The Woman Who Became My Target
After the wild goose chase, I was uncertain of what was gong on, but I really just wanted to be obedient and see where it all led. God then give me a real clear and beautiful assignment. Welcome to the next daily installment of this true story, which you can find posted here each afternoon.
Chapter 22: Her
There was a very heavy man in his twenties or thirties carrying a breakfast plate for himself and for a tired looking woman with a blanket over her shoulders.
I said good morning to them, and kept walking past them to have a look at the breakfast spread. I was fasting that morning, but I still like to see what hotels have on offer. It was the basic lower end fare, with a few extras thrown in.
As I looked at the food, I kept having a conversation with God. “Am I praying for her?” Sometimes I ask clarifying questions like that.
“Yes.”
“Anything in particular or am I just going to ask?”
“Ask her,” was the response.
God showed me a purple chair right next to her and told me to sit in that one. The other chairs around her were not purple. They were all a drab color.
“Do I say you sent me?”
“Yes.”
I finally went in.
“Hi, there, I was wondering,” I said as I pulled out the purple chair and started having a seat, “What can I be praying for you for?”
Her adult son, built like a house, was noticeably uncomfortable.
His body language said that he was likely to send me away verbally, and perhaps physically intervene. He was ready to protect his mama.
She, on the other hand, almost immediately let down her guard and almost broke down crying.
Of all the people in the room, it was her that I sat down next to and to whom I asked that direct question. She was in shock. She was stuck for a time on why I would have walked up to a stranger, to her specifically, and asked this question.
Though I was a stranger, I was a stranger who seemed to be saying the exact words that she wanted to hear. This woman seemed ready for a miracle, and seemed ready to receive God.
But that was not where it ended. When I got to the detail that it was the voice of God that told me to sit down and pray for her, she looked like she was about to lose control of her emotions.
She told me that she had been diagnosed with cancer and that she was not expected to live through the end of the year.
It was November 18.
I was no expert, but she did not look to me like someone who would be dead in six weeks. Her skin was grayish, but she looked and sounded more robust than frail. And I know that with God all things are possible. The Bible says so.
I said my prayer, I declared healing over her body, I checked in with God who said that was good and that I was now done. God told me to move along.
That I did.
I walked to the front desk, paused for a moment. The desk clerk looked up from what she was doing in the back room. I told the desk clerk that my room was cleared out, wished her a good day, and I went on my way.
Time was ticking. I was due at our training, at 9:30 a.m., and God was loud and clear that First Lutheran Tulare was my next stop.
Off I went.
-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.