctly, that I was to invite him for breakfast. There was confirmation, after confirmation, after confirmation.
Sometimes when I believe I am hearing the voice of God clearly, I get it wrong. So, I pause to examine what I misunderstood. I pray over it and ask for insight about what I may have missed. I diligently read the Bible more, and pray more, and in the midst of those two activities, I grow closer to God. Then I seek to do better next time.
The next morning, I could hear that I was to buy Jeremiah breakfast, but it was not as clear as the day before. I do not know why it was not as clear. In retrospect, it is possible that I was supposed to wait just a little bit longer for Jeremiah to walk off and come back, or I was supposed to let him walk off and then go looking for him. I think I was supposed to start preparing to buy him breakfast, rather than to buy him breakfast. I could tell that I had made a little mistake, but I am not sure what.
The biggest part of what I was supposed to do, however, I got right. One day, in heaven, maybe I can ask more about what I got wrong that day.
Everyone was going their separate ways after the worship service and saying their goodbyes, and the last call for breakfast had been some time ago. I felt an urgency that might not have been a godly urgency. Again, I think God was telling me to take Jeremiah to breakfast, but to just wait a few minutes first. In retrospect, that’s what I think the instruction was — to just be still, but to prepare myself, in my mind to go to breakfast with Jeremiah. Sometimes God kindly lets us see beyond the next step, into what He intends for us to do next. While it can be comforting to see the next step. I know how easily I can be distracted when I can see more than one step ahead. Knowing God’s plan, even just two steps ahead, is a burden all its own, and one that I think most people are unable to handle. It is a recipe for distraction and failure. It is a recipe for inserting your own ways of doing things. Being able to see one clear step ahead really is enough in most situations. Being able to obediently serve God at this very moment really is enough. I hope to one day grow beyond that, but for right now, I think it is good for me to work on diligently obeying God in the present.
Rather than me doing what I now believe was pretty clear instruction from God, Jeremiah and I directly went from the service in the observation car, directly next door to the dining car. We sat at a table and Jeremiah had a bite to eat while we sat and talked. The more he told his story of the obstacles ahead, I had the feeling that this might be his last good meal for a while. It was a beautiful story he told, a complicated story, and a sad story all at once. Jeremiah seemed to know something so important. He seemed to know that he had to get back to God and that things were going to turn out okay. It wasn’t an optimism that Jeremiah expressed, though he also expressed that. It was more. It was a faith in God. He knew where he had to get to. And he was headed in the right direction. I wasn’t supposed to be too much more involved in that. But I was supposed to bring him to breakfast on the train that morning.
-Allan Stevo
This is a selection from my forthcoming book, “The Amtrak Vignettes.” A neat story began with the writing of “The Amtrak Vignettes” in October 2023. Every day until that story comes to an end, I intend to share a part of it here. It is a part of my faith journey as a Christian, a faith journey that has been deepened since the Ides of March 2020. Some of it gets pretty wild and nothing that a “reasonable” person would find himself in the midst of. Few will be scared off by it. Instead, many will grow deeper in their faith. I know that, because I know my readers well, and I know that few come here expecting me to give a milquetoast version of anything. Come here to be challenged. Stay here to have your life changed. That, I believe, is what will come of this work. You can support that work by signing up below.